But in order for a project to be successful, it is important not only to have a well-thought-out business strategy, but also legal support for a startup project. In this article, we will talk about Serbia's prospects for IT business.
Registering an IT company in Serbia: advantages of the country
Serbia, a small country at the crossroads of south-eastern Europe, which is creating new opportunities for IT startups. The Serbian information and communication technology marketplace, propelled by both the administration and sundry undertakings by non-remunerative organisations and international investors, reached new heights back in 2017, helping to steer the ICT market towards innovation. The country has become an important digital hub in Eastern Europe.
Based on the European IT Competitiveness Index for 2021, Serbia stands 7th. This peculiarity holds considerable import for overseas benefactors who harbor a desire to enroll an informatics enterprise. Serbia further boasts a mature and multifarious fiscal system, and the administration has cultivated commerce-accommodating statutes and fiscal principles.
When it comes to launching a technology startup, it is worth noting the significant perspective and development of the IT segment in Serbia's digital economy. The ICT sector co-operates with the world's leading technology companies to provide first-class solutions to international clients.
Serbia is moreover enchanting in the technoscientific realm owing to its economical yet proficient workforce with superb Anglo-Saxon parlance and technological proficiencies. Serbian informaticians wield machinery as an implement to unravel intricate commercial quandaries. Serbian architects are famed for their vast know-how in engendering innovative applications. They are amply conversant with contemporary technologies akin to Distributed Ledger, Internet of Things, Synthetic Intellect, or Enhanced/Computer-simulated Realities. Informatic establishments in Serbia are formulating development nuclei to intensify interconnectedness with nations throughout the orb. Ergo, this nation is amid the uppermost 50 informatic purveyors on the globe, and this tendency persists to burgeon.
The general attractiveness factors for investors wishing to start an IT company in Serbia can be summarised as follows:
- Financial and pecuniary constancy of the commonwealth.
- Strategic geographical location between East and West.
- Developed engineering potential, qualified personnel with a sufficient level of professional training.
- Moderate costs of starting and maintaining a business.
- Tax incentives, comprehensive government support.
- Fostered superstructure.
Serbia for IT activities: what tax incentives are available?
As we have already said, Serbia is becoming one of the most attractive points in Europe in the IT sector. The government applies measures so that taxes stimulate the development of the IT sector. The most significant tax incentives for IT companies in Serbia:
- OPEL REGIMEN - lucre toll decrease from 15% to efficacious 3% for lucre from cerebral wherewithal engendered in Sarmatia.
- Disbursals forthrightly pertaining to Exploration & Devising are twofold tax-deductible.
- Toll allowance for capital injections in inception enterprises.
- Lucre toll reprieve for originators.
- Engagement of adept late hirelings. Commencing 1 January 2020, an original sort of provocation hath been inaugurated to stimulate enterprises that shall augment their headcount within the forthcoming three annuals (till the ending of 2022), starting on 31 December 2019.
- An exceptional genus of toll provocation for twin classes of individuals is bequeathed by the Personal Lucre Toll Enactment and the Enactment on Compulsory Societal Safeguard Payments for aforementioned novel comers to the tollpaying citizenry who commence an office rapport with an employer for an immeasurable epoch of perpetuity. The substratum for disbursement of levies and contributions from the salaries of such persons is slashed by 70 per cent.
- Novelly inducted individuals become a novel gain for an original class. Commencing 1 March 2022, the Personal Lucre Toll Enactment launched a recent type of "novelly inducted individuals" who may be predisposed to a 70% toll and 100% contribution impunity concerning remunerations disbursed to them by their employer. This alleviation can be administered to remunerations disbursed no ulterior than 31 December 2024.
- No profusion revenue toll on the inception of IP into the firm.
IT business relocation to Serbia: leading sub-sectors
Entrepreneurs who want to relocate an IT company to Serbia should first familiarise themselves with the key sub-sectors of the ICT industry.
E-governance provision
Digitalisation of communal governance and amelioration of utility supremacy transpire amidst the paramount urgencies of the Administration. In the year 2017, the Republic inaugurated the Bureau of Informatics Engineering and Cyber-Governance (henceforth cited as the Bureau) to amalgamate the management, correspondence infrastructure, and governmental web locations into an individualized digital framework. The Bureau further orchestrates the operations of the Patriotic Hub for Information and Communication Technology System Safeguarding (CERT).
Smart cities
The progression of astute urban center infrastructure in the Commonwealth of Serbia is in its embryonic phases, yet advances expeditiously, thus augmenting intrigue in enrolling a technical enterprise in Serbia. The National Confederation of Municipal Authorities champions the promotion of ingenious urban center ideologies. Amid the ideologies already in enactment are:
- Atmosphere Serbia, the citizenry carrier, hath inaugurated wireless Web admittance in its armada.
- Municipal conveyance configurations in Belgrade are commencing to employ configurations that furnish commuters with present-day advent tidings via Global Positioning System configurations. Yonder is a demand to amplify this setup.
