Dejan Radenkovic, Chairman of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications, opened the public hearing and greeted the participants, stressing that the Committee would strive to organise more public hearings in the near future, covering a variety of topics.
Stefan Lazarevic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications, spoke of Serbia’s priorities in the sphere of information and communication technologies, listing five of them – infrastructure, electronic governance, education, employment and cyber security.
Speaking of the efficient use of the radio frequency spectrum, Prof. Dr Irini Reljin of the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications, stressed that the management of the spectrum should be left to experts so that the management models could keep up with technical development.
In his address, Prof. Dr Milan Jankovic, RATEL Director, spoke of the future of broadband services in the Republic of Serbia as the outcome of the change from analogue to digital TV broadcasting. He said that the transitional period is to be completed on 17 June 2015, when all analogue broadcasts would become digital.
Dejan Smigic, acting Director of Emission Technique and Connections PE presented the role of the enterprise plays in digitalisation.
Savo Savic, Assistant Director at the Digital Agenda Directorate, presented the application and use of information and communication technologies and services and the Directorate’s ongoing projects.
The participants were also addressed by the directors of Telekom Serbia, Telenor, VIP mobile, ORION Telekom and SBB who spoke of 4G technologies and the use of the spectrum based on the experience of countries in the region.
The public hearing was attended by MPs, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications, mobile and internet providers, non-governmental sector and public enterprises.
The public hearing was organised with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) via project Strengthening the Oversight Role and Transparency of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, conducted in cooperation with the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.