April 11^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with His Excellency, the Ambassador of Turkey in Serbia Mr. Tanju Bilgiç on the occasion of his first official visit to our city. At the meeting held at Nis City Hall the two officials discussed the modalities of future cooperation between the City of Nis and the Turkish Embassy in Serbia in the fields of economy, and culture.

The Ambassador said that the large number of Turkish investors was interested in investing in Serbia and that Nis was particularly interesting because of its geographical position, but also because of the qualified skilled workforce.

The mayor expressed his hopes that, in the future, the passenger flight on the route Nis-Istanbul would be established and that it was a common task that City and Embassy of Turkey should be implementing.

Later on the Ambassador and the Mayor were joined by students from Nis primary and secondary schools who were going to participate at the children’s music festival “Serbia in the Rhythm of Europe”. The pupils from Nis will compete by performing songs and dances from Turkey. The festival will be held in late June in Sombor, and if they win, their reward will be free travel to Turkey. The team from Nis consists of 10 dancers and 2 singers.

The Ambassador and the Mayor greeted the children, and the Ambassador said that one of the reasons why he came to Nis that day was to meet the children who would compete in the Festival representing Turkey. The Embassy of Turkey has been supporting this Festival for past 8 years. The aim of the Festival is to recognize and promote young talents in accordance with the European Charter on the Participation of Young People in municipal and regional level.

April 3^rd

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with H.E. Ambassador of Norway Mr. Arne Sanes Bjornstad, who led the Nordic Business Alliance delegation in their visit to Nis. The cooperation with companies in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and attracting investors from these countries, as well as facilitating the procedures for their business operation in Nis were the topics of the meeting between the city management and the representatives of Nordic Business Alliance. Companies from Norway, Sweden and Finland, whose representatives visited Niš, can count on the help of the city government and national institutions if they decide to invest in this part of Serbia, as the Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović said.

“Today we talked about the possibility of opening the production capacity and the availability of educated and highly skilled workforce, as well as educational institutions in the city. This was an opportunity to see why Nis is excellent destination that we would recommend to any company to start their business operations here” as Ambassador Bjonrnstad said.

The goal of Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia is to promote and strengthen the network and cooperation between Nordic companies and Serbia and to contribute to the development of business relations and activities (between the Nordic countries and Serbia).

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovicv and his Excellency the Ambassador of Finland Pertti Ikonen planted in the park in front of City Gardens in the Fortress of five new birch trees in honor of the Finnish jubilee, the centenary of independence.

In Serbia, the centenary will be celebrated by a series of events presenting the Finnish culture, art, business, as well as the way of living. One of the projects is the planting of 100 trees in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia, aimed at promoting environment-friendly behavior. Finland is ranked the greenest country in the world, with around 65 per cent of Finland’s total land area covered by forest. Forests are like water in Finland: ever-present, including in the major cities. Finnish forest management relies exclusively on tree species native to Finland. The most common and economically important trees are spruce, pine and birch.

“This year Finland celebrates 100 years of independence which is a great occasion to talk about nature conservation, one of the core values of our society. Finland is among the cleanest and greenest countries in the world and we want Serbia to be the same”, Ambassador Ikonen said.

Planting of trees in Serbia is sponsored by Lindstrom, EuroCons, Agromarket (Fiskars), KPA Unicon, I&F McCann Group and other companies supporting the program of celebrations for Finland’s 100 years of independence.

Ambassador Jan Lundin and his team were present at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection, and the City of Nis, represented by State Secretary Stana Bozovic and Mayor Darko Bulatovic.

The MoU concerns the preparation of technical documentation related to the project of building a system for collecting and treating waste water in Nis. This project is one of the biggest infrastructural projects within environment protection, and Sweden is funding the development of the technical documentation.

The project of collection and treatment of wastewater for the City of Nis includes construction of a new collector, restoration of existing, afterwards, the city plant for waste water treatment, as well as additional treatment of sludge. Complete project and technical documentation for the plant and sewage will be funded from the new support programs of the Swedish International Development Agency to the environmental sector in Serbia, PEID, “Preparation and development investments in the environment ”, which starts on 25 July 2016 and is worth almost 3 million EUR.

Mayor Darko Bulatovic said that the project was important for the citizens of Nis and announced that the construction of facilities for the wastewater treatment plant would begin in 2019.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and Nis City Council member Sasa Zivic spoke today at a reception at the City Hall with participants of the International Symposium “Living with Autism-from the perspective of the patient, parents and professionals” held in Nis. Mayor Bulatovic said that the local government will do everything in accordance with its capabilities to facilitate the social inclusion of people living with autism and participate together with the professionals in creating programmes that could help them achieve maximum individual progress. He pointed out that autism represented a condition that required greater care of society and all of us have to develop tolerance and raise awareness of the children, but also parents and the community in general about the need and importance of cultivating love, understanding and acceptance of diversity by providing support to those in need. Andy Shih who heads the association “Autism Speaks” pointed out that it community involvement was extremely important and the existence of high-quality multi-sectoral collaboration to ensure that people with autism may become members of the community who can contribute to its development. There are more than 500 people in Nis with diagnosed autism. Most of them are children. Their parents founded the association trying through its activities to improve their quality of life.

RS Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, together with the German Ambassador in Serbia Axel Dittmann, Mr. Ralf Maus Leoni Executive Vice-president, Mr. Clemens Sax, Managing Director of Leoni Serbia, Ms. Aleksandra Pesic, Deputy Director of Leoni Serbia and Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic laid the corner stone for construction of the third factory of company Leoni in Serbia, an investment worth €22 million, which will employ at least 2,200 people.

