Central Asia and Europe have agreed to cooperate in the application of AI for the environment

For four weeks, from the end of May until yesterday, the internet served as a platform for dialogue between Europe and Asia on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in addressing issues related to climate change on our planet.

A series of online seminars under the umbrella title "Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies in Environmental and Sustainable Development" was aimed at representatives of business, government, scientific and educational institutions in Central Asia and was supported by representatives of private business and development institutions from Serbia, Slovenia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Already at the first event, which served as a kind of "opening ceremony" for the series, a principled agreement was reached on cooperation on the "green agenda" in the use of AI technologies between the Bishkek Institute of Technological and Environmental Management in Central Asia (INSTEM) and the Institute of Artificial Intelligence in Novi Sad (Serbia).

The practical solutions to environmental problems presented at subsequent seminars by VODENA, DunavNET and TREESURY (Serbia) and GreenMesh (Slovenia) illustrated possible ways and approaches to addressing issues of environmental monitoring, water and energy conservation, and reducing the carbon footprint of human activities in both large cities and rural areas. All seminar participants, including experts from Central Asian countries, agreed that the untapped potential of AI could be used to improve the urban environment in Tashkent, Bishkek, Almaty, Dushanbe and other large and small settlements in our region.

The events were organised by the Voivodina Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and the consulting company Go Big (Serbia), INSTEM, GreenMesh, and the Central Asian Artificial Intelligence Association (AICA, Tashkent).

Summing up the results of the four meetings, Mr Darko Savic, CCI Vojvodina's advisor on international economic relations, interregional cooperation and project activities, expressed his confidence that the meetings held by the parties not only strengthen the chamber's reputation as a reliable partner for dialogue between Serbia, the Balkans and the Danube regions of Europe and Central Asian countries as a whole, but also open the way for further scientific, technical, educational and business cooperation between all interested parties.