14 May 2025
Dr Zlatibor Lončar, Minister of Health in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, met today with Yakup Beris, UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Serbia and his team. They have jointly concluded that the cooperation so far has been extremely successful and constructive, especially in the areas of building capacity for the implementation of microbiological surveillance and digital health solutions.
-I am very grateful for everything we have done together so far in the interest and for the benefit of all citizens of Serbia, and I refer especially to the improvement of working conditions in the microbiological laboratories of the public health institutes in Belgrade, Niš and Kragujevac. Projects like this one, with investment worth 12 million euros, as well as updating the Disaster Risk Register, but also the promotion and upgrading the-eHealth, represent a good example of working together to achieve the common goal we strive for, which is better healthcare, available to every citizen, Minister Lončar highlighted.
-With the support of the European Union, the UNDP and the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health in increasing the public health protection and the health system’s resilience to crises. We are working together on the reconstruction of buildings and the construction of biosafety laboratories at the public health institutes in Belgrade, Kragujevac and Niš. We have completed the upgrade of the Disaster Risk Register, as a key digital tool that enables the analysis of the population and infrastructure's vulnerability and exposure to natural and health risks, and are also working on establishing a common electronic citizen health record. I would like to highlight the cooperation we have already established with the "Dr Milan Jovanović Batut" Institute of Public Health in building the capacity of healthcare professionals to recognise the risk of firearm misuse, said on this occasion Yakup Beris, UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Serbia.
The two interlocutors have agreed that there is still plenty of room for expanding cooperation, especially in areas such as mental health, using geothermal sources as an energy solution for healthcare facilities, but also through the procurement of medicines.
