Serbia, a country that claims inventor Nikola Tesla as one of its most famous sons, is looking to technology to help lift itself out of decades of economic stagnation following the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
While a small player in global or even Western European terms, Serbia now generates 10 percent of its gross domestic product from information technology.
Technology exports are worth 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) so far this year, up from around 900 million euros in 2017, putting it in the top three export sectors beside cars and agriculture, according to Finance Minister Sinisa Mali.
Serbian companies are producing software for industries ranging from agriculture to medicine as well as Uber-type trucking and cloud applications, online games and testing. They are also running call centers and customer helplines.
But it’s a competitive market with many countries scrapping for a share of the cash being invested by foreign tech companies.
Under Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, a 42-year-old with a background in promoting entrepreneurship, Serbia is stepping up support for the start-up scene and wooing multinationals to set up operations in Serbia.
As part of its strategy, Serbia is attracting foreign investors with its low-wage status, as well as subsidies of up to 10,000 euros per employee.
“Information and high-end technologies and the digital agenda are the future of our economy,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Reuters.
“Serbia’s IT sector is the product of our own intelligence...we have to continue to train as many people as possible to work in this sector,” he added.
Major companies including Microsoft, IBM and Intel have either established development centers in Serbia or have outsourced work to local firms, offering wages that are more than three times higher than the country’s monthly average take-home pay of 420 euros, but still lower than that in European Union countries.
