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 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.

November 29^th

The memorial complex Bubanj will be reconstructed in 2017. The funds in the amount of 19.8 million dinars have been provided by the Ministry of Labor, Social and Veterans Affairs to the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Nis. According to Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic this project is of great importance for the City of Nis, because, for the first time, in ten years, the complete reconstruction of the memorial complex on Bubanj will be done. “The city is very interested in changing the image of Nis and the renovation of cultural and historical monuments is just an opportunity to show how important it is that the monuments that testify about the historical past of the city and the people who lived in this area present themselves to tourists in the best possible way”, said the Mayor. “The City of Nis will reconstruct the Summer Stage in the Fortress, sports terrains at small trench location. The city is preparing projects to compete with the competent ministries for funds. We are trying to make up for the missed and make Nis a worthy center of this part of Serbia in every way. “The Director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Nis Elena Vasić Petrović said that the usual procedure regarding the tender and the selection of the contractor would be conducted in the next few days.” The works will start in the first half of 2017. It will be completed by the middle of the year. It will include conservation and restoration works on “fists” and “walls”, reconstruction of the access path and plateau, the creation of decorative and functional lighting and the introduction of video surveillance, “said Vasić Petrovic.

Memorial Park Bubanj represents a memorial complex, built to remember the citizens of Nis and southern Serbia who were executed there during the Second World War. Memorial Park Bubanj, as an authentic place of mass fascist terror, was placed under state protection in May 1973. In March 1979, by the decision of the Serbian Parliament, the Memorial Park Bubanj was declared a cultural asset of exceptional importance. About 10,000 inmates and prisoners of the Special Police and War Prison were killed on Bubanj. The entire terrain of the memorial park is intersected by the trenches in which the victims were buried. Before the withdrawal of the Germans, the captured Italians dug trenches and burned corpses, in order to destroy every trail of done atrocities. The location was originally marked by a memorial pyramid in 1950, and a new, monumental monument, the work of sculptor Ivan Sabolic, was erected on October 14, 1963, on the Day of the Liberation of Nis. The complex is arranged as a park, the memorial trail is about half a mile long, and a 23 × 2,5 m marble relief consists of five compositions symbolizing the “killing machine”, hanging and shooting, the rebellion of the people, the capitulation of the conqueror and the victory, and three concrete monuments that symbolize the raised hands with clenched fists. Each of the three fists is of different sizes and they represent a symbol of a male, female and child’s hand that defies the enemy because the entire family is shot. Nearby there is a summer stage. Since 2004, a glass and metal chapel was built within the complex, the work of the architect Aleksandar Budjevac.

November 28^th

This year’s second-in-line Forum of Advanced Technologies surpassed last year’s performance, as it was estimated at the working meeting of the organizers of the forum. According to the Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic the Forum was progressing and the City would be the general sponsor of the Advanced Technologies Forum the following year. He assessed that today’s meeting was actually the beginning of preparations for the next forum and that the potentials of Nis in the field of information technologies were far greater than all that was currently happening in our city in this area. The Mayor praised the working team that realized this year’s forum and pointed out that Nis was slowly regaining the epithet of the “City of Electronics”, which it used to have, i.e., achieving the goal to which we all strived for Nis to be the City of Advanced Technologies. “Our greatest potential is people, university, professors and students. We all have to work together and promote the potentials we have”, the Mayor said.

November 28^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic signed an initiative for the proclamation of the May 18^th – to be the Day of Remembrance for the women who were victims of violence. According to the Mayor all of us together, we need to encourage and empower as many women as possible to report violence because domestic violence is not only a matter of the family, but of the entire society. “I believe that the adoption of the new Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence will certainly help, because violence against women in the family does not only affect a direct victim. It is important for us as a local self-government to make life better for both women and men, because everything that is good for one is good for others as well. The fact is that women, although legally defined as equal to men, are not. We need to take care more about gender equality, because a higher quality of life is achieved with a higher level of equality. Also, we will try to act in different ways and raise the awareness of people about violence against women and in general of gender equality. We have already networked, we have adopted several documents dealing with these issues, but the contribution of the fight against violence against women must be given the entire public,” said Mayor Bulatovic. The initiative for proclaiming May 18^th – Day of remembrance of the women who are victims of violence, have been launched in Nis by the Commission for Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities of Nis City Assembly and Women’s Assembly Member Group.

