On the second day of the Western Balkans Digital Summit, held in Prishtina, the Minister of Economy of Kosovo, Artane Rizvanolli, the Member of the European Parliament, Lukas Mandl, the Vice President for Policy and Partnerships at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mark Bowman, gave speeches where they talked about the connections that promote digital diplomacy with the Western Balkans (WB6) and the European Union as well as the digital priorities in the Strategy 2021-2023 of the Bank.

Also on the second day, in the session “How to bring cutting edge infrastructure to the Western Balkans?”, Artane Rizvanolli, Minister of Economy of Kosovo, Admirim Aliti, Minister of Information Society and Administration in North Macedonia, Enkelejda Muçaj, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Energy in the Republic of Albania, Marash Dukaj, Minister of Public Administration in Montenegro, and members of the European Parliament, representatives of the World Bank, representatives of businesses from Kosovo and the countries of the region were speakers.

During the two days of the Western Balkans Digital Summit “Prishtina 2022”, around 1300 participants attended, 11 panels took place with more than 60 speakers, various experts in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, various businesses, representatives of governments, the European Commission, the countries of the Western Balkans, the European Union, the World Bank and beyond.

In these panels was discussed, among others, about the priorities that the countries of the region have in the field of digitalization, bringing the most advanced digital infrastructure to the Western Balkans, promoting development and innovation, deployment of the 5G network and, in particular, promoting the development of the digital economy, which is seen as a good opportunity for job growth, in performing various services and increasing trade through digital forms.

On the first day of the Digital Summit “Prishtina 2022”, 4 regional competitions in coding, computer games and robotics took place amongst Kosovo’s digital schools such as Ipko Foundation, Digital School, jCoders and Bonevet, with participants from the Western Balkans.
The opening session of the second day of the Summit, B2B recorded a total of 291 participants, representatives of businesses from the Western Balkans, Europe, Turkey, Bulgaria, realizing a total of 821 business-to-business meetings to explore the possibilities of cooperation between them in projects, products and joint initiatives.

As a result of these meetings, 17 cooperation agreements with local businesses were reached, 7 others are under negotiations and others have agreed to continue discussions in the future.
Businesses participating in B2B come from the ICT sector, mainly focused on software development, development of various applications, digital marketing and companies that provide support services to international customers.

The B2B session was co-organized by Prishtina REA.

The second day marked the end of the fifth edition of the Western Balkans Digital Summit “Prishtina 2022”, held in Prishtina on 21 and 22 September.