The Fourth Smart City Forum was held

16.12.2022.

Without a well-developed IT industry within the state, institutions, as well as the public and commercial sectors, the concept of smart cities cannot be implemented lightly. That is why Smart City Forum was founded last year on the initiative of Bit Alliance, the umbrella association of the largest IT companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has over 40 members and 100 partners, a permanent gathering place for important actors who contribute to this process.

The mission of the Smart City Forum, a consulting body, is to encourage interaction, exchange of experiences, and develop cooperation between the public and private sectors with the aim of strengthening capacities and creating partnerships on the way to the digital transformation of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, December 16, 2022, the fourth consecutive Smart City Forum was held in the premises of the LANACO Technology Center, organized by the Bit Alliance Information Technology Association.

The idea of ​​"smart cities" is a global concept that is already well known to many. It was primarily developed as a result of technological progress and the influence of powerful corporations that create and constantly improve integrated technological solutions that can be used in various fields. The term "smart" actually refers to different concepts of city development, which, from the aspect of innovation, optimize the city space by applying different technologies and planning principles.

The moderator of the fourth Smart City Forum in a row was Novak Čičković, PR from the company Lanaco, and the forum was opened by the business development manager of the company LANACO and member of the Board of Directors of Bit Alliance, Dragan Ninić, who said:

"We live in a time that allows us to transform, and I hope that this segment will prove to be extremely important is to raise awareness of the importance of digital transformation. I believe that we are all aware that we live in a time that allows us to transform. According to UN data, by 2050, 68% of people will live in cities, and cities that are "analog" by their setting, i.e. without a digital component, will not be able to support the aforementioned sudden increase in citizens, communication links, economy, education and the like. I believe that it is extremely important to raise awareness of the needs of digitization, and I believe that this is our primary task today."

As part of the opening address, Kristina Erak, operational manager of Bit Alliance and project manager of the project "Smart cities - towards the digital transformation of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina", spoke and presented the project's activities.

"The Smart City Forum connects the public, private and academic sectors, with the aim of contributing to the development of local self-government units. Representatives of local self-government units that are committed to development had the opportunity to hear the experiences of 5 pilot municipalities / municipalities and cities that in the previous period created roadmaps for digital transformation, and in which demo projects for the development of smart cities were implemented. The Forum enjoys the support of numerous companies, which shows the interest of the local IT industry in the development of public administration." – said Kristina.

As part of this project, the Smart Parking implementation process was presented at the forum by Srđan Zagorec, project manager at the company LANACO, who shared significant experiences from the field and more information about the implementation process, and indicated that by the end of the year the Smart Parking system - GoParking will be implemented in the cities of Prijedor, Tešnje and Zenica.

An important topic of the fourth Smart City Forum was eGovernment, and the concept of eGovernment, as well as sharing experience and good practices, was shared by Mirjana Stanković, eGovernment development expert, DCG Consulting. The concept of eGovernment was founded with the main goal of facilitating the everyday life of citizens, and it is implemented through the digitization of everyday processes.

A significant segment of this forum was the topic of the panel discussion on the topic "Cooperation between the economy and the public sector - the key to digitization of public services" in which the following participated: Sanja Skuletić-Maglić - Chief of Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton Government, Mladen Vuksan - Technical Director of Telegroup, Jovana Vidaković - Representative of ORACLE BH. The main focal points of the panel discussion were the differences between the public and private sectors regarding the implementation of digital transformation, the importance of focusing on user use, and the sharing of positive practices from highly developed countries.

As part of the event, a panel discussion was held on the topic "Experiences with Smart City Expo - how to implement world practices in the development of local self-government units in BiH", and the participants were representatives of public local self-governments within which the project "Smart cities - towards the digital transformation of cities in BiH" is currently being implemented: Biljana Milić - project coordinator in the City of Zvornik, Admira Kličić - project coordinator in the City of Prijedor, Vera Ćaćić - project representative in the Municipality of Pale, Jakuta Imširević - project coordinator in the City of Zenica, Aidin Ibrahimkadić - project coordinator in the Municipality of Tešanj. The panelists had the opportunity to discuss the experiences and knowledge gained from the study visit to the Smart City Expo, the largest global smart city fair, which was held last November in Barcelona, ​​and they also announced projects that will be implemented in the coming period.