November 14^th

The flower wreaths were laid at the Military Cemetery in Nis on the occasion of the Day of Armistice in the First World War, and the rector of Prizren’s Theology School Milutin Timotijevic previously held memorial service for the dead soldiers and victims of war. The day of the truce in World War I and the capitulation of Germany is marked in Serbia since 2012 as a national holiday. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was an armistice during the First World War between the Allies and Germany – also known as the Armistice of Compiegne after the location in which it was signed – and the agreement that ended the fighting on the Western Front. It went into effect at 11 a.m. Paris time on 11 November 1918 (“the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”), and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender.

November 14^th

The traditional award Stevan Sremac for best literary work in prose, awarded by the City of Nis, was given to writer Ljubica Arsic from Belgrade for the novel “Door of the Paradise”. The work “Door of the Paradise” is in the opinion of the jury chaired by the writer and literary critic Vasa Pavkovic, our best prose work in 2015.  The award-winning novel, also stated in the explanation of the jury, in a lucid, female delicate manner, represented an elapsed time from the perspective of a quieter, everyday life. Receiving a prize at a ceremony held in Nis City Hall, Ljubica Arsic said that Sremac was always a welcome cousin who could not be forgotten. The award Stevan Sremac was awarded by the City of Nis and the Nis Cultural Center for the 13^th time, and the award was presented to the writer by Nis City Council Member Jelena Mitrovski Mitrovski. Ljubica Arsic, the professor of Serbian language and literature at Music School Mokranjac has written than 10 books, stories and novels. She was awarded six times for her works, and for the novel “Door of the Paradise” she was shortlisted for the prestigious Award of the NIN Magazine for 2015.

November 10^th

The Olympic Committee of Serbia and Zaječarska Brewery decided to donate Sports Shooting Club Nis 1881, which is one of the most successful Nis sports clubs. On behalf of the club, the donation was received by a well-known representative in shooting and a winner of numerous medals at World, European and Balkan competitions, Lidija Mihajlović. She thanked the donor and the Olympic Committee of Serbia for assessing that this money would be used best by the Nis shooting club and added that it would be used for the purchase of electronic targets. Thus the quality of training will be improved. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic said that it was very important that there were socially responsible companies that, with their donations, help not only sports clubs, but also the City of Nis. He added that the Shooting Club Nis 1881, for more than 100 years of existence, successfully represented Nis at the most prestigious European and world competitions. “Our celebrated representative in shooting gun rifle and the winner of many European, world and Balkan medals, Olympic Games participant, Lidija Mihajlovic is the ambassador of sports not only of our city, but also of Serbia. In one word, her results, but also the results achieved by other competitors of this club, have attracted and attract a great number of young people to train this sport”, said the Mayor, adding that the local self-government, in turn, will try to help secure quality training conditions as this is a prerequisite for achieving good results.

November 9^th

A public debate on the draft amendment to the highest act of the City of Nis –its Bylaw was held in the big hall of the Assembly of the City of Nis. The main reason for the amendment of the Statute of the City of Nis is harmonization with the current legislation, since the Statute was adopted in 2008 and in the meantime a number of laws were adopted at the republic level, which had to be adapted to the Statute. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic believes that the proposed amendments to the Statute will improve the functioning of the local self-government. There will be one administration which will replace 11 that existed so far to whose work was often complained. The Mayor believes that in this way the city’s governance will be more efficient and that these improvements in the work will be felt by the citizens. The proposed amendments to the Statute also provide for the granting of greater competencies to city municipalities. Amendments to the Statute are expected to be adopted at the next session of the City Parliament.

November 9^th

The delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden, which financed, with a million euros, the development of the Feasibility Study for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant visted Nis. According to Johannes Oljelund, Director-General for International Development Cooperation, the Swedish delegation is extremely pleased with the work that has been done so far. The construction of a wastewater treatment plant is the largest project in Serbia in the field of environmental protection and will cost € 56 million. The money will be provided from pre-accession funds of the European Union. The completion of plant will increase the capacity of Serbia to purify waste water by 50%. More than 20,000 tons of sludge from Nisava will be removed every year, and it is planned to revitalize and build more than 35 kilometers of sewerage network. At today’s meeting, the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the City of Nis and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection was announced and the Ministry will donate to the City a million Euros for the complete project-technical documentation for the tender.

