A thousand members of the Serbian Ministry of Interior demonstrated training and equipment of the Serbian Police at the celebration of its National Day which was organized in Nis attended by Government of the Republic of Serbia ministers and numerous guests as well as gathered citizens of Nis. First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Mr. Nebojsa Stefanovic, said at the ceremony that in the last three years the crime rate in the country fell by 7%. The guest on this occasion could see the simulation of antiterrorist combat, resolving the hostage crisis and rescuing hostages by special police units backed by helicopters from the air.

The program for Local Economic Development of the City of Nis for 2017 provides for the first time the awards St. Emperor Constantine and St. Empress Helen for most successful companies headquartered in Nis in the year 2016 which are for a reason awarded on this particular date.

The celebration of the city patron saints’ days is an opportunity to recognize the best companies in Ns, which, in various fields, are contributing to its local economic development. Their contribution is the contribution to the positioning of Nis on the business map of Serbia as the regional center and an ideal destination for new investments. Companies, small, medium and large enterprises, as well as a number of entrepreneurs and supporting institutions, through their work contribute to a more positive economic image of the city and reducing of the unemployment.

Those, who are opening new companies and they are growing in numbers, are the sign that there are new business ideas and plans for the development of existing ones.
Institutions in the education system are working closely with business community and the local self-government is doing everything to support and further develop establish synergy of all stakeholders in the important process of local economic development. Among the many winners in several categories, there are companies like Philip Morris, Aster Textiles, Johnson Electric, Benetton and Leoni, while among awarded local companies, there are  construction company Put Inzenjering, Bakery Brankovic and meat industry Biftek. The association of businessmen Naisus was awarded to as well as Faculty of Mechanical Engineering for outstanding contribution to local economic development. The beginners in business are companies Federman, Mildeks and Anakvadrat doo Nis.

Today 124 918^th passenger has landed at Nis Airport Constantine the Great and in this way, after only five months, the Nis Airport achieved a record number of passengers, higher than during the whole of 2016, which was otherwise the most successful so far. The honorary passenger was Vanesa from Germany who flew to Nis to visit her best friend. She was greeted at the airport by Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and the airport general manger Vladica Djurdjanović who presented to her a symbolic gift to mark this day and her stay in Nis.

On this occasion, the Mayor said that he was glad that the Nis airport was put into operation and that it was operating at full capacity. He added that the works on reconstruction of the terminal were nearing their completion.

Article No 52 of the Law on Public Enterprises (Official Gazette of RS, No 15/2016) provides that the Acting General Manager may be appointed to the moment of the appointment of the General Manager of a public company after a public competition for a period not longer than one year. Given the fact that the acting general managers at PUC City Heating Plant and PUC Gorica completed their term of office, and that according to the Law on Public Enterprises, the same person cannot be appointed twice as the general manager, Committee for the Appointment of Nis City Assembly, acting in accordance with the law and Statute of the City of Nis, will propose to the members of the Nis City Assembly to decide on the appointment of the new acting general managers of the two companies.

Acting general manager must meet the requirements for appointment of public company general managers referred to in Article 25 of this Law and shall have all the rights, duties and powers that of a public company general manager. The City Council cannot speculate who will be appointed as the new acting general managers given that their appointment is not within the competence of the City Council but of the Nis City Assembly Committee for the appointment.

The City of Nis marked the 208^th anniversary of the Battle on the Hill of Cegar. At the Skull Tower chapel the clergy of Nis Eparchy served the memorial liturgy for the heroes who died in the battle. The wreaths were laid at the memorial complex above the city by the representatives of the City of Nis, the RS Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, City Municipality Pantelej, Serbian Army, Serbian Police.

The major battle between Serb rebels and Turks took place more than two centuries. The leader of the Serbian army was the Duke Stevan Sindjelic, while the Turkish army was led by Khurshid Pasha. Around 40,000 Turks were stationed in Nis Fortress, while outnumbered Serbian Army had 18,000 fighters. When numerous Turkish troops penetrated into the moat, the Duke Stevan Sindjelic fired a pistol in a warehouse of gunpowder. All the Serbian soldiers and about 12,000 Turks were killed.

