March 29^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic announced that the Serbian government adopted the decision of establishing routes of public interest in air traffic, based on which, from  July 1^st this year and until June 30^th  2023, the flights would be established to 12 cities in Western Europe. There will be flights to Nuremberg, Hannover, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Friedrichshafen in Germany, Gothenburg in Sweden, Bologna and Rome in Italy, Salzburg in Austria, Budapest in Hungary and Ljubljana in Slovenia twice a week and to Tivat in Montenegro three times a week, but only during the summer season from May to October. “This is the confirmation that Nis is among the priorities of the state. This is the result of almost everyday contacts with the President Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic. This is the result of countless conversations and meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic and her team, and therefore I can proudly say that Nis officially has become a regional air traffic center, “said Mayor Bulatovic. He stressed that the economy, in which the state and the city invested, would gain a new impetus, it would facilitate investors coming to Nis and their meetings with local partners and it would facilitate access to the markets in Western Europe. “Of course, this is also important for the development of tourism, and certainly for our diaspora, because the destinations have been defined according to the actual needs, but there was not enough commercial justification for their launch, without the help of the state,” stressed Mayor Bulatovic. “This puts stop to all stories and malicious comments on closing the airport. “As we have agreed with Minister Mihajlovic, the headquarters of the company Airports of Serbia would be in Nis. All this, clearly show to the citizens of Nis and the southeast of Serbia that the opposite claims were clearly extremely malicious, inaccurate and directed against the development of not only the airport, “Mayor Bulatovic said at the press conference.

March 26^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to Serbia, His Excellency Mr. Kun Adam and talked about the possibilities for improving cooperation in areas of culture, language, education and economy. “We have almost the same opinion on all these topics, which is that the potentials for progress that are there should be used,” Mayor Bulatovic said after the meeting. Ambassador Kun Adam said that he was in Nis for the first time and that this city was very interesting for potential Belgium investors. He said that efforts should be made in this direction, to bring more Belgium investors to the region of Nis. First steps were done at the presentation of the support programs and subsidies provided to Belgian companies operating in our country organized by the Development Agency of Serbia, the Office for Economics and Trade of the Embassy of Belgium in Serbia and the Belgian-Serbian Business Association when the Office for Local Economic Development and Projects of the City of Nis, as an example of good practice in attracting foreign direct investments, presented its work and showed why Nis was declared the champion of local economic development and the winner of the prestigious Financial Times award.

March 24^th

The commemoration was held and the respects were paid at memorial monuments dedicated to the victims of the NATO aggression which began exactly 20 years ago. A number of delegations from the army, police, districts, local self-government and city municipalities, as well as the families of those killed during the NATO aggression and the associations for fostering the tradition of the liberation wars of Serbia, laid flower wreaths paying their respect. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic addressed the audience on the behalf of the City of Nis evoking recollection of the days of the Serbian sufferings during the aggression  and said that the victims should never be forgotten, and then he paraphrased the words of the Serbian anthem which mentioned the ship and he said that this ship must in the future sail over peaceful sea and that today Serbia had friends in the world and that the state leadership with all its forces stood for the peace and prosperity of our country. The 20^th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia which lasted for 11 weeks and, unofficially, left some 2,500 civilians and 1,000 soldiers and police officers dead, was marked by commemoration all over the country. The bombing lasted for 78 days, significantly damaging the infrastructure, commercial property, healthcare facilities and media and military buildings.

March 20^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic spoke today with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Ms. Mariana Nikolova. The topic of the meeting was creating conditions for the improvement of, first of all, economic cooperation, but also the possibilities for establishing closer links in science, education and culture. The companies Nis Brewery and Trace, owned by Bulgarian companies, have been prominent and have been working successfully for many years, as well as numerous firms with developed businesses in the neighboring country. Mayor Bulatovic presented to the Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria the infrastructure projects that were being implemented in this area, highlighting the completion of the highway and electrification of the Nis-Dimitrovgrad railway line which was of importance to both countries. “I am proud that more and more tourists from neighboring Bulgaria are coming to Nis each year and I would like to extend this successful cooperation in tourism to all other fields, primarily through the cooperation of small and medium-sized enterprises that are currently the most important, “said the Mayor of Nis. The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister stressed her readiness to organize, perhaps in Nis, a Serbian-Bulgarian Business Forum that would bring together businessmen and economists from two countries and represent the opportunity for new business operations and the arrival of new investors. The meeting was also attended by the Ambassador of Bulgaria in Belgrade Mr. Radko Vlajkov, the director of Regional Chamber of Commerce Nis Mr. Aleksandar Milicevic as well as a number of businessmen from this area who have long-term business cooperation with Bulgarian companies.

