The third Smart City Forum was held

21.6.2021. godine

Yesterday, on June 21, 2022, the third Smart City Forum was held in the premises of the Hills Hotel. The event was attended by numerous key actors in the digital transformation of public local governments throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The term "smart cities" is a global category and already a well-known concept to many, primarily developed under the influence of technological development and the influence of large companies that develop and constantly improve integrated technological solutions applicable in many sectors.

The implementation of the smart cities category is not possible without a developed IT sector within a state, institutions, as well as the public and private sectors. This is precisely why, at the initiative of Bit Alliance, Smart City Forum was founded last year, a permanent meeting place for key actors who contribute to this process.

Smart City Forum is a consultative body that aims to encourage interaction, exchange of experiences and strengthening of local capacities, as well as the creation of partnerships that contribute to the successful implementation of the process of digital transformation of local governments.

"It is especially important for the IT industry, as the driver and leader of digitization globally and in BiH, to ensure these processes in other areas as well - especially in the area of ​​public administration. That is why the synergy of all factors united under the umbrella of the Smart City Forum, as well as the continuous exchange of knowledge, experiences, positive practices and lessons learned, is important to us." said Damir Maglajlić, executive director of Bit Alliance, who united and opened the third Smart City Forum in a row, and also said: "Bit Alliance continues its mission under the motto - United To Develop More, both when it comes to the development of the IT industry, and when it comes to the development of digitalization of the entire society!".

The activities of the project "Smart cities towards the digital transformation of cities in BiH" were presented by Kristina Erak, operational manager of Bit Alliance, and she emphasized the importance of synergy and cooperation on the part of the economic, public and international sectors, with the aim of faster development of digitization in BiH.

Dejan Buha, UNDP project manager, during his address and presentation of the digital transformation methodology, emphasized the key challenges of this project, such as the complex administrative system and relations with higher levels of government, interoperability, limited mandates of local self-government units.

As part of this project, the "Citizens' Patrol" application was presented in the City of Zvornik, and its use was made possible for all citizens. We could hear more about the implementation of the application as well as the further development of project activities from Biljana Milić, the project coordinator for the City of Zvornik. Biljana said that the prior activation of the application in Banja Luka as well as Brčko was extremely important, and enabled an accelerated phase of testing and adaptation to the specific needs of the City of Zvornik.

Kristina Šarac, who attended the event in front of the Department of Economy and Social Activities of the Municipality of Pale, said that the solutions regarding the implementation of the smart cities project are close to being realized, and she emphasized the importance of training municipal officials as well as the importance of mutual communication in order to finalize the activities.

As part of the event, a panel discussion was held on the topic "Experiences of local self-government units in the process of creating a digital transformation roadmap", and the participants were: Ana Blažević - coordinator of the operational team for IT and digital transformation for the City of Mostar, Biljana Milić - project coordinator for the City of Zvornik, Aleksandar Mastilović - consultant for digital transformation and smart cities, and Faruk Smajević - advisor to the Minister, FMRPO - Ministry of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts of FBiH. Panel participants had the opportunity to discuss important segments of development, and they also emphasized potential aspects that hinder further digitalization of society.opportunity to discuss important segments of development, and they also emphasized potential aspects that hinder further digitalization of society.