TeleGroup at the 29th Kopaonik Business Forum – Serbia 2030: Agenda for Sustainable Development

The Kopaonik Business Forum, held from March 6 to 9, gathered around a thousand participants this year, with the central theme being "Serbia 2030: Agenda for Sustainable Development." Over four days, three plenary sessions and 33 panels took place, featuring around 200 participants, including Diana Gligorijević, co-founder of TeleGroup and a traditional representative of the IT business community at the forum. These speakers comprised prominent experts and notable names from the domestic and regional economic and political scene.

Topics such as the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices, and disrupted global supply chains were present at this year's gathering, all discussed in the context of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. On a panel dedicated to empowering the digital economy, Diana Gligorijević, alongside representatives from Telekom Srbija, Yettel, A1, SAS Institute, and Centili, emphasized the necessity of continuing digital transformation and the importance of quality education as a pillar of future business opportunities. 

"Education has always been a key topic at TeleGroup, which is why I personally participate actively in the Council for Science and Economy Collaboration," said Diana. "Young people make up a quarter of the global population, and investing in them is the best way to achieve sustainable growth and development."

The 29th Kopaonik Business Forum, which attracted the largest number of participants to date, concluded with an address by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, and a closing speech by Aleksandar Vlahović, President of the Serbian Association of Economists.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabić highlighted that crises bring the economy and the government together. She praised achievements in digitalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: "We have established an institutional framework and clearly know what we want in this area. Next is biotechnology, bioinformatics, biomedicine," she said, adding that artificial intelligence and life sciences are key topics for the future.

"The essence of sustainable development is to create an economic structure that is resilient to external shocks like the one we are experiencing. The forum has demonstrated the need for such an annual gathering of economic, political, and academic elites," said Aleksandar Vlahović in his closing remarks.

As the organizer of the Kopaonik Business Forum, the Serbian Association of Economists strives to maintain and foster collaboration among relevant participants, offering an interactive platform for exchanging ideas, engaging in reasoned and constructive discussions, and examining key reform challenges from various perspectives – political and economic, micro and macroeconomic, real and financial sectors, domestic and foreign investors, private and public enterprises, and theory and practice. The forum aims to be a celebration for economists, a marketplace of ideas, and an annual reality check for economic policymakers, where the results of Serbia's economic policies are assessed between two events.