May 09^th

This year, for the fourth time in a row, Nis joined the march of the “Immortal Regiment”. The “Immortal Regiment” is a traditional march, in which the descendants of fighters against fascism march through the streets of cities across Serbia, carry photos of their ancestors and symbolically remind them of the glorious days of the struggle against fascism. The official delegations paid their respects and laid flower wreaths at the monument to Soviet pilots who died in the so-called Nis incident in 1944 at the Memorial Complex of Former Concentration camp Crveni Krst. The procession of the Immortal Regiment went on through city streets to the city center and monument to the liberators of Nis. Respects were paid and the flower wreaths were laid by the official delegations of the City of Nis, Nisava District, Serbian Army and Police Forces. This is the second time that the March of the Immortal Regiment is supported by local self-government. It originally began in 2012 in the Siberian city of Tomsk, but this year, the Immortal Regiment is held in more than 110 countries and 500 cities all over the world. People join the processions holding the portraits of their relatives who fought in World War II, and every year the number of participating cities grows. The history of the Serbian people is closely connected with the history of Russia, as confirmed by this manifestation.

May 09^th

At the invitation of the Mayor of Kosice, Mr. Jaroslav Polacek, the representatives of the City of Nis, participated in a joint meeting of partner twin cities organized in Kosice, from May 5-7.The occasion for this meeting was the celebration of the 650^th anniversary of the awarding of the coat of arms to the city of Kosice, thus making the city the oldest one with the official coat of arms in Europe. The meeting was also the part off the jubilee celebration of the Day of the City of Kosice. The cities of Nis and Kosice signed the Twinning Agreement in 2001. Kosice is the second largest city in Slovakia, the cultural and economic center of the eastern part of the state and the administrative center of the Kosice region. Kosice is known as the Slovak city with the largest old urban city core, and it the first European city to receive its coat of arms (1369). In 2013, the city was proclaimed the European Capital of Culture, and in 2019 it was the first city in Central and Eastern Europe to be declared the European capital of volunteering. In May, the City of Kosice will host the World Ice Hockey Championship. The City of Nis presented itself to the hosts together with the cities of Ostrava – Czech Republic, Abaújszántó, Miskolc and Budapest  – Hungary, Katowice,  Krosno and Rzeszów – Poland, Vysoké Tatry – Slovakia and Uzhgorod – Ukraine.  Marina Kostic, Assistant Mayor, Nikola Lecić, Chief Urban Planner and Stela Jovanovic, expert associate at the Office for Local Economic Development and Projects and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Slovakia in Serbia were the members of Nis City Delegation.This meeting was an opportunity to dicuss with the hosts the future cooperation between the chambers of commerce of two cities, the national theaters and two planning departments, with an open possibility for other forms of cooperation that twin towns can accomplish, considering the possibilities, but above all, friendship for nearly two decades.

May 7^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the President of XINGYU Company Mrs. Xiaoping Zu, the President of the Company, related to the construction of the company’s factory in Nis. Mr. Goran Knezevic, the Minister of Economy, signed the MoU on behalf of the RS Government.   XINGYU is one of the leading manufacturers of LED lighting in the automotive industry with production facilities worldwide, including Germany, Japan and China, with clients such as AUDI, BMW, LANDROVER, PSA , RENAULT, OPEL; Japanese car manufacturers: TOJOTA, NISSAN, HONDA, MAZDA; American car manufacturers: GENERAL MOTORS and FORD and Chinese car manufacturers: CHERY, GAC, FAW-CAR, GLEE. Basic production of the company is located in China. Company plans to relocate part of production to Europe due to the proximity of its customers. The greater part of production for European customers would be realized in Serbia. The company chose to invest in Serbia and selected the Nis, after almost a year of negotiations and decision-making process, taking into consideration the experience of local Nis team in the implementation of the investment projects, the scope and method of implementing them, the location itself.  During this period of negotiations, four visits of various representatives of the company were organized, from October 2018 to May 2019, and a series of activities were undertaken to collect and deliver relevant information to representatives of investors, by the Office for Local Economic Development and Projects in cooperation with Development Agency of Serbia. The company recognized the industrial tradition of Nis, development resources, and human resources, which primarily relies on the capacities of the University of Nis, the logistics position of the city and the connection to the European destinations and the professionalism and commitment of the local team and management to the implementation of a joint project.

