At the sitting held on 17 June, the Committee on Transportation and Communications considered the Bill on Electronic Documents in principle and the Republic Telecommunication Agency’s (RATEL) Activity Report for the previous period and the RATEL plan of activities for the upcoming period.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Velimir Ilic, and attended by Nebojsa Vasiljevic, Assistant Minister of Telecommunication and Information Society and Milan Jankovic, RATEL executive director.

The Assistant Minister of Telecommunication and Information Society briefly outlined the Bill on Electronic Documents stressing the importance of the provisions on safeguarding and protecting electronic documents and the significance of the provisions regarding the time stamp which proves that an electronic document was in existence in a certain time period.

RATEL executive director Milan Jankovic presented the Agency’s Activity Report for the previous period and plan of activities for the upcoming period stressing that RATEL regularly submits its activity reports to the National Assembly. In his address focused on the value of the telecommunications market in Serbia and the value of investments which had risen by 50% in the period from 2005 to 2008. In 2008 alone the telecommunication market growth in Serbia reached 1.6 billion EUR. In 2007 investment amounted to 900 million EUR, and in 2008 360 million EUR. Privatization and introduction of a third mobile phone operator also generated considerable income. He believes that the telecommunication development trend in Serbia shall continue in the upcoming period.