ICT sector has greatest employment potential

BELGRADE – The information and communication technology (ICT) is a sector with the greatest employment potential and it is therefore necessary to motivate girls to affirm themselves in this area, State Secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Trade and Telecommunications Tatjana Matic said Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting in Belgrade organized on the occasion of the International Girls in ICT Day, Matic said that women make up only 30 percent of the seven million employees in the ICT sector in Europe, and the situation is no better in Serbia.

Pointing to the huge employment potential of the sector, she said that estimates are that about 700,000 new jobs will be open in this area in the EU member countries alone by 2020.

It is therefore important to encourage girls as well, as they are not affirmed in the area enough, and the state has an obligation to encourage all young people to receive education in this area, she said.

Jelena Jovanovic, secretary of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Association for Information Technologies, said that currently 85 percent of employees in the Serbian ICT industry are men and only 15 percent are women, but it does not mean things will not change, as the number of women successfully running ICT companies in Serbia is increasing.

She said that there is great demand for IT experts in Serbia and Germany currently lacks 32,000 experts.