Nis City Council Member Jelena Mitrovski met with the team that has been working on the preparation of the documentary dedicated to the “Hippie Valley” in Nis. The producer of the film is Mr. Oliver Paunovic, General Manager of the Nis City Marketing Center and the film director is Mr. Bobi Rajkovic.

“I have no doubt that the city needs the film” memory “of this street. I heard from my friends who are older than me about this street and their stories were always interesting. I hope that while preparing this documentary we will meet many more people who “grew up” in this street and thus witnessed some more carefree times as some would say@, as Paunovic said at the reception at Nis City Hall.

Nis was the only city in the former Yugoslavia which had a unique place where the young used to hang out in the evenings, the famous Hippie Valley, which was known about from Vardar to Triglav. Back in the seventies Vladimir Nazor Street was for everyone Hippie Valley. The tourists who visited Nis at those times were confused by the number of young people strolling every night or just hanging out.

The script for the film was written by famous Nis actor and playwright Miriljub Riki Nedovic while the moderators in the film and the contemporaries of Hippie Valley are Bane Miljkovic, former most famous DJ in the city and Dragan Arandjelovic Ara, who launched the campaign that special Board would be placed in Vladmira Nazora Street as a reminder that once it was the Hippie Valley.

On the occasion of March 24^th, the day when the NATO bombing started in 1999, the memorial service was held and the flower wreaths were laid for the victims of the aggression. The memorial service was held by Nis Eparchy priests. On the behalf of the City of Nis the wreaths were laid by the President of the Nis City Assembly Mr. Rade Rajkovic and Deputy Mayor Prof. Dr. Milos Bandjur.

In the memory of the victims of NATO bombing two monuments were erected. The memorial chapel in the park between the Fortress and the University building was built by the city government, while the monument across the street was built the Yugoslav Army.
During the three months of bombing, air-raid sirens sounded in Nis for 129 times. The city was under the air strikes for 52 days, 5 hours and 14 minutes.  56 citizens of Nis were killed, more than 200 were injured, 120 houses were demolished and more than 3 000 buildings damaged.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic attended in Niska Banja signing of the contract between the RS Ministry of Economy and the Company Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI), for the construction of the factory in Nis. The contract on grants, which would facilitate the opening of the factory that would employ 1,250 workers, was signed by Minister of Economy of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Goran Knezevic and IMI CEO Mr. Gilles Bernard.

PM Aleksandar Vucic said, in a speech after signing, that Nis was becoming the center of Southeast Europe and that he was proud of it, adding that republic of Serbia Government largely contributed to that fact. He said to IMI representatives that he was looking forward to 1,250 employees.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović thanked the Prime Minister for the efforts that Government made to make Nis again the economic center of this part of Serbia and expressed his belief that this was a step toward a better life for the citizens of this part of Serbia.

“We do not bring just the money. We bring new technology and new values. We have long-term plans. We plan to employ more than 1,200 people who will be the part of a community which has 17,000 workers” as the CEO of Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. said at the signing ceremony.

After the completion of the competition and nine-month training, with the consent of the Government of Serbia, 86 train drivers were hired. There are 3 women among those 86 newly hired locomotive operators and 10 out of 86 are from Nis. They will be employed by the company “Kargo Srbija”, developed in the context of the reform of the railway sector, which was in charge of repairing the diesel locomotives at the locomotive depot in Nis. The RS Vice-president Mrs. Zorana Mihajlovic said that additional 40 train drivers would be employed the following year and that there would be vacancies at Railway Serbia for other professions as well.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and Rs Minister of Youth and Sports Vanja Udovicic attended the ceremony on the occasion University of Nis Students’ Day. Their message to the students on this day was to continue to learn and achieve good results because the young were the most valuable segment of society and the only guarantee of good future.

Since 2014, the Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia has awarded 8601 to the high school pupils and students to study at home and abroad. More than 20 different agreements have been signed with companies and institutions in the country, and 950 scholars have participated in training programs and workshops organized by the Fund. In the last two years the number of scholarship for studies in Serbia was increased from 1 000 to 1 250, as well as the amount of scholarships.