Telekom Srbija’s CEO: We are making a grand entrance into the U.S, contract with Exim Bank during May

Telekom Srbija’s CEO, Vladimir Lucic, spoke about plans for cooperation with the United States for the show "Viewpoint of the Week".

"We are making a grand entrance, this autumn. We already have a company that sells television over the internet. We have about 20,000 users, but from September, we are also launching our mobile telephony, which will work over the AT&T network. So the entire territory of the United States of America will be covered", Lucic said.

He added that Telekom Srbija intensively working on branches and hopes that company will exceed 3 billion euros in revenue.

"America is important to us in many ways. America is not only important, because we are entering this market. For more than six years, we have been intensively working on bettering relations with both the American administration and companies. Generally speaking, Telekom's strategy is to show that, using a practical example, that Serbia, which has always been part of Europe and part of that Western world, that through good relations, a company that was small can become big", he emphasized.
 

Telekom Srbija’s CEO said that he is often in Washington, at the State Department and the Department of Commerce, trying to establish cooperation on multiple levels.

"So, besides Kosovo and Metohija, which is always my first topic, first we have to establish cooperation regarding cyber security, and the development of artificial intelligence, because America will be the main center for the development of artificial intelligence, and therefore, extending cooperation with them means a lot to us.

Telekom Srbija has strategic partners with the largest financial institutions, such as Bank of America and JP Morgan.

"We are the first ones and on May 7th, it will be, how should I say, the final approval from Exim Bank, so we will sign the contract during May. We are the first operator in the world to have a direct contract, with Exim Bank. In fact, I think bringing in an American state bank is important for Serbia, because they will finance some other American investments here", he said.

Lucic repeated that they are the first in Europe to have such support for 5G.

"America is becoming part of one of our important markets, but is also becoming, in my opinion, Serbia's partner and partner of Telekom Srbija in several spheres", he stated.

According to Lucic, Serbia has a great potential regarding artificial intelligence.

"Because Europe is far behind, and Europe made a slight mistake, because it heavily regulated the evelopment of artificial intelligence and Serbia still has quite liberal, so to speak, environment for the development of artificial intelligence", ha said.

Telekom Srbija’s CEO believes that they can be a partner to many American companies and can become a center, not only for he Western Balkans, but also a center in Europe for development.

"And that is our goal, to replicate this successful cooperation we showed with Newsmax, that we can successfully expand one of the largest international news brands outside the Western Balkans, and to somehow replicate that in the domain of artificial intelligence, that is, to be partners with the largest digital platforms that are now investing hundreds of billions in the development of artificial intelligence, and for us to be a partner for Europe, a partner that will implement these solutions in its own company. That is our goal now, that we will be working on in the next few years", he emphasized.

What helps us a lot, Lucic added, is fund for financing startups: "There's a lot of talk about startups in the region, but we are, in fact, the first ones to open a fund for financing startups, and the first ones who own 30 startups, of which at least 10 of them have a chance to be so-called unicorns, to be worth over a billion".

Lucic said there are some interesting startups and mentioned people in Sweden who are developing a robotic arm, that is so sensitive, that it can even pick berries.

"Also guys who are making and trying to implement artificial intelligence, glasses, so that old people will no longer have to wear those glasses for distance or near vision, but artificial intelligence will interpret your vision and change the diopter. So, I must say, you have several fantastic projects, and we own these projects", he added.

Lucic concluded that company for financing startups made a million-dollar profit this year, precisely because the value of our shares in those startups increased.

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