Emerging Europe, intelligence and networking platform that translates the region to the world and the world to the region, has announced the names of the 120 companies, organisations and individuals who have been nominated for its 2019 awards. The City of Nis has been nominated for Emerging Europe Award in the category of City FDI Promotion Strategy of the Year. This category assessed strategy of city/municipal investment promotion departments or agencies (in this case City of Nis Office for Local Economic Development and Projects)  in 2018 evaluating their creativity, effectiveness and success. City of Nis will be competing for this prestigious award with the cities of Debrecen in Hungary, Galati in Romania, Klaipeda in Lithuania, and the cities of Krakow, Lodz, Poznań, Wroclaw and Sosnowiec in Poland. This is another confirmation that the team of professionals working on attracting foreign direct investments performs their work in the best possible way, with the strong support of city leadership, but also that this teamwork and dedicated work is recognized not only in Serbia, but in Europe as well.  The winners of the awards will be announced at a special ceremony to be held as part of the Emerging Europe Leaders’ Meeting and Awards, which takes place on June 27-28 in London at the headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

June 28

The visit of the Bavarian business delegation to Nis was organized by Bavaria’s state ministry for the economy and the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The delegation was comprised of the representatives of 10 companies from different fields, together with the representatives of the Bavarian Ministry Mr. Martin Grossman and Ms. Ursula Heinzel, whose mission of the visit to Serbia was getting to know the potentials for Serbia’s cooperation with this German province, which was considered to be among the richest and most developed region of Europe. This was also the main topic of the discussion of the guests from Bavaria with the Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović and Assistant Mayor Milos Milosevic, the Head of the City of Nis Office for Local Economic Development and Projects Milan Randjelovic, the director of the Nis Regional Chamber of Commerce Aleksandar Milicevic and the Head of the Association of Businessmen Naissus Dragan Milosevic who presented all the potentials and advantages of this part of our country. Mayor Bulatovic pointed out that, that due to the support of the Government and President Vucic, Nis was developing faster than all other parts of Serbia, and that the fact that Nis was industrial, technological, transport, scientific-educational, as well as the cultural and sports center of this part of our country made it attractive partner for cooperation. “Only the fact that direct flights from Nis  to seven different destinations in Germany provides unprecedented opportunities for increasing the volume of cooperation, both in the economy, as well as in tourism, culture, higher education and all other important segments of life,” Bulatovic said. The Head of the Bavarian delegation Mr. Martin Grossman said that he was impressed by what he saw and heard about Nis and its surroundings, where there were already several large German companies, and that this visit would certainly result in further linking and getting to know future partners because, as he said, the first step must always be getting to know potential partners and gaining confidence, which would, of course, lead to an increase in trade, economic, and any other cooperation between Bavaria and the South of Serbia.

June 26

The beginning of the International Exercise on Disaster Consequence Management Serbia 2019 was marked at the Serbian Russian Humanitarian Center in Nis.  The exercise is jointly organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, with the participation of about 700 representatives of rescue units from Serbia, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Hungary, Turkey, Cuba and the Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Center. In the next three days, they will demonstrate their training and equipment for disaster response and disaster consequence management in several locations in Nis and the surrounding area. The ceremony of the beginning of the exercise was attended by the Deputy Minister of Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Russia Alexander Chuprian and State Secretary of the Serbian Ministry of Interior Milosav Milickovic who pointed out the importance of prevention, joint exercises and training, bearing in mind the changing weather conditions, climate change, and challenges we were facing which did not distinguish the state and administrative boundaries. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and his deputy Milos Bandjur, as well as a large number of high officials of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Emergency Situation Sector, the Gendarmerie, and the Mountain Rescue Service, the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations and specialized units from Serbia attended the opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony, the demonstration exercise of the members of the Emergency Situations Department of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia was shown, and the following days of the specialized team would demonstrate their skills and training at several locations in Nis and the surrounding area.

June 17

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, the Member of Nis City Council for Sports Branislav Kacar and Director of Nis Tourism Organisation Uros Parlic greeted the participants of the Basketball March in front of Nis City Hall. Thus the counting down of the last 10 days before the beginning of Women’s EuroBasket 2019 started. On this occasion the Mayor pointed out that Nis was ready for the tournament and that it would be the best possible host to the national teams of

Hungary, Turkey, Italy and Slovenia which would be playing their matches in Sports Hall Cair. The girls, the participants of the Basketball March, presented the official ball of the championship to the Mayor and then went on, followed by the drums, to march through main city streets drawing attention of the public to the start of the Women’s EuroBasket Championship in Serbia and Nis in 10 days. The matches will be played in Nis, Zrenjanin and Riga (Latvia) while the final match will be played in Belgrade.

