The IT and e-Government Office of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Business Environment Improvement Project in Serbia, implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, with the support of the UK Good Governance Fund and the British Embassy in Belgrade, announced a new digital platform e-Permits for the issuing of permits, licenses and approvals for the economy.  

Thanks to the new digital platform, 100 procedures will be digitized in the first phase: 30 in the first half of 2020 and the other 70 by the end of 2020, which will bring great savings in both time and money for the economy and the country. 

Moreover, what is very important for the economy and the state is that in the future, the new e-Permits platform will integrate the existing services and grow into a comprehensive electronic decisions platform. Thanks to the new platform, the state will be able to digitize various administrative procedures in the future.

When it comes to the economy today, most of the time, every administrative process involves going from counter to counter. Some of the processes are partially digitized and can be done online – via digital services, while some stages, such as filing, paying or going for a decision, are still carried out at the counter.  

The new platform will make it possible for the entire process of obtaining a decision to be fully digitized, for both the user and the institution issuing the particular decision. The new platform will allow electronic filing, electronic payment and the use of an electronic signature, while the authorities responsible for a particular procedure will have electronic access to the ex officio data.

Thanks to the state-of-the-art software solution for managing business processes, which is provided by the IT and e-Government Office, data acquisition and verification will be done automatically, by exchanging data with the official registers, which will lead to significant shortening of deadlines. All parties will have the opportunity to monitor the status of the whole process, which, with deadlines set, will reduce the potential uncertainty at all stages of the process. The result of the procedure will be the issuance of an electronic decision, which will simultaneously be permanently available in electronic form both to the user and the competent state authorities.   

The more procedures involved in the service, the better the providing of new services will be, the faster the formation of new registers and the automatic download of data.

The aim of the three-year Project for the Improvement of the Business Environment in Serbia, implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group in cooperation with the Government of Serbia, and with the support of the Good Governance Fund of the United Kingdom and the British Embassy in Belgrade, is to reduce the administrative burden on the economy, simplifying 1,750 administrative procedures – licenses, permits, approvals and other procedures, enabling electronic licensing of 100 licenses and eliminating practices that adversely affect competition. Around 600 permits, consents and approvals are expected to be simplified.

Source: Business Morning and Coordination Body