An EU candidate country since 2012, Serbia is an important partner in the Western Balkans. The 2020 iteration of the Digital Evolution Scorecard
characterised Serbia as a ‘break out’ economy,
meaning that despite a relative lack of digital infrastructure the country is rapidly digitalising; internet penetration is one of the highest across the region,
standing at 79%. Over the past decade, Serbia’s digital policy has been focused on attracting foreign investment, deepening the digital transformation across the public and private sectors, and promoting economic growth in line with EU targets. These objectives have been operationalised through a series of strategies, notably the
Strategy for the Development of Information Security for the period 2017-2020 and the
Strategy for combat against cyber crime 2019-2023. The ITU
notes, however, that “while innovative, internet-based e-commerce is expected to bring significant growth and development, obsolete legislation and a lack of harmonisation with EU standards and best practice persist, hampering progress”. As the country becomes increasingly more digitalised, the challenge for Serbian cyber diplomacy will be to develop and enhance avenues of European, regional, and international cooperation.
According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as of 2021, Peru had an
internet penetration rate of around 71.1 %. However other
indexes place this number in the mid 60’s. Although many improvements were made in the past few years, Peru still possesses low network coverage, especially in rural areas and a relatively low network performance.
The government of Peru has been implementing initiatives to increase connectivity in rural areas, including a
national broadband plan and a program to deploy free Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces, with a year-on-year increase of almost 100 %.
Peru ranked 86 out of 182 countries
surveyed in the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index in 2020.
Over the past decade, Australia has been a frontrunner in terms of digital transformation; the country ranked 11
th globally on the
2020 Global Connectivity Index and 2
nd in the Indo-Pacific. Australia’s
better-than-expected economic performance in 2021 was largely owed to increased government efforts at promoting the digitalisation of businesses and government services, with significant investment being poured into the ICT sector under the
Digital Economy Strategy and the
Regional Connectivity Program. Meanwhile, however, self-reported losses from cybercrime amounted to more than $33 billion during the 2020-2021 financial year (
E), while roughly a quarter of cyber incidents reported during the same period involved Australia’s critical infrastructure or essential services (
E). In the cyber diplomacy realm, Australia has traditionally been a prominent member of the ‘like-minded’ group, promoting a vision of a free, open, and secure cyberspace that is very much in line with EU values and efforts.