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FORUM OF YOUNG SCIENTISTS OPENED

March 15th

 “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 5th 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.




NIS THEATRE FESTIVAL OPENED

March 12th

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 19th, 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 19th 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.”




EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR IN NIS: WE WANT TO FLY TO HURGHADA FROM NIS

March 8th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Belgrade Mr. Amr Aljowaily, with whom he discussed possibilities for improving cooperation, primarily in the field of tourism and improvement of the tourist offer of Nis. Ambassador Aljowaily and his associates presented to Mayor Bulatovic the experiences Egypt had in modern ways of presenting archaeological sites and possibilities for applying this knowledge in Nis, primarily at the site of Mediana, Fortress and other locations that were interesting to the tourists. Mayor Bulatovic informed the guests about the potentials of Nis in the field of tourism and said that Egypt was an example of how archaeological and historical treasure could be used for the development of tourism and that kind of experience could be useful to be applied in Nis which was one of the oldest cities in this part of Europe, with an impressive historical heritage. Bulatovic emphasized the significance and increasing investments of the state of Serbia in the Nis Airport Constantine the Great which, he said, was “a gate through which an increasing number of foreign tourists were coming to our city.” The talks also highlighted the willingness of Egyptian airline companies to establish routes between Nis and Hurghada, since, as it was jointly assessed, it was big and still unused opportunity to improve economic cooperation between two friendly countries and in particular the possibility for greater number of people from Serbia to visit Egypt, and also for people from the largest country of North Africa to come to Nis and get to know the city and this part of Europe. The official request has already been submitted to the authorities in Belgrade, and the approval of the Directorate for Civil Air Transport and the competent state authorities is expected.




RECEPTION FOR THE AMBASSADOR OF UNITED KINGDOM

March 8th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Serbia, Mr. Denis Keefe, who was on a two-day visit to Nis within the British PopUp Embassy Project organized for the first time in our city. The Mayor thanked the guest from Great Britain for what he said “a wonderful action that our young fellow citizens were involved in. He also took the opportunity to present to the Ambassador Keefe numerous projects that were being implemented in the city, from infrastructure facilities to science and technology systems, whose goal, as the Mayor said, was to create conditions for improving the quality of life and standards of our citizens. Ambassador Keefe conveyed to Mayor Bulatovic his satisfaction with what he saw and experienced during his stay in Nis and said that the possibilities for cooperation in all areas, culture, economy, education and science were great, and that in every sense the United Kingdom supported the reforms in Serbia on its way to the European Union.
“Nis and York in England have been linked since Emperor Constantine the Great, as Constantine had been born in Nis and crowned in York, and in modern times, every citizen of Great Britain can only be grateful to the citizens of Nis for friendship and alliance that dated back to the First World War, as evidenced by the burial ground where the British soldiers and nurse who died in this area were buried. Also the founder of the company Lipton Tea Sir Thomas Lipton was in Serbia in a philanthropic mission and visited Nis, where he was bestowed the title of the honorary citizen, as a recognition and gratitude for transporting medical personnel, medical supplies and humanitarian aid with his ships for the needs of Serbian hospitals during the First World War in 1915. The meeting between the Ambassador and the Mayor was joined by Ms. Lena Jovanovic, a third-grade student of the Grammar School Bora Stankovic from Nis who won the competition and became the Ambassador for a day.




AMBASSADOR OF NORWAY IN NIS

March 7th

Ambassador of Norway to Serbia Mr. Arne Sannes Bjornstad visited Nis and met with Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, and the directors of the cultural Institutions in Nis on the development and promotion of, first of all, cooperation in the field of culture. Mayor Bulatovic presented to Ambassador Bjornstad the conceptual designs for the construction of a multifunctional cultural center. During the discussion between the Mayor and the Ambassador the willingness of both parties to deepen and expand already successful cooperation in many areas was highlighted and Ambassador Bjornstad stressed the readiness of the Norwegian Embassy, ​​and the Norwegian Government in general, to support all initiatives that are aimed at improving relations, both through support and assistance to theater and music ensembles, festivals, art galleries and museum and other cultural institutions to present  themselves to the Norwegian audience, but also willingness to participate in organizing the arrival and presentation of Norwegian cultural workers in Nis. Mayor Bulatovic once again expressed his gratitude to Norway for the generous support it has been providing for many years to our city through different programmes and projects. He also pointed out the fact that numerous Serbian Diaspora lived in Norway which presented another incentive for improving cooperation in all areas. Mayor Bulatovic added that Nis would initiate establishing direct flights from Nis Airport to some destination in Norway. The two officials also discussed the possibility of establishing closer cooperation between Nis and some city of the same size in Norway. The Ambassador proposed Bergen and suggested that City of Nis should convey its interests to that city in establishing closer cooperation.




CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR MULTIFUNCTIONAL CULTURAL CENTER PRESENTED

March 6th

A multifunctional cultural center in Nis will be built on 15,000 square meters, and it will be located at the corner of Nemanjic Boulevard and Blagoje Parovic Street. There are five thousand square meters of exhibition space, an amphitheater with about 1,800 seats, a large parking space, hotel, bars and restaurants envisaged for this cultural center. The contest for the design was launched in the second half of 2018, by the City of Nis Office for Local Economic Development and Projects. 10 proposals were submitted. The expert commission chose the work the architects Aleksandar Slaviković and Dejan Miletic from Belgrade. “The whole object is designed in the form of a cube that would follow the external forms and spaces that can be used during the day and outside the working hours of the building,” said Slaviković. According to him the building is conceived in the spirit of modern design but in accordance with the environment where it will be located. “There is a big gallery space, and amphitheater, cafes, as well as hotel space, where the performers will stay,”Slavikovic said. The chief city planner Nikola Lecić pointed out that the location itself is one of the last unconstructed larger blocks in this area. Within this urban block there will be the future Cultural Center which represents a multipurpose building for the needs of culture and other cultural manifestations. “The second phase is the property ownership preparation of the site that should be owned by the city before obtaining a building permit. We expect that these activities will be completed this year and that next year we will have project which will be ready to compete whether for state funds or other funds. The member of the commission, Goran Vojvodic said that the winning project design stood out not only by the quality of the solution, but also by the way in which the theme was elaborated.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic said that the construction of this multifunctional cultural center was of great importance for the development of Nis. Culture is the first place where the state and its society are viewed, the sense of quality life and a high standard of living are not measured only by the profit, but also by the quality of educational, cultural, and art institutions in the city, with the comprehensiveness of cultural opportunities, “Bulatovic said. He added that many cities in the world built their recognizable image by some famous cultural institution or event. “By building a multi-purpose cultural center, we want to create better conditions for development and encouragement of the cultural and artistic creativity, provide better conditions for accessibility to cultural content, and encourage innovation and creativity,” Bulatovic said. “Thanks to investments Nis is developing economically, all necessary conditions are created for sustainable development and investments in sports, art, culture and all those contents that make the lives of our citizens more complete and more beautiful. In this regard, I am pleased that the City of Nis has started to implement the project of building a multifunctional cultural center and I am really pleased that we as the Office for Local Economic Development and Projects could give our contribution. I am sure that we have succeeded in our intention and that the City of Nis chose a valuable conceptual solution for a multipurpose facility whose construction is expected with great attention, not only because of the prosperity that it will bring in the field of culture, but also because it will give a completely different, urban look to the city area where it will be built”, said Milan Randjelovic, the Head of Nis City Office for Local Economic Development and Projects.




ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESCAPE FROM THE GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMP MARKED

