The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Serbia has grown considerably in recent years, becoming one of the main drivers of the national economy. Today the industry is worth 10% of Serbia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and is among the country’s four largest export sectors.
Serbian ICT companies mainly provide software for sectors ranging from agriculture to medicine, as well as tracking and cloud applications, online games and testing. They also run call centres and customer support lines. Many leading global players, such as Microsoft, SKF Group, Adobe, Oracle, Google, Hewlett Packard, SAP, IBM, Siemens, Intel, Cisco, NCR Corporation, and Erickson, have already tapped this potential, establishing their development centres in Serbia or outsourcing their services to local ICT companies.
This growth is evidenced by data from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, which show an increase in exports of ICT services from EUR 375 million in 2012 to EUR 3.44 billion in 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, ICT exports reached EUR 917 million, registering a 17 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023. The target is to raise total ICT services exports to EUR 4 billion by the end of the year and EUR 10 billion by 2027.
The ICT sector in Serbia currently comprises 11,000 companies and employs approximately 110,000 professionals (4.3% of the total workforce). This number is expected to rise to 140,000 by 2027. The number of professionals working in the gaming industry in Serbia has already increased by 98% last year, amounting to an estimated 4,300 people. This growth is due to the large number of ICT professionals who moved to Serbia from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, along with world-leading companies such as Wargaming, Playrix and Sperasoft, which have their largest representative offices in Serbia.
The entire ecosystem is dedicated to innovation: the Serbian Government and universities work together to promote advanced technology research, and many science and technology parks host research and development centres, where local and international companies work on innovative projects. Another key infrastructure for the country’s ICT sector is the State Data Centre in Kragujevac, which, in addition to providing technological support to government institutions, is set to become a hub for data processing and storage.
Furthermore, the Serbian Government is also actively supporting the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector and has recently announced a EUR 70 million investment plan for the development of AI over the next three years. Of this amount, EUR 30 million will be spent on upgrading supercomputing platforms and EUR 5 million will be allocated to a venture capital fund for investing in start-ups in the AI field. In addition, a Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence by 2030 is currently being drafted, with the aim of providing ambitious but feasible standards for the next six years. Serbia has also strengthened its presence on the international artificial intelligence scene through its participation in the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), joined by the country in February 2022.
