November 7^th

Turkish Cargo is the first company to transport goods regularly from Nis Airport to Istanbul and today, for the first time in the history of Nis Airport Constantine the Great, one of the largest planes Air Bus 330 landed. Turkish Cargo will fly on the Istanbul-Nis-Istanbul line every Monday, and the plan is to achieve the turnover of goods of 4 000 tons in the first phase. According to people from the Turkish airline, this will be significant, not only for businessmen from southeastern Serbia, but also for Bulgaria and Macedonia, as no cargo traffic is available at their airports. Therefore, Nis has great potential to become the center of cargo traffic for this part of the Balkans. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic pointed out that the establishment of a cargo line with the Turkish capital was important for strengthening the economic relations of the two nations and stressed that there was much talk about the arrival of new investors from Turkey to Nis. Turkish Ambassador to Serbia Mehmet Kemal Bozaj said that the establishment of this cooperation was the result of very good relations in the sphere of traffic between Serbia and Turkey. He said that he expected the potential of the Nis Airport to increase in the coming period and that he believed that the number of freight flights would increase, and hence the quantity of goods transported. Turkish Cargo has more than 330 aircrafts in its fleet. Each is up to 7 years old so that the fleet of the Turkish airline is the youngest fleet in Europe. Currently, they fly to 293 destinations in 117 countries of the world.

November 4^th, 2016
The Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic met today with the President of the Association of European Cities of Culture (AVEC), with the Deputy Mayor of the French City of Arles – Mr. Christian Mourisard.

This meeting, according to the Chairman Rajković, represents the succession of a long-term cooperation between the City of Nis and the City of Arles, as well as a good opportunity to exchange experiences in the field of preservation and presentation of cultural and historical heritage. This issue in the City of Nis will be approached with great care, taking into account the potential of the overall economic development. This is primarily related to a better tourism offer towards a growing number of foreign visitors, who will have a chance to see and learn a lot about the history and culture of this region in the City of Nis.

In addition, the current city authorities will particularly insist on having the best professionals from cultural institutions work on such tourist offers, whose continuity of work will not depend on periodic changes in the local self-government, stated Mr. Rajković.

Furthermore, the A.V.E.C network (Alliance de Villes Européennes de Culture) was established in 1997 as a European network of historical cities and districts with the common goal of establishing a European region based on a respect for the culture including both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, which stands for the identity of cities and regions.

November 4^th

The City of Nis, in partnership with the Nis Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Faculty of Electronic Engineering of the University of Nis, the National Employment Service Branch of Nis and the Advanced Technologies Cluster NiCat will organize the Second Advanced Technology Forum on November 15^th and 16^th in the renovated premises of the Officers’ Mess Building. According to the Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, the goal of the forum was to present the economic, scientific and educational potentials of Nis in the field of advanced technologies. A team of 25 representatives of the city, city institutions, economy, education and science, as well as the non-governmental sector are working on the realization of this year’s forum. The two-day forum will also include expert panels, an exhibition of economic, scientific and educational and institutional potentials of the city, a specialized trade fair and professional orientation, the exhibition “Nis-the City of Electronics through Time”, as well as a number of other accompanying activities in the field of advanced technologies. At today’s press conference in the City Hall, the Mayor invited local companies from the world of electronics, mechanical engineering, ICT to present their products and segments of work, educational institutions to demonstrate what makes us competitive on the market in the field of education, when the advanced technologies in question.

November 4^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met today at the Nis City House with His Excellency Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Serbia Tomas Njegodjis. At the reception, two officials discussed the cooperation in the field of economy, culture and education. The mayor and ambassador agreed that it was necessary to renew the ties between the Serbian and Polish people who had excellent cooperation in the past, and agreed that the economic forum would be organized in the coming period, with interested investors from Poland participating. The idea is to show them the potentials of southeastern Serbia in order to take concrete steps towards establishing economic cooperation. The Polish ambassador also announced intensification of cooperation on the cultural plan, but also in the field of education with the goal of connecting the University of Nis with universities in Poland.