In the former Nazi Concentration Camp Crveni Krst memorial service was held and the flower wreaths were laid paying respects to patriots who lost their lives in the camp or were executed at Bubanj between 1941 and 1944. This day is also the day of remembrance the first organized breakthrough and the escape of detainees from a concentration camp in the territory of Europe in the winter of 1942. Vladimir Jovanovic from the village of Kravlja, one of the rare survivors and a man who was barely seventeen years old when he was detained behind the barbed wire of the camp, ant relocated to infamous Mauthausen spoke about those years on this occasion. Aleksandar Gaun, the deputy president of the Union of Jewish Municipalities of Serbia, spoke about the suffering of the Jews, who, in addition to captured members of the Partisan and Ravnogorski movement, were the most numerous among the inmates, who pointed out that no camp should ever be forgotten or set aside from the historical scene as the eternal warning of the evil that took over Europe, and which, if these memories were not nurtured and remembered, can quickly be revived. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović, reiterated that every February 12th, every year, we gathered together in the place where the most brutal pages of our history had been written, because only so united could we preserve our tradition, our past and our roots. “The winner is the one who is able to love and forgive. Therefore, on behalf of all the victims, we are sending a clear message from the Crveni Krst today that the executionsites must be remembered, but not repeated! They should be kept as a historical warning that the war will destroy a man if a man does not destroy the war! “, said Mayor Bulatovic. Traditionally, on the occasion of marking the anniversary of the camp breakthrough, the march of the scouts along the trails along which the prisoners were escaping was organized.




AMBASSADOR OF ROMANIA VISITED NIS

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of Romania to Belgrade, Oana- Kristina Popa at Nis City House. On this occasion Ambassador Popa told the host that during the presidency of Romania over the European Council it would support Serbia on its European path, and the enlargement would be at the very top of the European agenda. Popa, whose country presides over the Council of the European Union in the first half of this year, said that the European perspective of the Western Balkans in 2018 was reaffirmed, adding that Romania would help candidate countries to advance in European integration.  “Serbia is one of the leading candidates for the EU and plays a key role in the stability of the Western Balkans,” Popa said, who presented the goals of Romania during the presidency of the European Union in a lecture at the EU info corner in Nis. She reiterated that Serbia could count on Romania’s assistance in the accession process and in the reform process, and that Nis, as one of the most important cities in Serbia, can find partners in many cities in Romania, to work more closely on solving issues that are common to cities of this size and degree of development. Mayor Bulatovic presented the potentials of Nis, economic, cultural, scientific and historical, and pointed out that Nis was interested in establishing close ties with the cities in Romania, first of all with those who had experience in the development of modern, advanced technologies, having in mind that there were already several “IT Hubs” in Romania similar to those that Nis wanted to create in the future Scientific and Technology Park and StartUp center at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering. Bulatovic reiterated that Romania and Serbia have been building good neighborly relations for centuries and that city and municipalities with the help of the embassies, have deepened this relationship.




AMBASSADOR OF SOUTH KOREA VISITED NIS

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of South Korea Hyoung-chan CHOE at Nis City Hall. This is the first official visit of the Ambassador to Nis since the beginning of his term of the office in November 2018. On this occasion Mayor Bulatovic presented the economic potentials of this city. Two large companies from South Korea, Yura Corporation and Shinwon, already operate in Nis, so it has been jointly estimated that it is necessary to further improve the cooperation between the city and the management of these companies. Both companies showed great corporate responsibility towards the community providing support to many local projects, cultural events and donating medical equipment to local health care facilities.




NEW YEAR’S GREETINGS BY NIS CITY MAYOR

Dear Fellow citizens,

We are all one big family in front of whom there are the same tasks:  to build better, more successful and happier future in our common home.

 

On the verge of the new 2019, we can confidently tell you: we left most difficult and the worst behind. We have stabilized public finances and set solid foundation for successful, developing and working year of 2019. During the year ahead of us we are going to allocate significant funds to solve the problems which had been burdening our city for the past decades. In 2019 more resources than ever before in the history of the city will be invested in the construction of infrastructure, security and health, in science, education, culture and sports. We will build streets, water supply networks, roads and kindergartens, we will reconstruct schools and we will create more pleasant, more beautiful and more modern Nis.

Dear fellow citizens, every home, every man and every job is equally important to me. And therefore, we are working and we will be working even harder on the revival of the economy, the strengthening of the investment climate, the opening of new jobs and the higher living standard that every our citizen deserves. A year of construction is ahead of us, a year of progress, a year of new jobs, a year of peaceful, pleasant and better quality of life.

My dear fellow citizens, only as a community, gathered and united, with our work, efforts and dedication, we can create good opportunities in the coming year. All my life I have been an optimist and that is how I feel about the years to come. Strengthened by the hope and faith, we can, together, as one large family, go into a safer, more successful and better future. I wish to you health, happiness and success in 2019.