November 7^th

Turkish Cargo is the first company to transport goods regularly from Nis Airport to Istanbul and today, for the first time in the history of Nis Airport Constantine the Great, one of the largest planes Air Bus 330 landed. Turkish Cargo will fly on the Istanbul-Nis-Istanbul line every Monday, and the plan is to achieve the turnover of goods of 4 000 tons in the first phase. According to people from the Turkish airline, this will be significant, not only for businessmen from southeastern Serbia, but also for Bulgaria and Macedonia, as no cargo traffic is available at their airports. Therefore, Nis has great potential to become the center of cargo traffic for this part of the Balkans. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic pointed out that the establishment of a cargo line with the Turkish capital was important for strengthening the economic relations of the two nations and stressed that there was much talk about the arrival of new investors from Turkey to Nis. Turkish Ambassador to Serbia Mehmet Kemal Bozaj said that the establishment of this cooperation was the result of very good relations in the sphere of traffic between Serbia and Turkey. He said that he expected the potential of the Nis Airport to increase in the coming period and that he believed that the number of freight flights would increase, and hence the quantity of goods transported. Turkish Cargo has more than 330 aircrafts in its fleet. Each is up to 7 years old so that the fleet of the Turkish airline is the youngest fleet in Europe. Currently, they fly to 293 destinations in 117 countries of the world.

November 4^th, 2016
The Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic met today with the President of the Association of European Cities of Culture (AVEC), with the Deputy Mayor of the French City of Arles – Mr. Christian Mourisard.

This meeting, according to the Chairman Rajković, represents the succession of a long-term cooperation between the City of Nis and the City of Arles, as well as a good opportunity to exchange experiences in the field of preservation and presentation of cultural and historical heritage. This issue in the City of Nis will be approached with great care, taking into account the potential of the overall economic development. This is primarily related to a better tourism offer towards a growing number of foreign visitors, who will have a chance to see and learn a lot about the history and culture of this region in the City of Nis.

In addition, the current city authorities will particularly insist on having the best professionals from cultural institutions work on such tourist offers, whose continuity of work will not depend on periodic changes in the local self-government, stated Mr. Rajković.

Furthermore, the A.V.E.C network (Alliance de Villes Européennes de Culture) was established in 1997 as a European network of historical cities and districts with the common goal of establishing a European region based on a respect for the culture including both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, which stands for the identity of cities and regions.

November 4^th

The City of Nis, in partnership with the Nis Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Faculty of Electronic Engineering of the University of Nis, the National Employment Service Branch of Nis and the Advanced Technologies Cluster NiCat will organize the Second Advanced Technology Forum on November 15^th and 16^th in the renovated premises of the Officers’ Mess Building. According to the Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, the goal of the forum was to present the economic, scientific and educational potentials of Nis in the field of advanced technologies. A team of 25 representatives of the city, city institutions, economy, education and science, as well as the non-governmental sector are working on the realization of this year’s forum. The two-day forum will also include expert panels, an exhibition of economic, scientific and educational and institutional potentials of the city, a specialized trade fair and professional orientation, the exhibition “Nis-the City of Electronics through Time”, as well as a number of other accompanying activities in the field of advanced technologies. At today’s press conference in the City Hall, the Mayor invited local companies from the world of electronics, mechanical engineering, ICT to present their products and segments of work, educational institutions to demonstrate what makes us competitive on the market in the field of education, when the advanced technologies in question.

November 4^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met today at the Nis City House with His Excellency Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Serbia Tomas Njegodjis. At the reception, two officials discussed the cooperation in the field of economy, culture and education. The mayor and ambassador agreed that it was necessary to renew the ties between the Serbian and Polish people who had excellent cooperation in the past, and agreed that the economic forum would be organized in the coming period, with interested investors from Poland participating. The idea is to show them the potentials of southeastern Serbia in order to take concrete steps towards establishing economic cooperation. The Polish ambassador also announced intensification of cooperation on the cultural plan, but also in the field of education with the goal of connecting the University of Nis with universities in Poland.

November 3^rd

Nis City Council Member for Sports Branisla Kacar met today at Nis City Hall with Teodora Ristic, young tennis player from Nis, who won International Tournament for the players up to 18 years of age held in Budapest. Mr. Kacar congratulated Teodora on the won title and and emphasized that the City, in accordance with its possibilities, would provide support to all young and talented athletes to properly represent Nis. Teodora is a member of Tennis Academy Zivkovic, which has produced many talented athletes and traditionally brings high-quality tennis players to Nis within international futures tournament.