The Prime Minister said that the beginning of the work of the factory, which would produce cable systems for BMW, was expected in August. Vucic added that during the talks with the management of Leoni he said that the fourth factory should also be opened in Nisava District, and promised that this company will get better conditions by five per cent than before.
He said that company Leoni with 7,500 employees was becoming the largest employer in the manufacturing sector in Serbia, and underlined that he was very pleased that Nis is part of that and that old promise that the government would take care about Nis and that region was being fulfilled.

The company Leoni has a reliable partner in Serbia, a good cooperation with local and national authorities in the past and the good experience in doing business here for several years, which all led to the decision to build a third facility as Mr. Ralf Maus, Leoni Executive Vice-president, and Mr. Clemens Sax, Managing Director of Leoni Serbia said in their speeches on this occasion.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic said that the beginning of construction of Leoni factory in Nis was the great day for the city in which after a decade of economic stagnation the factories were being built again. He stressed the fact that Leoni received the building permit in less than 48 hours which showed that the local government is serious and supporting the economic policy of the Government of Serbia.

Japanese Ambassador to Serbia, His Excellency Juishi Takahara, visited the Nis. During his first visit to our city, Takahara met with the Mayor of Nis Darko Bulatovic, with whom he talked about intensifying cooperation. The mayor presented the projects with which the city intended to apply for support from the Embassy of Japan in our country. He thanked the Ambassador for the generous assistance that the Japanese people and Government of Japan provided to the citizens of Nis and Nis Health Care institutions, primarily in medical equipment. The Ambassador said that he was glad the citizens of Nis loved the Japanese culture and said that the cooperation would continue in many fields.

After the reception at the City Hall, the Ambassador and the Mayor visited the association Taka, which received a donation of the Government of Japan under the “grants in the field of culture” programme in the amount of 7 900 euros. Those funds were used to purchase 210 square meters of tatami workout mats for Aikido Club Dodjo in Nis.

Nis City Deputy Mayor, prof. Dr. Milos Bandjur met today at Nis City Hall with Her Excellency the Ambassador of India to Serbia Narinder Chauhan. They exchanged experiences on previous cooperation between Serbia and India in the field of economy and pointed out that despite the distance, and ethnic differences, the two nations were very similar bound by sincere friendship. They agreed that the visit of Prime Minister of Serbia to India, after 30 years, was historical and that the steps were already made towards further improvement of economic cooperation between the two countries. Also the cooperation of the City of Nis with the Embassy of India in the field of tourism, culture, education and economy was discussed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of India in collaboration with the Ministry of European Integration implements ITEC program in various fields, such as accounting, financial control, banking and finance, environmental protection and renewable energy, IT, telecommunications, English language and others. On the occasion of this visit the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation were presented.

“Dear fellow citizens, today is a great day for the citizens of Nis.

Although the Government of the Republic of Serbia, from July 2016 until today, managed to attract two large investors to Nis, which would hire more than 3,500 workers with a high proportion of highly educated personnel, and allow me to remind you that these were: Integrated Micro-Electronics (IMI), from the Philippines, which would invest over 20 million euros and employ at least 1250 workers and German Leoni, which, in new factory in Nis would invest 20 million euros and employ at least 2,200 workers, the news announced today by Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic in an open letter to citizens of Nis, that the Austrian Zumtobel would invest in Nis over 30 million euros in the construction of a manufacturing plant with the production starting in 2018 is a  historic moment for our city.

Thus the promise given by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to the citizens of Nis during the seven-day stay of the Government in Nis is fulfilles, by bringing several world-renowned companies to Nis and by returning Nis to the place it belonged to, which is the center and generator of the future development of the southeast of Serbia. The City of Nis and the citizens of Nis are thanking him for this.

The Austrian company Zumtobel Group is one of the leading in the field of innovative solutions for the lighting and production of accompanying components. With three internationally recognized brands Thorn, Tridonic and Zumtobel, and two lesser known acdc and Reiss brands, the group offers a wide range of products and services to its customers around the world. The group has 14 production facilities on four continents and sales facilities in about 90 countries, employing over 7,000 workers. Zumtobel Group is constantly expanding by taking other brands, and in 2006 the group went out on the stock market. It is known worldwide as “Mercedes in the world of the latest lighting technology”. At the beginning of 2016, the company Zumtobel donated to the City of Belgrade and the City of Nis modern public lighting with smart management.

Zumtobel Group plans to build a factory of approximately 40,000 m² and to employ a significant number of Nis citizens with a large share of highly educated personnel. For the realization of the planned project, about 10 ha of land is needed, which the Republic of Serbia and the City of Nis will provide in one of the Industrial zones in Nis. The decision-making process lasted over a year. During the six visits of Zumtobel Group to the City of Nis, we introduced to them the comparative advantages of the Republic of Serbia and especially of our city. A special accent in the negotiations was on the industrial tradition, potentials and plans for the development of the Science and Technology Park and the advanced technology industry in Nis, i.e., the advantages that the University of Nis is generating above all.

As the prime minister pointed out, “our engineers, our workers and our young innovators are becoming members of this big family” and with the arrival of these factories they have more reasons to plan their families and their careers in our city.

In the end, once again I would like to thank Aleksandar Vucic for his enormous personal effort to bring this significant investor to our city and to enable the opening of new jobs and new employment, which are a key prerequisite for higher standards and better lives of citizens.”,  as Mayor Bulatovic said at the press conference held at Nis City Hall in this occasion.

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.