NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION GATHERED EXPERTS FROM 40 COUNTRIES AT THE 31ST INTERNATIONAL NISPACEE CONFERENCE

The 31^st conference of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee) was successfully held at the National Academy of Public Administration from 24-27 May, gathering over 200 experts in the field of public administration from 40 countries in Europe and the world.

Minister for European Integration Tanja Miščević officially opened the meeting and stated that public administration reform and digitization were continuous processes and strategic decisions of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. She also stated that Serbia is a leader in the region in the field of digitization of public administration, and that it will continue in that direction with the goal of improving services provided to citizens.

Acting Director of the National Academy of Public Administration, Mr Dejan Miletić, has pointed out that it is a great honour for the Academy, but also for Serbia, to host such an exceptional gathering of experts, which symbolically made Belgrade the European centre of public administration.

Jakup Berish, UNDP’s Permanent Representative to Serbia, and Jasmina Benmansur, Assistant Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government addressed the participants of the conference. Mr Berish pointed out the constant support of UNDP to the Academy in introducing innovations in the process of professional development of officials, while Mrs Benmansur underlined the fact that Serbia recognized in time the new concept of public administration that relies on digital technologies in order to provide better services to citizens.

The topic of this year's conference, The Future of Public Administration Enabled through Emerging Technologies, was reviewed in a large number of plenary sessions and working groups in three official conference days, and key presentations were given by Gianluca Misuraca, a prominent international consultant in the field of digital management and technological diplomacy, as and Paul Joyce, a professor at the University of Birmingham, with a rich academic career in public administration and strategic management.

The main goal of the conference is to open opportunities for dialogue, exchange of experiences, ideas and examples of good practice in order to improve the quality of public administration, as well as to identify the key challenges in this area. The topics in focus were artificial intelligence and new technologies as tools of public administration of the future.

The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee) was founded in 1994 in the Slovak Republic as an international, non-governmental and non-profit organization based in Bratislava. The goal of NISPAcea is to support and improve the efficient management and modernization of public administration in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.