During the three-year cooperation between BITF and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs, more than 100 new jobs were created, 25 start-up companies were established, some of which have received prestigious awards for their products and services, both in Serbia and abroad. So far, the Incubator has supported the establishment and development of 44 start-up companies from different fields of high-tech, securing employment for 280 young engineers, even attracting 25 Serbian returnees from abroad. Finally, the share of export of the revenue of the BITF companies has constantly been growing and in 2014 reached a considerable 75 percent.
The Conference opened the following topics:
- Why a developed country such as Switzerland recognizes innovation in Serbia as its export product trump?
- Why our extremely successful people in the world decide to run the innovative companies in Serbia? Who are the young people in Serbia who replaced their careers in international companies with the entrepreneurship within innovative industries in their own country and export all over the world?
- Does the experience of the Business Technology Incubator of Technical Faculties Belgrade present a good recipe, not only for preventing brain drain, but also for returning successful young people to the country, and what are the recommended next steps?
Conference speakers were his Excellency Jean-Daniel Ruh, Swiss Ambassador to Serbia, Dr Srđan Verbic, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development, Mrs. Gordana Danilovic Grkovic, Project Manager, Mr. Dejan Dramicanin, company Bitgear (Deloitte List of 50 fastest growing technology companies list in Central Europe 2014), and Mr. Istok Lesjak, General manager of the Technology Park Ljubljana and Mr. sava Marinkovic, Teleskin, via skype.
Ambassador Ruch stated that “Switzerland has noticed significant untapped potentials in Serbia. The whole aim of this project is to use the creativity of young, well-educated entrepreneurs and of Serbs from the diaspora willing to use their experience and knowledge for the benefit of Serbian exports.” In his conclusion he expressed that Switzerland “expects that cooperation and joint financing will continue in the future with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development for the Science Technological Park, for the benefit of all the young innovative entrepreneurs in Serbia.”
For information on the Conference in Serbian please see: website
For more information on the BITF project please contact Mrs. Gordana Danilovic Grkovic at office@bitf.rs or Mr. Arminio Rosic at Arminio.rosic@eda.admin.ch
