After the meeting at the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the President of the National Information Society Agency of The Ministry of Information and Communication of the Republic of Korea, Yong Sik Moon, the Director of the Department of Global ICT Cooperation Hong Jeon, and His Excellency Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Belgrade, Hyoung Chan Choe, visited the Serbia-Korea Information Access Center at Dobrinjska street, number 11. The Manager of SKIP Center Dara Gravara Stojanovic spoke with the Delegation of the Republic of Korea The participants agreed that SKIP Center in Belgrade has achieved significant goals in a very brief time and that it stood out from all other centers that function thanks to the South Korean donations in the number of countries around the world. Serbia – Korea Information Access Center in Belgrade, thanks to the results achieved, has become the best centre of this type in the world. – You made great achievements here in Belgrade. We really didn’t expect it. We need to review how you did it so that we would send recommendations and advice to our other centers to achieve at least approximate results. I think this is surely because you, as a manager, are full of enthusiasm, that you are working hard and that your charisma and energy is felt immediately – the president of NIA Yong Sik Moon said, and added that he would consider all the proposals for the new projects and the possibility of their realisation and that the best center should certainly expect rewards. Yong Sik Moon repeated several times that the “Serbian-Korean IT center has become an example of how it should be done” and stated that, as president of the National Information Society Agency, he is quite certain that “it’s time to change the concept of all the Korean Centers in the world in favor to the user. ” -Ten years ago, we started a project of the IT centers, but the speed of the changes is incredibly fast. The old concept should be changed. For the future. – said Yong Sik Moon, adding that he is personally satisfied with the unusual fact that for the first time in one of the IT centers, the Korean culture classes have been held and that he hopes that that will contribute to further understanding and the approach of the two nations. Addressing the implemented joint programs and the exceptional co-operation between the two countries in the field of digitization and development of electronic governance, His Excellency, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Hyoung Chan Choe expressed his satisfaction with the success of SKIP Center. I must admit that I am positively surprised. I visited several of our centers in the other countries where I served before, but this influence I haven’t seen anywhere– said the Ambassador Hyoung Chan Choe. The Center’s Manager, Dara Gravara Stojanovic thanked the Government of the Republic of Korea for the support and astonishing ratings the Center received, voicing that the future co-operation would be even better. -SKIP Center is the real example of how bilateral co-operation between the two countries should work. We have big plans, and we hope that all the objectives, as they have been so far, will be met thanks to our joint work and effort, said Dara Gravara Stojanovic, noting that it is necessary to broaden the capacity because all dates by the end of the year at the center are filled. Also, at a meeting at the SKIP center, the Manager, Dara Gravara Stojanovic, presented the “Operating report of the Center”, to the President of NIA Yong Sik Moon, with the current programming activities, and statistical data on the number of training held and the number of the participants who successfully mastered the courses. In less than a year, since its establishment, through the SKIP Center has passed more than 12,000 government officials and citizens. In the co-operation with numerous international and regional organisations, domestic institutions, State authorities and public institutions, the authorities and civil society organisations, and IT companies, over 450 free IT programs and training have been organised, with the intention to improve the function of the electronic administration and to elevating the level of information literacy of citizens. The first Serbian-Korean IT Center in Belgrade officially opened at the end of December of last year, by the signing of The Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the field of information and communication technologies between the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and The National Information Society Agency of The Republic of Korea. the Ministry of Public Administration provided space, and the partners from Seoul have invested 250,000 euros in equipping the center. SKIP Center is a functional and technologically equipped space intended to train and improve IT skills of the government officials and citizens. Latest data shows that South Korea, a country known for its technological progress, has invested close to 1 million euros in improving E-Government development in Serbia.