MAYOR BULATOVIC: WE ARE CONTINUING WITH THE BIGGEST PROJECT IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL SECTOR IN THIS PART OF EUROPE
March 19th

The Governing Board of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Ambassador of Sweden Mr. Jan Lundin visited Nis and met with the Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and the representatives of the City of Nis Office for Local Economic Development and Projects to discuss sustainable urban development. Nis is the first city in Serbia that the Sida Board visited, as Sweden is supporting the preparations of building a wastewater treatment plant in the Nis. The Swedish support to Serbia, including the development cooperation, is based on Serbia´s commitment to the EU integration process. The Swedish Government is evaluating the results of the current cooperation strategy and assessing further support to Serbia after 2020. Today the development program is 11 million euro per year and covers the areas of democracy and rule of law, economic integration and environment and climate. “Sweden and Serbia have a long history of cooperation, including development cooperation. The Board wants to know more about priorities for cooperation today – and in the future. In Nis we have a good example of cooperation. Together with the Ministry of Environment, the City of Nis and the EU we join forces to build a waste water treatment plant. Sustainable urban development is necessary to secure the health of citizens, the rivers, air and soil and economic development. The project in Nis includes close cooperation between the Ministry of Environment, local authorities and representatives in the City of Nis within the Swedish PEID project (Priority Environmental Infrastructure for Development). The PEID project will support the preparation of the conceptual design and the tender documents for the waste water treatment plant and collectors. Under the IPA2018 programme, the EU has planned to fund the construction of the Nis waste water treatment plant for approximately 43 million euro” as Ms. Yvonne Gustafsson, the Chair of Board, said. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic expressed his great gratitude to the Swedish Development Agency for donations and great work on this, for the City of Nis, an extremely important project. “I would like to thank Ambassador Lundin and the representatives of the Swedish Agency for many meetings and discussions we have had related to the project and expressed sincere desire that it really succeeded. We are close to the final stage of the project. The City of Nis has fulfilled all obligations to this day, as well as the project team, and we expect that everything will continue according to the agreed dynamic plan, to the satisfaction of all of us, because together we are implementing the largest ecological project in this part of Europe, “said the Mayor of Nis. With the waste water treatment in Nis, it is estimated that Nisava River will be cleaner for 11.000 tons of sludge and solid waste annually which will give better health for all citizens and reduced risks of diseases.

100 DAYS BEFORE THE START OF WOMEN EUROPEAN BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
March 19th
The 2019 European Women Basketball Championship, commonly called EuroBasket Women 2019 will be the 37th edition of the continental tournament in women’s basketball, sanctioned by the FIBA Europe. The tournament will be co-held in Serbia and Latvia from 27 June to 7 July 2019. By symbolic countdown the official promotion of the European Championship for women in basketball started. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović pressed the button marking the beginning of the countdown to EuroBasket Women 2019 which would start in Nis for exactly 100 days. “By symbolically starting these watches, we remind ourselves and the citizens that we have begun counting for the last 100 days until EuroBasket Women 2019. I would like to cordially welcome all the guests to the imperial Nis, and for our basketball players I wish great matches, victories and winning of gold! “as Nis City Mayor said.

March 18th

The students from the Business School from the German city of Pforzheim are the guests of Nis Secondary Law and Business School. The reception was organized at Nis City Hall for professors and students, and the delegation was received by the member of Nis City Council Ms. Jelena Mitrovski. They did not know much about Nis and Serbia before they arrived here, and they were pleasantly surprised with what they saw and experienced here. “The city is beautiful, you have wonderful monuments, we have learned something about your history and culture. People are friendly and hospitable, and food is great, “said students from Germany. Both the hosts and the guests from Germany attend the business schools, so they also work on common business ideas on a daily basis. This visit is a continuation of an international project that began ten years ago with the goal of exchanging experiences in education, improving English and learning about two cultures and customs.

