Digital nomads can significantly contribute to Montenegro through increasing economic growth, creating new jobs, improving IT infrastructure, creating a new generation of digital skills, revitalizing urban and rural areas, as well as creating new opportunities for investments.
This was the opinion of the tourist blogger from the Philippines Ketch Medina Hou, who has been living the life of a digital nomad since 2013.
She brought the world of digital nomads closer to the participants of the workshop entitled "Montenegro - Destination for digital nomads", what it looks like when the whole world is your office, as well as how adapted Montenegro is for the stay and work of digital nomads.
Keč says that she visited Montenegro and Herceg Novi for the first time in November 2017. Then a year later, for the third meeting to be decisive - after visiting 146 countries and seven years of traveling around the world, she decided to settle down, to make Montenegro her permanent destination, and Herceg Novi the place from where she would organize her business. And, as she said, she was not wrong because Montenegro turned out to be the right choice and the ideal base for digital nomads.
"Montenegro has great predispositions to be the choice of digital nomads such as - relatively low cost of living, fast and cheap internet, beautiful nature, low crime rate, favorable tax rates for residents and business owners," said the blogger who is the director of Two Monkeys. Tours & Immigration Services LLC, ambassador of Digital Nomad Nations, as well as founder of Montenegro Digital Nomads and Remote Workers Groupe.
However, if Montenegro wants to become a globally attractive seaside location, Keč believes, and to successfully respond to challenges, this primarily relates to the introduction of visas for digital nomads that would allow them to stay in the country for a year.
"Competition is great and countries all over the world are competing to start introducing these visas as soon as possible, in order to seize a part of the new, fast-growing market. The digital era has brought a large number of benefits when it comes to working from home, and the situation caused by the coronavirus has further accentuated this type of business. According to some estimates, there were almost five million digital nomads in the world before the pandemic. Now there are four times as many, and research predicts that by 2035, one billion people will be working 'remotely,'" said the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IPC) Technopolis, which organized a meeting with a Filipino blogger who has been successfully promoting Montenegro for years.
The workshop was attended by a large number of participants, including representatives of the Ministry of Public Administration, digital society and media, the Municipality of Nikšić, the NGO sector, coworkers, owners of coworking spaces in Montenegro, as well as regional partners, IPC Tehnopolis.
"The event was a great introduction to the Cross-border coworking conference, which will be held at the beginning of October in Budva, and which will bring together regional coworking managers, coworkers, digital nomads, freelancers, regional and global experts, but also relevant organizations and institutions that jointly they can improve the business environment of the cross-border area", announced Technopolis.
The workshop was organized within the project called "2CODE", which is co-financed by the EU through the cross-border cooperation program of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. Technopolis is implementing the project with partners from Zadar, Mostar and Tuzla.
Digital nomads are people for whom there are no borders, who perform work in a country other than their country of residence, and use digital technologies and the possibility of working remotely.
The Government of Montenegro has recognized this trend and is currently preparing a program to attract digital nomads in the hope that Montenegro will become a globally attractive destination for them, which will greatly contribute to the further development of tourism, the IT sector, as well as the overall increase in economic activity in our country.
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