December 27^th

The adaptation of the Nis Airport Constantine the Great Building, which was built 30 years ago, started today. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic and the Members of the Nis City Council Milos Milosevic and Igor Vojinovic visited the works. On this occasion, Mayor Bulatovic said that, for the first time after three decades, some investment were made into adaptation of the airport building financed from the city budget. “The adaptation of the roof and the roof structure will be done, the isolation of the building itself, the light domes, in one word the airport building will get a completely new look and I am sure that, after the completion of the works, the arrival in Nis and the first encounter with the city will be better for everyone.” He emphasized that the value of the total works that would be carried out during this and next year on the adaptation of the airport building, the renovation of the counters and the technical equipment of the airport will be 37 million dinars. City of Nis allocated 35 million dinars, while the rest of the funds were provided by Nis Airport itself. “Next week, there will be 2 more passenger and baggage check-in counters installed and  in this way, theairport staff will be able to serve a larger number of passengers in less time, because now, when we have 9 regular lines, we need to reduce crowds and waiting in lines. We will continue to invest next year. A new power supply unit will be purchased for the supply of airplanes, as well as X-rays to check luggage, which will also ensure safety at the airport at a much higher level. The airport is important not only for Nis but for the development of the entire southeastern Serbia and our strategic commitment is further development of air transport and investment in modernization of the airport, “the Mayor concluded.

December 26^th, 2016
The Mayor of the City of Niš, Mr. Darko Bulatovic and the Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic held a press conference in the presence of numerous guests, at which they summarized the results of their five-month operation.

“After five months of work, I have to say that we have been trying to meet your needs, to solve the problems one at a time, by giving our professional and personal maximum and by being guided by the interests of the city and each individual citizen. At the beginning of my term of office, I have promised to do everything in my power to contribute together with my team to the happiness, pride and satisfaction of our citizens so that they can exercise their rights through the administrations within local-self government, which will be organized differently; my goal is that we all do the right things for the city and the citizens in order to live better.

After five months of work we have created some preconditions for it. We have enacted the new Statute of the city and adopted the real possible budget for the year of 2017. We are trying to finish the work on the improvement of the essential urban traffic. We are expecting the arrival of new investors. The City of Niš possesses a qualified workforce and this is something that has to be our advantage for attracting investors and for opening new factories and jobs. We are expecting the realization of the project that has been discussed over decades ago. Finally, the works on the relocation of the railway from the city center should start. The funds for the expropriation, which will be conducted during 2017, have been allocated. We should also start the arranging of the new pedestrian zone next year. We are planning to relocate the market in the coming years in order to present Fortress, which is undoubtedly our enormous tourism potential, at its best and to maximize the use of all the facilities that it can provide to the city and its citizens. Indeed, this is only one part of what we have been doing. The citizens have closely monitored our work, given the fact that we have been meeting almost every day, both in the field and in the City Hall, where we have tried to listen to all those who have contacted us and to solve their problems.

The more is yet to come. The citizens have entrusted us with an important task to take care of the city and create better conditions for life in it. We are trying and we will try to justify the trust given, to listen to the needs and wishes of our neighbors and to jointly create custom-made Niš for those who live in it.

I take this opportunity to thank the citizens for their patience and understanding, to thank my associates who supervise my activities as well as the activities of the city councilors, so that everything should go best.
I’ve always been an optimist throughout my life, and in the same way I look at the years ahead. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but I firmly believe in our joint success. The city is run by preserving its tradition and cultural heritage, by knowledge, by nobility, by sport successes, by communion, but also by love and courage to change and grow.

“I wish you a successful and happy New Year, may it bring peace, health and joy, and may your New Year and Christmas holidays be filled with joy, warmth and hope of a better tomorrow”, said the Mayor of the City of Niš, Mr. Darko Bulatovic.

The Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Niš, Mr. Rade Rajkovic, at the beginning of his speech, announced the names of the winners of the highest award of the City of Niš, “11^th January Award”. This year’s winners of the highest award of our city are:
– The Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Niš;
– The National Library “Stevan Sremac” Niš,
– The Prizren Seminary “St. Cyril and Methodius “Niš;
-Mr. Bojan Jovanovic, a scientific advisor- anthropologist;
– Mr. Aleksandar Grbović, Head of the Penal and Correctional institution in Niš.

