Prishtina, 27.04.2018 – Information and Communication Technology is the main factor linking different economic sectors, enabling increased efficiency and profiling of companies, and consequently economic development of the country, said the Minister of Economic Development, Valdrin Lluka.

Minister Lluka made these comments at the opening of the “Girls in ICT” Conference, organized by the Ministry of Economic Development in cooperation with IPKO Foundation, US Embassy, Empower USAID, AUK TDI and Prishtina Municipality, to mark the International Day of Girls in ICT.

On this occasion Minister Lluka stated that MED continuously supports this program, as this institution covers the ICT sector and mainly deals with investments in infrastructure and building skills in this field.

“It is a pleasure to see Kosovo part of this promotion. MED already has several projects such as WOW, a program that has trained over 400 girls, and half of them have been employed. The upcoming project is titled ‘Digital Economy’ enabling the link of all economic sectors with ICT,” he said.

Speaking on the ‘Digital Economy’ Project, Lluka said that the main purpose of this project is to improve the infrastructure, and over 20m EUR will be invested in infrastructure, and another part of the fund will go into creating new jobs. According to him, with the finalization of this project, within two years Kosovo will have a much better position in this regard.

Another important engagement in this regard, according to Minister Lluka, is the TechPark project, which facility the Government will issue for use for 20 years to STIKK, and businesses can develop their innovative ideas and develop services in the ICT sector.

From her part, Abetare Gojani, Director of the program at IPKO Foundation, talking about ‘Girls in ICT’, said that this is the fourth year that this project is implemented, as it assessed as very successful. “Over the last three years we have had around 900 trained participants, more than 60 companies attending the fair and over 100 participants registered at the fair. 42% of the girls have managed to find jobs through this job fair, meaning they get regular employment contracts,” she added.

Meanwhile, Visar Jasiqi – Head of Operations and Foreign Relations Officer at RIT – Kosovo (AUK) stated that statistics in 2013 indicated that only 20% of employees in the ICT sector were women, therefore RIT Kosovo took an initiative, to which many other partners joined, in order to change the perception of this sector.

Otherwise, under the framework of “Girls in ICT” conference, participants from different countries shared their success stories in this field, while the job fair will remain open during the day, where different companies will present their offers.

The International Day of Girls in ICT is marked in more than 150 countries through various events aimed at raising awareness and committing to a local environment that empowers and encourages girls and women to think about careers in the field of information and communication (ICT), which is constantly growing.