The quiet tech powerhouse: how Serbia's IT exports hit record heights

When people picture the world's great technology hubs, their minds usually drift to Silicon Valley or the sprawling campuses of Asia. Yet one of the most remarkable and least talked about success stories has been quietly unfolding much closer to the heart of Europe, in Serbia, where a booming information technology sector has steadily become one of the main engines of the entire national economy.

A record breaking year

According to the available figures, the past year proved to be a genuinely exceptional one for the country's technology industry. Reports indicate that Serbia's exports of information and communication technology services reached a record of roughly 4.55 billion euros in 2025, cementing the sector's place firmly at the very top of the national economy.

What makes this figure even more striking is its sheer scale relative to everything else. As highlighted, this achievement made the technology sector the country's single largest net exporting industry, a remarkable feat for a field that, only a decade or so ago, still occupied a far more modest and understated position.

A tenfold rise in a decade

The sheer speed of this ascent is perhaps its most impressive feature of all. According to the data, the value of these exports has grown roughly tenfold since 2012, a pace of expansion that very few other industries anywhere could realistically hope to match over such a relatively short period of time.

The underlying momentum showed no real sign of slowing in the most recent period either. Reports note that in the first half of 2025 alone, exports of these services reached around 2.21 billion euros, an increase of about 14 percent compared with the very same stretch of the previous year.

A pillar of the economy

Beyond the headline totals, the sector's growing weight within the wider economy has become almost impossible to ignore. As reported, exports of these technology services now amount to just over 5 percent of the country's entire gross domestic product, a share that clearly underlines just how central the industry has become.

Its overall contribution stretches further still when it is measured in a slightly different way. According to the figures, the value added by the sector reached around 8.5 percent of the economy, and observers note that Serbia now boasts the most export-oriented technology industry anywhere in the entire Balkans region.

An army of new professionals

Behind all of these numbers lies a truly profound transformation in the country's own workforce. As reported, employment in the technology sector grew from roughly 30,000 people back in 2014 to nearly 120,000 professionals just a decade later, a staggering increase that has reshaped the entire labour market.

The upward trend has clearly continued in the more recent years as well. According to the data, the number of people employed in the sector climbed to almost 126,000, representing a rise of around 39 percent since 2020 alone, as more and more young people found themselves drawn to the field.

The Balkans' leading tech hub

This potent combination of soaring exports and a rapidly swelling workforce has firmly established the country's position in the region. As observers point out, no other nation in the Balkans has managed to build a technology industry quite so strongly oriented towards selling its services and products to customers abroad.

Several distinct factors have combined together to make all of this possible. According to the analysis, the boom has been driven by a deep pool of local talent, changes in education policy aimed at producing more skilled workers, and deliberate government support for the development of a thriving and dynamic startup ecosystem.

Where the growth is heading

Of course, such rapid success also brings its own particular set of challenges to manage carefully. As some analysts caution, sustaining this remarkable pace will depend on continuing to educate and retain enough skilled workers, while also ensuring that the benefits of the boom are felt widely across the wider economy and not merely within the sector itself.

Looking further ahead, the country appears increasingly keen to move even higher up the value chain. As reported, some of the most explosive growth has been concentrated in advanced areas such as video game development and blockchain technology, suggesting that the ambition is no longer simply to provide services, but increasingly to create and own valuable technology of its own.