June 17

The Sixth International Festival of Choir Spiritual Music “Edict of Music” began at Saint Sava’s Hall. The festival was opened by Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović, who welcomed the guests, and the audience was addressed by the Bishop of Nis Arsenije.  “Looking back we can see that the need of a man to address the God in hymns is as old as his need for the prayer. By harmonious ordering of words and melodic chanting and music, mankind sought its path to the Lord from the moment in which the man felt the need to pray”, said Bishop of Nis Arsenije. “Here we are for the sixth time, I would say with the higher artistic and every other level, at the Edict of Music Festival, the pride of our city. Thank you all for everything you do and contribute to the cultural life of our city”, said Mayor Bulatovic. At the Sixth International Festival of Choral Spiritual Music “Edict of Music” 19 choirs from 11 countries from three continents are participating, and this time guests came from North and South America. These days about 500 singers from all over the world will sing in Nis.

June 7

The 50^th anniversary of the Serbian-Norwegian Association was marked in Nis. The ceremony was attended by Ms. Marina Kostic, the Assistant Mayor, who welcomed the guests on the behalf of Nis City. The president of this association Zoran Petrovic spoke about the great friendship of two nations. The aim of the Serbian – Norwegian Association is to spread friendship between the two nations that dates back to World War II, when thousands of Serbs were in Nazi concentration camps in Norway, where they encountered enormous friendship and support from the Norwegian people. The association also engages in the presentation of Serbian culture, tradition and history in Norway, organizing contacts between Serbian and Norwegian families and mutual acceptance, organizing study visits of pupils and students in both directions, organizing business contacts between Serbian and Norwegian businessmen and contacts of Norwegian municipalities with municipalities in Serbia.

June 5

The International Scientific Symposium “Nis and Byzantium” was held at the University of Nis within the scope of celebration traditional city festivities dedicated to the city patrons Saint Emperor Constantine and Empress Helen. The conference was attended by well-known Byzantium researchers from Serbia and the countries of Europe. 41 participants from Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Republika Srpska and Serbia took part with in the work of the conference. Nis City Assistant Mayor Ms. Marina Kostic met at Nis City Hall at farewell reception with the participants of this scientific symposium, which became a brand and a recognizable sign of Nis. “The participants in the symposiums Nis and Byzantium for 18 years has studied and pointed out the importance of Nis as the city for the modern European civilization. This year the conference was dedicated to the 800 years since the Autocephaly of the Serbian Church (1219-2019): Church, Politics and Art in Byzantium and Neighboring Countries.

June 4

Huawei Company representatives visited Nis and met and discussed the cooperation on the project Nis – Smart City with Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović and his associates, as well as with the representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications. At the working meeting at Nis City Hall Huawei’s delegation presented the potentials and capabilities of this technology giant, which had already been implemented in a number of cities, and whose functioning greatly enhanced the functionality of these cities and had a particularly positive impact on the quality of life of residents. This is primarily reflected in the reduction of traffic and communal problems, which again leads to a reduction in pollution, energy efficiency, and savings in electricity and ultimately in saving money needed for the functioning of the most important city systems. The Mayor expressed great satisfaction with the speed of implementation of the agreed because, as he said, barely over a month passed since the visit of Serbian national state delegation to China and the exchange visits of the City of Nis delegation and Huawei Company delegation already happened. “This tells us about the importance of this project, but also about our desire to include Nis as one of the world’s major cities in which the Smart City system is already functioning and delivering excellent results, primarily for the benefit of the citizens,” Bulatovic said. Milan Dobrijevic from the Ministry of Telecommunications said that it was important to define the priorities and dynamics of the project implementation, and as soon as possible to determine the systems where the smart technology would be implemented first. “At this moment, there are a range of 15 offered opportunities and the expert teams of the Ministry, the City of Nis and Huawei will define the first three whose implementation will be foreseen in the first phase, and that will be those systems that are most visible and beneficial for citizens, “said Dobrivić. The Mayor also walked with the guests from China to the central Nis streets, presented the history and culture, and invited them to be guests of our city, but at the time of the summer festivals, in order to meet Nis at its best.