October 16

Within the European Local Democracy Week (ELDW) the City of Nis Office of the Mayor organized the visit of the members of Pupils’ Parliament and senior classes of the Primary School Njegos to the City Hall. The pupils met with Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of City of Nis management, to hear personally from the Mayor what his job looked like, how the decisions were made and to ask him specific questions. The students were most interested in what the Mayor could do for citizens, for schools, but also how the local leaders could contribute to a better quality of life in Niš. Also, the pupils the elementary school Njegos had suggestions for concrete activities for the Mayor, such as the construction of new swimming pools, the opening of the zoo, the expansion of the capacity of the city  Stadium, but also the increase of salaries, better equipping of schools and provision of digital textbooks for all pupils. The European Local Democracy Week (ELDW) is a pan-European event which aims at boosting local democracy and citizen participation. It is an initiative coordinated by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. Local authorities from all the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe, and their associations are invited to register and organize public events to promote and foster democratic participation at grassroots level. It  is  fundamental  for  an  established  and  functioning  local democracy  to  promote  education  for  democratic  citizenship  among young people and children. Moreover,  by   engaging  children  and  youth,  local  authorities  will understand  better  their  needs  and  will  be  able  to  develop  more targeted responses for and with the younger generation, thus building a  more inclusive  democratic  local  community.

October 16

The City of Nis won Open Data Publisher Award. This award went to the city as a champion in data opening as well as for outstanding achievements in the area of ​​their publication. The award was presented to the representatives of the city by Mihajlo Jovanovic, the Director of the Office for Information Technology and Electronic Governance of the Government of the Republic of Serbia at the International Smart Cities Festival 2019 held on October 15 at the Bel Expo Center in Belgrade. The City of Nis has been promoted as an example of good practice in the region, which should be followed by other cities and municipalities, as this is a process that is one of the basic prerequisites for creating smart cities. This year’s festival focused on smart decision-making and the use of information technologies and publicly accessible databases in the process of strategic thinking, planning and decision-making, all with the aim of promoting humane, innovative and sustainable urban development as a continuous process for the benefit of the citizens, businesses and local communities. As the largest regional event dedicated to urban transformation, it was attended by more than 500 participants from four continents, 20 different countries and 100 cities with more than 30 world-recognized speakers and government representatives from Germany, Denmark, Finland, Austria, countries in the region and Serbia as well as business representatives, investors, entrepreneurs, but also all those for whom sustainable urban development is a continuous process of great benefit for citizens, businesses and local communities. The festival was organized by the Friedrich Neumann Foundation, Serbian Chamber of Commerce,   Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, the City of Belgrade, Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the organization Palgo Smart, with help of the RS Office of Information Technology and Electronic Administration, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Government, the Office of the United Nations Development Program and others.