“From today’s point of view, I think that the success of all Nis citizens in 2016 is the fact that we have chosen a government that serves citizens. We set ambitious goals from the outset in order to be an example to other cities in Serbia and in the region. The Assembly of the City of Nis held, apart from the constitutive session on June 29^th this year, a total of 8 sessions, each of which had a comprehensive agenda and constructive approach to work. During the conduct of the Assembly, I took care that the councilors and I, above all, respected the laws and all legal acts, and maintained a level of democratic discussion as well.

The difference of opinion is a reflection of democracy and political culture, so I did not allow suppression of critical thinking and constructive attitudes, of both government and opposition, despite the fact that I belong to the ruling party.

I want to emphasize that the City Assembly had continuous and correct cooperation with the executive part of the government, with whom we have coordinated and synchronized activities, so that the agenda included all the proposals of the City Council.

As valuable work principles we have set: transparency, commitment and legality. Therefore I developed a practice to regularly hold consultative meetings with the heads of the parliamentary groups, which has now become standard practice and it has already given positive results. In the end, given the cause of today’s meeting, I would like to wish a happy New Year and Christmas holidays to all of you present today and to all Nis citizens, with the assurance that the City of Niš in 2017 will be better, nicer, safer and happier place to live”, said Mr. Rajkovic.

December 23^rd

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic extended his congratulations on the occasion of celebrating Christmas by Gregorian calendar wishing that the Christmas would bring mutual understanding, respect and tolerance. My wish for you is to spend this holiday in good mood, health and joy, and at the same time, I wish you a lot of success and personal happiness“, said Mayor Bulatovic.

December 22^nd

The subsidies in the amount of 4.7 million dinars have been allocated from Nis City Budget by the Action Plan for Employment for 2016 for employers who will hire the unemployed persons from the hard-to-employ category including young people under 30, older than 50, workers declared redundant in their companies, members of Roma nationality, people with disabilities and working-age beneficiaries of financial social care assistance. The subsidies in the amount of 150,000 dinars per person are allocated for the employment of people with disabilities and 180,000 for the employment of working-age beneficiaries of financial social care assistance. In this way, 62 of our fellow citizens were hired by private citizens.  “The City of Nis, on the basis of the Employment Action Plan, has defined these funds because we want to establish stability and maintain a trend of growth in employment in the city, and in this way we also want to help those who, due to age, objectively have major problems with opportunities for employment, and also to encourage employers to hire individuals older than 50 years, and young people, without experience. Of course, the City will continue to help. Our goal is to train a large number of our fellow citizens for occupations that will be needed in the future, due to the arrival of new investments in our city.  Next year, three major investments will be realized and new jobs will be opened, which is our goal. We want to further develop the economy and create the conditions for our fellow citizens to be employed, to stop the outflow of young people abroad, “said Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, who awarded contracts to the employers. He stressed that 30 347 persons are currently unemployed in Nis, which is less than last year and added that the realistic expectation was that this number would be even lower in 2017 due to new investments that would be realized. By establishing the Local Employment Council and adopting the Local Action Plan for Employment for this year, the City has in fact recognized the possibility of influencing the employment policy in its territory and establishing measures to reduce unemployment. 30 million dinars for incentives for employment will be allocated from the city budget for 2017.

December 21^st

The City Municipality Crveni Krst marked the 12^th anniversary of its existence. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic congratulated the jubilee to the management and citizens of the municipality and pointed out that the city municipalities justified the purpose of their existence as a service for citizens in a certain area. At the ceremony hosted at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, the guests were addressed by the president of the City Municipality Crveni Krst Miroslav Milutinovic. Meritorious individuals and organizations were presented with plaques as a sign of gratitude for contributing to the affirmation of the municipality, and Mr. Zoran Jovanovic, the long-time director of Nisekspres, was chosen for the honorable citizen of this city municipality.

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.