Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said yesterday that Serbia had become a country that truly, and not declaratively, strived for the return of youth from the diaspora to their homeland. While hosting the Talents Together 5.0 conference, Brnabić said that in 2018 they had launched the Returning Point program, in order to have a forum for discussion with people from the diaspora and to see the extent to which they are considering their return.

She said that the Serbian Government needed to help them to return if they wanted, and if they did not, to have contact and communication with Serbia.
‘We have done many things together since the first conference in 2018, such as establishment of the organization Returning Point, which serves as a basic contact and assists the diaspora youth who want to return to Serbia in the most concrete way’, said the Prime Minister.

Brnabić said that this assistance related to the issuance of ID documents, to looking for work; for those without Serbian citizenship, the Carta Serbica program was created to allow them to live and work in Serbia as if they were citizens.

She said that tax and customs benefits were introduced for young returnees, and that the project had great support from Infostud, which provided a special page for the employment of young people from the diaspora in Serbia.

The Prime Minister reminded that electronic validation of diplomas was also possible, and that a problem still existed with medical and law faculty diplomas, for which solutions were being sought.

Speaking about digitization in Serbia’s scientific progress, Brnabić said that Serbia was one of the countries in the world that had progressed the fastest in development, and that it was an opportunity for youth from the diaspora to have the same challenges here as those that kept them abroad.

She added that an arrangement had been made with Postal Savings to enable diaspora returnees to obtain housing loans, and that all those could be reasons to motivate them to return.

Brnabić noted that it was important that our scientists cooperated with Serbian scientists in the world, which, according to her, would contribute to an even faster and better development of Serbia.

She recalled the opening of a large number of science parks and the BIO 4 construction project, in which, according to her, EUR 250 million would be invested, one half by Serbia and the other by the EU, stressing that these were two chances for young returnees.

The Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Đedović, noted that she was an example of a returnee from abroad and added that she was particularly pleased to be able to use the knowledge and experience gained in the world for the progress of Serbia.

‘I can confirm from personal experience and practice that there are conditions and opportunities to live and work in Serbia today same as abroad’, said Đedović.

The minister without portfolio responsible for the diaspora, Đorđe Milićević, said that importance of cooperation between the motherland and the diaspora was immeasurable.

Arnaud Gouillon, the director of the Administration for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, joined and spoke via a video link.

The one-day conference Talents Together is organized by the program ‘Returning Point’, led by Ivan Brkljač.

Source: nova.rs-Tanjug

Photo: Tanjug-Government of the Republic of Serbia-Slobodan Miljević