April 23^rd

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with Mr. Harry Roberts, an IT expert working for Google, who was in Nis giving the lecture at the IT Conference and Job Fair IT-Connect. During the conversation the Mayor pointed out that the funds that the state allocated for the development of IT sector in Serbia as well as all the activities that City of Nis was doing to assist the development of IT community in Nis. “We have supported the establishment of Start Up Center for the students and young entrepreneurs in IT sector, we are building the extension lamella at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering intended for the R&D laboratory, and we have started the construction works for the Science Technological Park by which the City of Nis was supporting the creation of the innovative ecosystems for the companies who will operate from the STP. Also, this year we will organize the fifth-in –a-row Forum of Advance Technologies in Nis. These are all huge steps for us so that we could catch up with the rest of the world in this sector and even achieve more”, as Mayor Bulatovic said. Mr. Roberts spoke about his experience in working in this sector and his views on IT community in Nis. His guest lecture at IT Conference and Job Fair IT-Connect was the opportunity for developers from Nis t\to learn from one of the best world experts.  The organizers pointed out that the IT – Connect was a growing regional IT community, bringing together more than 10,000 IT professionals from all over the region, with the goal of strengthening this sector and networking companies and professionals. So far, more than 100 IT companies from the region have cooperated with this organization.

April12^th

The City of Nis delegation visited the Rognan –Saltdal in Norway upon the invitation of the officials of Saltdal municipality, with whom City of Nis nurtures twinning relationships since the early 1980s. The delegation consisted of the member of Nis City Council Mrs. Tijana Djordjevic Ilic and the members of the Dance Club Boom 018 from Nis, who took part at the UKM Nordland festival as the part of the cultural exchange programme between two cities.  This visit of Nis City delegation was the opportunity to learn more about  Yugoslav prisoners in Norway during WW2, visit the memorials along the Blood Way Road and pay personal respects to the victims who were laid to their final rest but also learn about the friendship that was then created between the prisoners and the local population. This friendship continued through the cooperation between the municipalities in Norway and municipalities in Serbia. It is important to maintain these connections seeking for new joint content and transferring it to future generations which will ensure the longevity of these contacts.

April 8^th

The International Roma Day was celebrated at Nis City Hall. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović congratulated the members of the Roma national minority and expressed the hope that in the future the Roma population would not be spoken about only in the context of the community facing hardships, but about the community that was progressing and fulfilling all its potentials and needs. The ceremony in the City Hall was organized by non-governmental organizations whose work focuses on achieving the civic needs of the Roma minority. Mr. Osman Balic, the President of the Yurom Center said that the Roma people today were one of the youngest people in Europe who were making the fastest progress in their own development. The Roma population started settling in the 19^th century in Nis region.

April 2^nd

The Ambassador of Slovenia to Serbia, Mr. Iztok Jarc visited Nis and met with Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic at Nis City Hall on the occasion of which the two officials discussed economic, industrial and sports cooperation between the City of Nis and Slovenia. “Slovenia is the country whose trade with Serbia is on average growing by 10 percent every year with a total value of around one billion euros per year,” Ambassador Jarc said, adding that he was especially looking forward to introduction of direct flights between Ljubljana and Nis, which should start from July 1st this year. Slovenia’s investments in Serbia are quite large, so about 25 000 of our citizens are employed in Slovenian companies operating in our country. Mayor Bulatovic emphasized the importance of establishing an airline between Nis and the Slovenian capital, and expressed his belief that this traffic link could contribute to the arrival of a number of Slovenian tourists to these parts, as Belgrade and Novi Sad are visited by about 100,000 Slovenian tourists every year. This year Nis will host one the groups at the European women’s basketball championship, to which Slovenian team belongs, so a lot of tourists are expected. The meeting with the Mayor was followed by the meeting with the representatives of the business and tourist sector from Nis.

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.

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.