March 15^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and the Mayor of Cuprija Mr. Ninoslav Eric signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on the project “Effective and Effective Property Management in Nis and Cuprija through the Introduction of the Geographic Information System”. The goal of the project is to create conditions for improving the management of property through the inventory and legalization of public property in Nis and Cuprija and increase the transparency of the work of the public administration by the introduction and development of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the creation of an application for GIS. In this way public administration will be closer to the citizens and the business community. “Implementation of the project in Nis and Cuprija will create unique database of integrated records for all property, together with applications for all aspects and processes of asset management. In practice, this means that, by realizing this project, we will have systematized complete data on the property of the City of Nis, both land and other immovable property, so that citizens, potential investors and all interested parties will have access to these data without waiting in line ” as it was said by Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic after the signing of the MoU.  He emphasized that the use of this property management model owned by Nis and Cuprija meant strengthening administrative capacities and more efficient asset management, increasing revenues, better control of costs, better risk management and adequate asset maintenance. The president of the Municipality of Cuprija Ninoslav Eric pointed out that this was very important project and that he was looking forward to implementing it with the City of Nis. “The experience Nis has in the property inventory is very important for us, since we are at the beginning. I expect that, after realization of the planned project activities, there will be a reduction in costs and an increase in revenues from property owned by our local self-government, “said Eric. “Nis and Cuprija have a large number of different real estate but without precise and legally relevant data. Bearing in mind that effective public asset management imposes itself as the priority requirement in the process of development and modernization, the Office for Local Economic Development Projects, together with its partner, jointly developed a project proposal to solve identical problems”, said Project Manager Ana Radovanovic from the Office for Local Economic Development and Projects. She added that Nis and Cuprija intend to provide rational use and management of property in accordance with the Law on Public Property and the Law on Planning and Construction and put the property in the function of investing and increasing the revenues of local self-government. The project is also of multiple importances both for potential investors who will be able to obtain easier and faster information on targeted locations, as well as for citizens who, as end-users, need a reliable, responsible and open administration. Improving the management of public assets and finances creates the possibility for savings in the budget as well as conditions for sustainable local economic development. The project is financed by EU (IPA 2014) through the Exchange5 Program – EU support to local governments in the field of asset management. The program is implemented by the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government in cooperation with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) as the implementing partner of the program and the Ministry of Finance (the Sector for Contracting and Financing Programs from EU funds) as the Contracting Authority in the program.

March 15^th

 “The young are the future of Serbia and Nis, and I would say the present as well, and that is why the City will invest the most that it can in your education, development and finally, into employment. Because of you we are building a Scientific Technology Park, a new building of the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, and we are investing serious funds in secondary and primary schools, because you are the most important resource for this city and this country”, said Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic on the occasion of opening the 5^th Forum of Young Scientists at the University of Nis. More than five hundred of the most successful, most talented and educated young people from almost all of Serbia gathered on this occasion at University of Nis. The Fifth Forum was organized by the Organization Find Raul together with the Youth Office of the City of Nis. This year the partner of the event was the Embassy of Kazakhstan, which under the slogan Support the Future helped Nis to be the capital of science today. The main theme of the Forum this year was young talents and role models for young people.

March 12^th

The first theater festival entitled “Theater at the Crossroads” began last night at the National Theater in Nis. “Theater at the Crossroads” is a competitive festival of drama and the theater of the Balkan cultural space organized by the Nis National Theater. By March 19^th, eight contestants and one guest performance from Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia will be shown. In addition to eight competition performances from the country and the region and performances in honor of the winners, whose premiere performances were played during the preceding calendar year a number of accompanying programmes would be organized: a round table of critics, a panel “Theater at the Crossroads”, as well as the promotion of books and theater journals. The festival will include prizes for: best performance, directing, four acting awards, costume design and stage design, for original stage music, for stage movement, and special festival award. Until March 19^th Nis will be, in the true sense of the word, the theater capital of culture that will gather actors, directors, journalists, critics from the Balkans. “As the only theater festival that, in one place, wants to gather the theater art of the Balkan cultural space the festival aims to affirm the similarities and differences of the cultural identity of the states and peoples sharing the same space strengthening international cultural exchange, the promotion of theater arts and creators, the exchange of ideas and theatrical practices, and it is dedicated to the challenges and perspectives of contemporary theater“ as Spasoje Z. Milovanovic, the director of Nis National Theatre, said. “All this would not be possible if it were not for the citizens of Nis who had this need for such important cultural content and such a significant festival”, said Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, who added that “this festival was significant for the wider Balkan cultural space. It is so important for us as well, for the people of Nis, who have the opportunity to show their creative and artistic work and achievements, and to show our hospitality. I would like to warmly welcome all the people, guests, actors, directors who came to our city.”