Begovic meets with UNDP officials in New York

NEW YORK - Serbian Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation Jelena Begovic met with UNDP Under-Secretary-General Haoliang Xu and the organisation's regional director for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Ivana Zivkovic in New York to discuss Serbia-UNDP cooperation.

Begovic said the cooperation had been useful and successful to date for both Serbia and UNDP, the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation said in a statement.

She said the meeting had highlighted Serbia's assets, including the level of digitalisation of its public administration, health care system and agriculture.

Also discussed were ways in which Serbia can transfer its experience and expertise to other countries that are still not on the same level of digitalisation.

Begovic noted that the discussion topics included Serbia's progress relative to other countries when it comes to equality and better position of women and girls.

"I think this cooperation will only become more intensive, especially now, in some new areas such as biotechnology and the construction of a BIO4 campus, where UNDP can help Serbia achieve sustainable development goals," she said.

Xu said the quality discussion with Begovic had addressed many topics and there was a visible desire on the part of the Serbian government to develop the country towards becoming a society relying on knowledge and innovation.

He said the progress Serbia had made using digitalisation to support economic development was already evident.

He said they had also discussed ways in which UNDP could support national development goals and the priorities of the Serbian government and mobilise young people to get involved in the process of development of the country.