American Chamber of Commerce in Montenegro (AmCham) hosted a Business Luncheon today with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Information Society and Telecommunications,  Mr. Vujica Lazovic as the Honorary Guest Speaker. Minister Lazovic keynote was mainly focused on the directions of information society development in Montenegro, as well as on the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead in the future. During this meeting, it was assessed that Montenegro has made significant improvements in developing the necessary ICT infrastructure. Key challenges in the IT sector development were also identified and discussed during the event.

Deputy Prime Minister Lazovic has stressed that information society development is one of the crucial preconditions for economic prosperity of Montenegro, as well as for determining its competitive position in the region and beyond. He also emphasized the importance of the information society in the process of joining EU and NATO, which represent the strategic goals of Montenegro. “We have focused our activities in the direction of ICT infrastructure development, realization of the projects such as e-Government, promotion of the information society and adoption of the proper legislation to regulate this area. Likewise, we devote special attention to providing a continuous business-friendly environment to stimulate the development of ICT sector” said Mr. Lazovic.

Traditionally, the U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro, H.E. Margaret Uyehara, addressed AmCham members and guest during Business Luncheon. According to H.E. Uyehara, the United States Government cares deeply about IT development.  “Information technology provides governments, businesses, and people with the information needed to be more efficient and to make better decisions.  IT is an engine of development.  Any country – large, medium or small – can become a leader in IT and software development “, said H.E. Uyehara. Likewise, she reiterated that IT sector faces a number of key challenges, including from copyright infringement and software piracy. 

The AmCham Montenegro’s President, Ms. Katarina Bulatovic, noted that the Government’s efforts in developing information society in Montenegro have been recognized by AmCham, especially the activities of the Ministry in charge, which has clearly defined Montenegro as digital society in its Strategy for Information Society Development 2012-2016. Beside expanding the ICT infrastructure, AmCham considers that measuring the progress made in terms of implementation of ICT technologies in Montenegro is very important. Likewise, Ms. Bulatovic has enhanced that additional efforts need to be made in educating people and key talents  in order to stimulate quality progress for Montenegro in the global market.

Ms. Bulatovic placed special focus on the importance of intellectual property rights protection in the context of information society development. She reflected on the AmCham’s press conference in cooperation with Microsoft and Tax Administration, with support of U.S. Embassy, held in April 2016, where we presented the concerning result of IDC’s research showing a 78% rate of software piracy in Montenegro.  “We believe this question is highly important both from the aspect of grey economy, meaning that Government cannot collect its revenues, as well as from the aspect of discouraging the IT development in Montenegro.” said Ms. Bulatovic.

Minister Lazovic announced that the new Strategy for Information Society Development 2016-2020 will determine the strategic direction of ICT development in Montenegro with the goal of reaching the EU standards set in Digital Agenda 2020 and the Strategy for Digital Single Market.