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.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic together with the Vice President of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic and Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali met with Huawei’s management. After the meeting, Bulatovic expressed satisfaction with the fact that the City of Nis was covered by the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Government of Serbia and Huawei on the development of smart cities. “It was generally agreed that Nis would be the first local self-government in Serbia in which a smart city project should be implemented. In this sense, we will select three utility service companies from the seven tested in the coming period, which will be covered by the pilot project. The smart city project in the future will significantly ease the daily life of the citizens of Nis, “Mayor Bulatovic said. Huawei Vice President Li Jian pointed out that a delegation of the company would visit Nis in the next four weeks to discuss on the ground what communal services would be most suitable for the implementation of the smart city project. He added that Nis could be a good example of developing the smart city concept not only in Serbia, but also in Europe.

April 24^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic is the official member of Serbian national delegation at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation which is being held in Beijing. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the One Belt One Road or the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road is a Chinese Government development strategy involving infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries and international organisations in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Since the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Serbia in 2016, bilateral cooperation in various fields has been advancing steadily. A Serbian delegation headed by President Aleksandar Vucic signed several bilateral agreements on the first day of a visit to Beijing on Wednesday. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic attended the signing of the MoU between Republic of Serbia Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Mr. Rasim Ljajic and telecoms giant Huawei for the Smart Cities project for the cities of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis.The purpose of this document is to develop the strategy of smart cities through the positioning of Huawei as a strategic partner for cities and local governments in Nis, Belgrade and Novi Sad. “Through joint work, through the exchange of information the platform for the development of local potentials and the building of local ecosystems in the field of digital transformation in the public, financial, educational, energy and transport sector will be provided which is of particular importance for the future development of Nis, as a great Balkan hub, “Bulatovic said after arriving in Beijing. Mayor Bulatovic will also take part in the Digital Silk Road Forum, one of the thematic forums under the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The City of Nis together with the City of Hangzhou from China has been appointed as the pilot cities for the initiative of the economic cooperation along the China-Serbia Digital Silk Road.

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 29^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic announced that the Serbian government adopted the decision of establishing routes of public interest in air traffic, based on which, from  July 1^st this year and until June 30^th  2023, the flights would be established to 12 cities in Western Europe. There will be flights to Nuremberg, Hannover, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Friedrichshafen in Germany, Gothenburg in Sweden, Bologna and Rome in Italy, Salzburg in Austria, Budapest in Hungary and Ljubljana in Slovenia twice a week and to Tivat in Montenegro three times a week, but only during the summer season from May to October. “This is the confirmation that Nis is among the priorities of the state. This is the result of almost everyday contacts with the President Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic. This is the result of countless conversations and meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic and her team, and therefore I can proudly say that Nis officially has become a regional air traffic center, “said Mayor Bulatovic. He stressed that the economy, in which the state and the city invested, would gain a new impetus, it would facilitate investors coming to Nis and their meetings with local partners and it would facilitate access to the markets in Western Europe. “Of course, this is also important for the development of tourism, and certainly for our diaspora, because the destinations have been defined according to the actual needs, but there was not enough commercial justification for their launch, without the help of the state,” stressed Mayor Bulatovic. “This puts stop to all stories and malicious comments on closing the airport. “As we have agreed with Minister Mihajlovic, the headquarters of the company Airports of Serbia would be in Nis. All this, clearly show to the citizens of Nis and the southeast of Serbia that the opposite claims were clearly extremely malicious, inaccurate and directed against the development of not only the airport, “Mayor Bulatovic said at the press conference.

March 26^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to Serbia, His Excellency Mr. Kun Adam and talked about the possibilities for improving cooperation in areas of culture, language, education and economy. “We have almost the same opinion on all these topics, which is that the potentials for progress that are there should be used,” Mayor Bulatovic said after the meeting. Ambassador Kun Adam said that he was in Nis for the first time and that this city was very interesting for potential Belgium investors. He said that efforts should be made in this direction, to bring more Belgium investors to the region of Nis. First steps were done at the presentation of the support programs and subsidies provided to Belgian companies operating in our country organized by the Development Agency of Serbia, the Office for Economics and Trade of the Embassy of Belgium in Serbia and the Belgian-Serbian Business Association when the Office for Local Economic Development and Projects of the City of Nis, as an example of good practice in attracting foreign direct investments, presented its work and showed why Nis was declared the champion of local economic development and the winner of the prestigious Financial Times award.

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.