The Serbian-Korean Information Access Center, within the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia, was awarded the prestigious Golden Plaque as the best information and access center in the world (“Best IAC Award”) in 2021, in competition from more than sixty similar centers whose work is supported by the Republic of Korea, and which operate in the same number of countries around the world. The explanation states that the award was given on the basis of “recognized exceptional commitment to the management of the SKIP center”.
This high recognition for the contribution to the development of digitization at the global level is a confirmation of the effectiveness of the work of the SKIP center in Serbia, but also of the great commitment of the employed civil servants. For five years of existence and work, more than 1,500 different trainings in the field of application of innovative technologies were conducted in the Serbian-Korean Information Access Center, where more than 40,000 participants were trained for free. In order to strengthen electronic administration in the RS and its continuous modernization, only last year, despite the crisis caused by the epidemic of the Covid-19 virus, more than 190 workshops were held in the SKIP center and were attended by 6,920 people.
Bear in mind, this is the third time that the Republic of Korea gives recognition to the SKIP Center of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government. For two years in a row, in 2018 and 2019, the center was declared the best and most visited at the world level. Bearing in mind the achieved work results and as proof of the exceptional cooperation between the two countries in the field of electronic administration development, the Republic of Serbia received support for the establishment of another information and access center in the City of Niš. Its opening is expected by the end of 2022.
Since the SKIP center is intended for the free inclusion of all citizens in modern trends, in the previous period a lot was done to popularize innovative technologies and raise the level of knowledge of the entire population through the organization of numerous ICT workshops (Excel, computer programming, web design, quality control software product, etc.). Also, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, in cooperation with the Korean National Agency for Information Society, organizes a “Free Summer School of Programming” in the Center, led by young IT experts from Seoul.
Focusing its work on free training of citizens and their overall well-being in the context of digitization, the SKIP center also improved the capacities of public administration for the implementation of the most significant projects, the implementation of which aimed to improve the quality of services provided to end users (information system “Baby, welcome to the world”, electronic system for exchanging data from official records, eDnevnik, Address register, platform for unified inspection supervision eInspektor, eConsultations, etc.).
Let us recall that, based on the Memorandum on joint cooperation and mutual understanding in the field of information and communication technologies, which was signed by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia and the National Agency for Information Society of the Republic of Korea, the Serbian-Korean Information Access Center was officially opened at the end of 2017, in the center of Belgrade, in Dobrinjska 11. The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government provided space for the operation of the SKIP center, and the Government of the Republic of Korea invested more than 250,000 euros in the reconstruction of the building and the procurement of state-of-the-art devices.
The SKIP center is a highly technologically equipped space that includes modernly equipped classrooms with smart podiums for interactive teaching and the latest computers connected to one of the fastest wireless networks in Serbia. Within the facility there are also meeting rooms, seminars, as well as a room for video-conferences. The space is intended to hold free trainings for citizens in the field of computer programs, but also the latest digital platforms and information systems.
