Darja Softić Kadenić, Minister of Justice and Administration of Sarajevo Canton and a legal expert in e-government, visited Vienna on 14 and 15 September 2026 as a speaker and panellist at the ECC Digital Humanism conference. In addition to attending the conference, she took part in a professional exchange with an expert from Urban Innovation Vienna (UIV), gaining insights into Vienna's digital agenda.
Darja Softić Kadenić has served as Minister of Justice and Administration of Sarajevo Canton since 2021. A university professor of civil law, she has a long record of academic research on public administration reform and digital governance. In her ministerial role, she has led the further development of e-government in the Canton of Sarajevo, particularly in the areas of digital public services, more efficient administrative procedures, electronic identification and interoperability.
On the second day of the ECC Digital Humanism conference, Minister Softić Kadenić presented the Canton of Sarajevo's perspective on the digitalisation of public institutions. She described people-centred digitalisation as a historic opportunity to modernise public administration and later joined a panel discussion on digitalisation and public services.
Digital humanism and smart urban development
Having already discussed the Vienna Digital Agenda with Barbara Novak, Vienna's Deputy Mayor and Executive City Councillor, during her visit to Sarajevo in April, the Minister used her visit to Vienna to learn about specific examples first-hand.
The meeting with Urban Innovation Vienna (UIV) began with an introduction to the organisation's areas of expertise. The subsequent discussion covered digital administration, e-government services, transparency and citizen-centred public services, with reference to the Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna and the City of Vienna’s Digital Agenda 2030.
The participants discussed the Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna as an umbrella project linking open data, dynamic data, participation and co-creation, as well as human rights and artificial intelligence. They emphasised that people-centred values should always remain at the heart of technological development.
As part of the Digital Agenda 2030, an UIV expert shared Vienna's best practices and insights with the Minister. For example, in the area of digital citizen services, several projects aim to make as many services as possible available via shared websites with a single login. The discussion then turned to the City of Vienna's AI Compass. Minister Softić Kadenić showed great interest in both the documents and the regulatory frameworks. She also expressed keen interest in a future-proof infrastructure for digitalisation. The fundamentals of efficient data management and the design of an open data ecosystem were also discussed in this context.
Further information
- Structure and perspective for sustainable development - Urban Innovation Vienna
- Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna - City of Vienna
- Digital Agenda 2030 - City of Vienna
- Life sciences and start-ups: Deputy Mayor Barbara Novak in Sarajevo (German)
- ECC - Digital Humanism and Digital Ethics in practice