Tirana to host the 3rd Western Balkans Digital Summit
23 October 2020
Tirana to host the 3rd Western Balkans Digital Summit, taking place 26 October - 2 November 2020
RCC Secretary General Majlinda Bregu to open the WB Digital Summit
Tirana/Sarajevo – The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) is once again supporting the biggest digital event in the region - the Western Balkans Digital Summit (WBDS) - the third in a row annual event taking the digital cooperation to the next level. This year WBDS will be hosted by the Albanian Government and will be in hybrid format, with online sessions during 26-28 of October 2020, closing with the Ministerial meeting in Tirana on 2 November 2020.
After Skopje, which was the host of the first WB Digital Summit in 2018, and Belgrade the following year when the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies signed the Regional Roaming Agreement, bringing down the roaming charges in the entire region, leading to 0 roaming costs in 2021, the Tirana Summit will highlight the achievements and outcomes of the WB Digital Agenda. Despite the coronavirus pandemic crisis, the region and the whole world are facing, the 3rd WBDS will further explore possibilities of building partnerships with the private sector, in the context of digital transformation process. This Summit will bring together high-level representatives of the Governments from the region, the European Commission, the RCC, business community and other relevant stakeholders.
From 26 to 28 October you can follow numerous online sessions on: 1) Network & Services Connectivity; 2) Trust and Security; 3) Digital Skills; & 4) Digital Economy; while the closing session of the Summit will take place on 2 November with the WB6 Digital Agenda Ministerial panel, when adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Regional Interoperability and Trust Services in Western Balkans region and MoU on 5G Roadmap for Digital Transformation in WB is expected.
WBDS 2020 will be opened by the RCC Secretary General Majlinda Bregu on Monday, 26 October, starting at 9.00h. Ms Bregu will be hosting the opening panel together with high level representatives from the host, co-organizers, partners and international organizations and industry:
- Roberto Viola, General Director of DG Connect, European Commission
- Wolfgang Kopf, Senior Vice President for Group Public and Regulatory Affairs, Member of Presidency Board of German Eastern Business Association
- Robert Opp, UNDP's Chief Digital Officer
- Houlin Zhao, Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- Claudia Dörr-Voß, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany
- Belinda Balluku, Minister, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy Albania
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The WB Digital Summit is part of the Multi-Annual Action Plan on a Regional Economic Area (MAP REA), an agenda endorsed by the region’s leaders in Trieste 2017. The first ever Western Balkans Digital Summit was held in Skopje in April 2018, while the second WBDS took place last year in Belgrade in 2019. The Summit builds on the experience of the high-level regional dialogue on digital transformation, in the framework of the Berlin Process. Its continuation will remain part of the second phase of the creation of common regional market, an agenda that is to be endorsed at the Sofia Summit in November this year. The RCC, together with the EU, governments from the region, CEFTA, and partners is currently in the advanced phase of the preparation of the Common Regional Market Action Plan.