November 3^rd

Nis City Council Member for Sports Branisla Kacar met today at Nis City Hall with Teodora Ristic, young tennis player from Nis, who won International Tournament for the players up to 18 years of age held in Budapest. Mr. Kacar congratulated Teodora on the won title and and emphasized that the City, in accordance with its possibilities, would provide support to all young and talented athletes to properly represent Nis. Teodora is a member of Tennis Academy Zivkovic, which has produced many talented athletes and traditionally brings high-quality tennis players to Nis within international futures tournament.

November 2^nd

A public debate on the Draft Law on the National DNA Registry was held at the Police Headquarters in Nis. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic welcomed forensic experts and representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and emphasized the importance of creating a national DNA register, in order to better resolve the cases in which the using the DNA method is crucial. The public hearing will last until November 10, and the suggestions are expected from the professional public. The use of the DNA method in finding criminals is present in the world for almost 30 years.

November 1^st, 2016

The City of Nis has hosted a two-day seminar designed for new councilors of local self-governments of the cities and the municipalities from throughout Serbia. The seminar, which will be held today and tomorrow in the Officers House, has been organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

The Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic, delivering a welcoming speech, expressed his satisfaction regarding the fact that the City of Nis would host such a meeting. He recalled that all the authorities in the city were constituted within the legal deadline, and that the permanent working bodies were formed so as to reflect the councilor composition of the City Assembly.

Speaking about the efficiency and transparency of the City assembly mandate, the Chairman stressed out the upcoming activities related to the establishment of E-government, to the improvement of the communication by electronic means, as well as the introduction of electronic registration and voting, which will contribute to the work efficiency of city councilors. Likewise, a practice of good public relations with the media and citizens will be continued and improved, which will make the work of Nis City assembly transparent, whereas the citizens will be timely and accurately informed on everything.

The Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic, has pointed out that this seminar represents the technical support to the representatives of local self-governments and extra motivation to constantly improve the system within they work.

November 1^st

Ryanair will be flying to one more destinations from Nis Airport from today, i.e., Milan Bergamo. The passengers from Nis in the future will be able to fly on Tuesdays and Saturdays to the central part of the Italian province of Lombardy and, possibly, through this very frequent airport to continue to European destinations. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic welcomed the crew of a plane from Milan and announced the city’s investments in the infrastructure of the Nis airport and the renovation of the airport building. 140 passengers boarded the plane from Nis to Milan.

October 31^st

The Irish company Ryanair introduced another flight from Nis Airport Constantine the Great to Bratislava. The arrival of the first aircraft from the Slovak capital was attended by Her Excellency Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Serbia Dagmar Repcekova, RS Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications in the Government of Serbia Rasim Ljajić and Nis City Mayor Darko Darko Bulatović. The Mayor said that this is the eighth flight from Nis, out of the planned 9, and that the Nis airport was developing in the exactly the same way as Nis citizens wanted for more than 30 years. He thanked for the support of the Government of Serbia which significantly helped the airport to develop at full capacity. The Ambassador of Slovakia expressed her great satisfaction that the efforts to revitalize the line to the capital of Slovakia resulted positively and expressed the hope that this would only be the beginning of good cooperation between the two countries in many fields. Ministar Rasim Ljajic stressed that the development of the airport in Nis was of exceptional importance for all Serbia. He especially emphasized that he expected more tourists from Slovakia because he was not satisfied with the number of Slovaks who were currently visiting our country. He also emphasized that the establishment of the regular route Nis-Bratislava meant improving the bilateral relations of the two countries, especially in the field of economy. Since the beginning of the year, 81 100 passengers passed through the Nis Airport, and by the end of the year, with flights to 9 different destinations, the expected number of passengers is 120 000.

October 31^st

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic visited today the French Institute in Nis where he was introduced to the activities of the Institute, which were aimed at presenting contemporary French creativity and language promotion. This Institute in Nis was opened in 2003 and it is one of the three branches of the central Institute headquartered in Belgrade. The institute is a showcase of contemporary French creativity – it organizes various cultural events. Then, it strenghtens the position of the French language and offers French language courses for children and adults. The task of the Institute is to direct to the the French university and scientific circles, and in this sense each year donates about 40 scholarships to Serbian students.