Digital economy at Balkan Summit 2026: services, talent and a new accelerator
Banks, regulators and the companies already exporting services from the three markets on what it takes to scale.
Digital services had two sessions on Tuesday 20 October, one on the economy as a whole and one on the companies building it.
Session 6, “Scaling the Digital Economy: IT-Enabled Services, BPO & the Innovation Ecosystem”, met in the Beethoven Hall at 11:15. On the panel were Shkumbin Saneja, Cyber Security Advisor at Kosovo's Ministry of Digitalization and Public Administration; Fatos Krasniqi, Executive Director of PriBank; Suat Bakkal, Executive Director of BKT Kosovo; and Iskender Cem Leblebici, Partner and Head of International Projects at Sistem Global Consultancy. Rinor Musliu of the EBRD's telecommunications, media and technology team moderated.
The afternoon's Thematic Panel 7, on the innovation ecosystem, put four operators on stage, moderated by Shpend Lila, Manager of the Innovation Center Kosovo.
Uranik Begu, Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe at Plug and Play Tech Center, spoke about the region's talent abroad as an asset still waiting to be used, and said Plug and Play will open an accelerator programme.
Vigan Disha, Chief Business Officer of SPEEEX, described a company founded in 2016 that now employs about 2,000 people, and the language skills that make the region competitive in services exports.
Florensa Haxhi, Executive Director of Durana Tech Park in Tirana, said the park hosts 88 companies, 52% of them international, and 30 startups.
Zgjim Kolgeci, Managing Partner at Aralytiks, said the firm started in 2019 with three people and now has more than 60 engineers.
The point they made between them: services, BPO and software already export from the three markets, and the next step is capital and scale.
Digital services matchmaking ran at 13:30 in the Meeting & Networking Hall.
Balkan Summit 2026 took place in Prishtina from 18 to 21 October 2026, at the Emerald Hotel.