December 16^th

The public debate was held on the financing of sports programs in local self-government units attended by RS Sports Minister Vanja Udovicic and Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic. “Serbian top athletes began their sporting career in small clubs, school halls or open terrain in local self-government units. Today, these sports clubs are facing a problem that is reflected in the lack of financial resources, reliable work and development, on the one hand, and the lack of, or inadequate sports infrastructure, on the other. Local level sports organizations have limited resources, and often have a very narrow base for income, so that their sustainable funding is a functional priority, “said Mayor Bulatovic in his introduction speech to the debate  adding that the City of Nis, given the new law on sports and rules on club financing, decided to fund clubs through projects. This means sports clubs are assisted through the financing of their projects which are evaluated by Commission for Sports formed by the City of Nis comprised of renowned, winner of sports prizes, professors, selectors of national teams or, in a word, representatives of all relevant sports factors in the city, who therefore have a high level of expertise and objectivity in assessing submitted projects.

December 15^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and the representative of the Siemens Company Udo Eichlinger signed the Agreement on business-technical cooperation between the city and this company. “Bearing in mind the goals of the City of Nis and our concept of strategically developing Nis in the field of technical infrastructure, energy sustainability and transport, and being aware of the fact that Siemens is recognizable on the world market for the reliability and quality of its products and services in the fields of energy, transport and information technologies that are integrated so as to enable the sustainable development of larger cities, while respecting our mutual desire to cooperate in areas of common importance, today we signed the Agreement on business and technical cooperation. I expect this cooperation to be beneficial to the success and sustainable urban development of our city. I believe that we will make reasonable efforts together to expand and improve cooperation on the application of innovative technological solutions,” said Mayor Bulatovic.

December 12^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met today with H.E. US Ambassador to Serbia, Kyle Randolph Scott, and discussed the improvement of cooperation between the City of Nis and US representatives in our country. At the meeting it was pointed out that, in the past period, the cooperation was at an exceptional level and that more than one billion US dollars were invested in Nis that many programs, financially supported by the Embassy, were realized, but it was also pointed out that there was certainly a place for improvement of cooperation. Mayor Bulatovic said that, as a local community, the City of Nis was very interested in the realization of the American investment Novi Nis, for which the foundation stone was laid in April this year, that there was excellent cooperation with the company Philip Morris, but that as a city we wanted more US investments in Nis. Ambassador Scott said that he would do everything in his power to co-operate with the center of South East Serbia, and Nis, in all fields.

December 9^th

Up to 20 children from Nis schools will take part in the competition Serbia in the Rhythm of Europe that will be organized next year. The meeting was held with the school directors at the City Hall in order to get acquainted with the competition rules and audition for the selection of the most talented children to represent Nis. According to the organizers, the auditions will be organized early next year, and immediately thereafter free training for the selected children. Nis City Council Member for Education Bojan Krstic said that our city had many talented children, that the selection of the best would not be an easy job, and expressed the hope that those children representing the Nis would master the tasks. “Given that Nis was selected to represent Turkey, I am sure this will be an easy task, because in our language there are many Turkish words. Also, we owe the Turkish ambassador’s gratitude for recommending our city to the organizers. Relations between Nis and Turkey’s representatives in Serbia have always been excellent and this is an ideal opportunity to connect culturally”, said Krstic.

December 9^th

In the presence of Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and a large number of guests Special School Bubanj celebrated its day at the Nis City Hall. After screening a shorter film about the history of this school, the students had the opportunity to present some of the activities that were being realized in this school, such as a fashion magazine of t-shirts, made in the school, as well as the musical program that they prepared together with their teachers. Mayor Bulatovic, on this occasion, thanked the teachers in this school for everything they were doing for their students: “I am convinced that the teaching staff and all the employees of the Special School Bubanj are investing great love and understanding, unlimited patience, professional initiative, skill and talent, so that children could gain confidence in their abilities, built themselves as personalities, master knowledge and skills and satisfy the basic human need for self-realization.” He added that the local self-government is proud of what the Bubanj Special School was doing. “I am sure that each of us, whether he was different or not, should enjoy full and quality living in conditions that ensure dignity, promote self-confidence and facilitate active participation in the community. Our goal is to provide conditions for this, and I believe that, despite the difficulties, we will show that we are a society in which the equality of all citizens is guaranteed, “the Mayor said.

December 8^th, 2016
Anti-corruption dialogue “The fight against corruption at the local level” organized by the Local anticorruption forum, has been held at the City Assembly; this has been a closing dialogue of such kind for this year, prepared by this autonomous and independent city body.

The immediate reason for presenting the dialogue on the aforementioned topic is a current development of the Local Action Plan Model for the fight against corruption, the Anti-Corruption Agency is responsible for, in cooperation with the local self-governments and other stakeholders. On the basis of this model, all local self-governments in Serbia in 2017 should make and adopt their local action plans of this kind. It is expected that the Local Action Plan Model should also offer the model of local anti-corruption bodies primarily responsible for its implementation.

