Balint meets with EBRD's Colangeli

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation Bela Balint met with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Regional Director for the Western Balkans Matteo Colangeli on Monday to discuss past cooperation through the Project Science strategy and plans for new joint projects.

The meeting was also attended by EBRD Serbia Deputy Head Jelena Ceperkovic and Associate Director Vasilije Jaukovic, the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation said in a statement.

Balint recapped the cooperation as part of the Project Science strategy.

"The ministry and the EBRD have successful collaboration that will be continued in the same direction to mutual satisfaction," Balint said.

Colangeli agreed the cooperation to date had been successful.

"From our point of view, the cooperation with your ministry in the past two years was exceptional. The projects were implemented efficiently and successfully," he was quoted as saying.

Commenting on improvements in Serbia's innovation system, Jaukovic said Serbia currently had close to 800 startups and noted that this represented significant success.

The ministry has announced that national legislation on innovation activities would be passed by the end of the year to define the innovation system more precisely.