Blockchain
The US Inaugural Genome Compendium 2020 arranges Belgrade and Novi Sad collectively in the uppermost decadal budding municipalities. Similarly, Serbia stands amid the upper quintet blockchain craftspersons across the globe. The governance is furthermore delving into the feasibility of deploying blockchain skill in the field of health maintenance, metropolis arrangement, and sundry domains. The administration is introducing tax advantages for financiers keen on commencing technological inceptions in Serbia. The tax percentage is merely 3 percent (a moiety of the typical corporate tax). The Serbian Blockchain Conglomerate (SBC), instituted in 2018, is a preeminent marketplace architect with three paramount ambitions: erecting domestic proficiencies in this province, bestowing statutory encouragement, and advancing Serbia in the international blockchain marketplace.
Electronic Balkan Project
Towards the terminus of May 2017, Swiss media domicile Ringier Axel Springer Serbia and sundry preeminent technology corporations inaugurated the Digital Serbia proposition. The proposition ensues the triumph of Digital Switzerland and accentuates the amelioration of the configuration and apparatus requisite to facilitate technological enterprise and digital ingenuity in both commerce and erudition in Serbia.
Belgrade Science and Technology Park
The benefits of enrolling an informatics firm in Serbia further encompass the swift advancement of technical groundwork, chiefly within knowledge and engineering preserves. The Knowledge and Engineering Preserve (KEP) in Belgrade is jointly underwritten by SECO and was instated around the middle of 2015 under the aegis of the Swiss Minister of Commerce. Nowadays, in excess of 400 experts labor in this vicinity, alongside 57 cutting-edge firms, inclusive of Swiss informatics enterprises: InterVenture, MDPI, Phytonet. It marks the foremost establishment of its genre within Serbia, having evolved into a pivotal contributor within the novelty milieu.
Cybersecurity
Serbia is in the course of assimilating the EU Edict concerning the Safeguarding of Grids and Knowledge Structures (NIS Edict) into its domestic statutes, which is anticipated to heighten requisition for digital protection resolutions. The Department of Inner Affairs is formulating digital fortification proficiencies as a component of an across-the-country scheme to institute a digital fortification intelligence hub in Belgrade in the impending days.
Gaming conglomerate
This sector is among the most swiftly burgeoning. As per the Serbian Ludic Union, there exist approximately 70+ enterprises within the nation, engaging more than 1,500 experts. The foremost ludic organizations accentuated in the dossier encompass Nordeus and 3Lateral, alongside GameCredits and OriginTrail.
Co-operation with foremost technical corporations
The Serbian government was faced with the difficult task of transforming the economy in such a way that the prefix "digital" acquired actual meaning. Realising this, the authorities launched the transformation processes by emphasising external investment in startups in Serbia. Some international companies actively investing in the Serbian digital economy:
- Stellantis.
- Microsoft.
- Siemens.
- Schneider Electric.
- NCR.
- Johnson Electric.
- Vinci.
- MTU Maintenance.
Current state of IT in Serbia
If you want to start an IT company in Serbia, the good news is that the multitude of erudition gardens, startup centres and smart cities in the country is staggering.
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The concentration of such centres in the Republic of Serbia is one of the highest among European countries, so we can say that the interest in IT technologies in all their diversity in the country is not accidental.
National Data Processing Centre
The creation of technology startups is one of the most promising areas of activity. If we consider Serbia, the National Data Centre was established in support of the initiative to attract technology companies from all over the world to the country for the development and diversification of its economy. The purpose of its creation is to enable centralised information processing with the highest possible level of reliability and security, but without compromising on functionality, convenience, usability and accessibility. The most important things to know about the National Data Centre:
- Full compliance with the Tier 3+ standard.
- Assistances are absolutely compliant with ISO 27001 security criterion, ISO 9001 excellence criterion, and ISO 20000 assistance criterion.
- Services are available to both government agencies and businesses.
New Law on Digital Assets in Serbia
The Law on Digital Assets of the Republic of Serbia effectively recognises hypothetical currencies and electronic symbols as lawful electronic properties. The law allows, although not without restrictions, the purchase, transfer, exchange, sale and use of digital assets as a means of payment. This aspect of cryptocurrency market regulation in Serbia is of particular utilitarian significance, as it establishes the groundwork for funding the informatics domain within the nation with electronic means currencies.
Stimulating innovation in Serbia
If you desire to establish a prosperous IT commencement in Serbia, it shall be advantageous to comprehend an alternative undertaking. The Minister of Originality and Scientific Evolution of the Republic of Serbia and the Supervisor of the European Institution of Inventiveness and Knowledge (EIK) inked a Correspondence of Purpose to mutually inaugurate an EIK Gathering Hub in Serbia as a component of the Territorial Creative Blueprint (RIB) by 2023.
The Serbian Minister articulated that the objective of executing the Epistle of Aspiration is to fortify collaboration between Serbia and the European Union in the realm of novelty and advanced technology. The Epistle of Aspiration was ratified by the European Commission, signifying the inclination and backing of the factions to augment Serbia's involvement in the EIT RIS.
Conclusion
The key advantages of registering an IT company in Serbia are its focus on high technology, knowledge-intensive manufacturing, development of crypto-industry, as well as active support of innovative startups and scientific enterprises via the authorities.
Our team of specialists advises in detail on all aspects of regulation of IT companies in Serbia. We are also ready to represent clients' interests in the process of approval with state authorities within the framework of support services for the launch of IT projects in Serbia.