Anti-corruption dialogue is one of the measures within the Local plan for the fight against corruption of the City of Nis, which was adopted by the City Assembly in July 2011.

At the Anti-corruption dialogue event, the citizens talked with the Mayor of the City of Niš, Mr. Darko Bulatovic, with the Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic, with the Deputy Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Mr. Vladimir Joksimovic, with the Director of the Bureau for Social Research, Mr.  Zoran Gavrilovic, and with the coordinator of the Local anticorruption forum, Mrs. Zorica Miladinovic.

December 7^th

On the basis of the Nis City Council Decision of 29/11/2016 the Council for Human and Minority Rights was constituted today. Ferhad Saiti was elected as the president at the first session of this council, which was attended by Nis City Council Member for Social Care Issues Mrs. Tijana Djordjevic Ilic. The new Council intends to continue with the work started in the previous period with the task of providing recommendations and advisory assistance to the executive authority – the Nis City Council. At the constituent session, new members of this Council, who mainly come from the ranks of national minorities and organizations fighting for human rights protection, were also presented as well as the procedures for submitting proposals as well as the plan and program of work for 2017.

December 6^th

The IT sector is the most promising industrial branch in our country, not only for the owners of IT companies but also for the employees. The City of Nis is aware of the fact that proper investment in advanced technologies at all levels is the only real chance for the recovery of our economy and we believe that it is more than necessary to implement this field at all levels of economy, state administration and local self-government and education, said Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic at today’s press conference held at the Nis City Hall. He pointed out that this was actually the main message sent from the recently held Advanced Technology Forum. At the press conference, the results from the Second Advanced Technology Forum were summed up and the conclusions reached by the organizing committee of this Forum were summarized. One of the conclusions is that we are lacking IT experts and that our primary task is to improve non-formal education for working in the field of ICT and other close branches, both through training and re-training programs, as well as through funding training at ICT academies, said the Mayor. He added that the City of Nis would try to promote the idea of education and science in the function of economic development in the following period, which would, as he pointed out, be supported from the highest state level. “The Serbian Government gives full support to the development of the IT sector and encourages domestic ICT companies that are export oriented, in order to create the best possible conditions for forming domestic innovative companies,” the Mayor said. Dragan Jankovic, the Dean of the Faculty of Electronic Engineering pointed out that the idea for organizing the Forum was in fact created by young people in order to find ways and measures to keep them in Nis and Serbia. “The Advanced Technologies Forum is not a matter of a faculty, an educational institution, a mayor or any individual, it is the forum of all Nis. This uniqueness of all actors who participated in the organization brought us results”, said Dean Jankovic.

December 2^nd

In celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the session of the Council for Persons with Disabilities of the City of Nis, attended by Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic was held today at Nis City Hall. On this occasion, Mayor Bulatovic thanked all the people with disabilities for providing tremendous contributions and advice to local self-government in order to solve common problems in the best possible way. “I am not saying everything goes smoothly, without problems, quite the contrary. But with enough understanding, dedication and with the desire to move forward, we overcome the obstacles we encounter”, the Mayor said. Today is the opportunity is to promote understanding of the problem of disability and to once again demonstrate how important tolerance, mutual respect and cooperation are, but also the availability of institutions in order to include people with disabilities more in the social and economic life of our city,” he added. “We are doing everything in our power to improve and help greater involvement in all aspects of life. Unfortunately, there are still many barriers that we face as a society. People with disabilities continue to face unequal opportunities in terms of education, employment, and many institutions remain physically inaccessible. The rate of employment of people with disabilities is extremely low, despite the implementation of the Law on Employment of Persons with Disabilities. These are just some of the problems, “said Mayor Bulatovic. ”Ever-present problems must not remain invisible so that you would not feel invisible in your community, and I believe that this happens often to you. My associates and I will try, together with you, to solve problems one by one, that equal opportunities that are guaranteed to you become truly equal, and above all, we will strive to respect your right to diversity”, concluded Mayor Bulatovic.

December 1^st

The European Delegation in Serbia presented a valuable gift to the University Library “Nikola Tesla” of 50 books of professional literature dealing with legal and scientific developments related to the functioning of the European Union. The donation was handed over to the Director of the Library, Zoran Zivkovic, by Michael Devenport, the Head of the European delegation in Serbia. This library, based on its literary and scientific material, is an important place for science and education in Nis and throughout southeastern Serbia. Nis City Deputy Mayor Prof.dr Milos Bandjur, also attended the ceremony, and on this occasion he emphasized the importance of this kind of literature, which would easily find its way to professors and students interested in studying the policy of the European Union, but also to all those of our fellow citizens who wanted to be informed about the European Union. It is very important that the academic community in Nis continues to cooperate with the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia in order to realize the foreign policy priority of our country, which implies future membership in the European Union.