November 28^th

Nis airport, where 9 regular lines were introduced in a year, welcomed 100.000^th passenger today. It is Miljana Todorovic, who arrived at the Nis airport from Eindhoven. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, presented the small gift to Ms. Todorovic in memory of this moment, which is significant for the Nis Airport Constantine the Great and the City of Nis. “Constantine the Great Airport represents a new development opportunity not only for the city of Nis, but for tourism in Serbia in general. The 100.00^th passenger is a historic record for the Nis Airport and we expect that, by the end of this year, the figure will reach 120.000 ” said the Mayor at this occasion. He added that the works on the reconstruction of the airport building would begin by the end of this year. The assistance from the Government of Serbia, is very im portant to us, which, together with us, is doing everything possible to ensure that the Nis Airport operates in the best possible way.” According to the Mayor, in the coming period, the expansion of airport capacity could be expected, which, in fact, means simultaneous service of two aircrafts, i.e.380 passengers on board and 380 passengers on departure. Nis Airport has recorded a constant increase in the number of passengers compared to 2014. Namely, the total number of passengers at Nis Airport during 2014 was 1,333.

November 25^th

“Violence against women is a big problem in the whole country, and it is not enough to deal with this issue only as the part of the campaign of” 16 days of Activism in the Fight against Violence against Women.  Continuous work is required, continuous education of society, changing cultural patterns of behavior and inclusion of different social systems in order to discover, stop and prevent this phenomenon. We cannot live in a situation where violence occurs in every other household. We need to encourage and empower as many women as possible to report violence because domestic violence is not only a matter of internal family and family relations, but of society as a whole. I believe that the adoption of the new Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence will certainly help, because violence against women in the family does not only affect a direct victim. It is important for us as a local self-government to make life better for both women and men, because everything that is good for one is good for others. We will try to act in different ways to raise the awareness of people about this phenomenon, but the contribution to the fight against violence against women must be given by the whole public. “

November 24^th

According to the tradition, in addition to the highest representatives of cities and municipalities, the 44^th Assembly of the SCTM was attended by other domestic high officials, representatives of the Government of Serbia and line ministries, republican deputies, representatives of the diplomatic corps, governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions, international donor organizations as well as the association of local authorities from other countries with whom SCTM has established cooperation. The biggest annual gathering of mayors and municipal presidents, this time, was an opportunity to discuss the most important topics in the field of local self-government during one day. In the introductory part of the Assembly, the participants were addressed by the representative of the City of Belgrade in the role of the host city, the high representatives of the Government of Serbia, the Delegation of the European Union and the donor countries of the Kingdom of Sweden and the Swiss Confederation. Also, Gudrun Mosler – Tornstrom, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, took part in the introductory part of the Assembly addressing the participants. In the final part of the introductory part, the President of the SCTM and Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic submitted a report on the key activities in the period between the two assemblies. The main issues that were discussed at the Assembly were: Economic Reform Program for the period 2017-2019, the conditions for attracting investments and improving local economic development, as well as new legal solutions on local self-government. It is expected that the constructive dialogue between the participants of the Assembly will contribute to defining the directions and priorities of the SCTM in the forthcoming period. The Assembly considered and decided on matters of importance for the work of the SCTM as an institution. Within the work of the Assembly the proposals of documents and decisions important for the work and functioning of the SCTM were considered.

November 22^nd

The women’s basketball team of Serbia arrived today in Nis, where they would play the decisive match for the first place in the qualifying group for the European Championship 2017 on Wednesday, at 6:00 pm. Our basketball players, upon their arrival from Belgrade, met with Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic at Nis City Hall. Mayor Bulatovic welcomed the basketball players and thanked them for playing in Nis. “I will use the opportunity to invite all the Nis citizens to come to Sports Hall Cair and help our team to achieve the goal that our national team set and help them win for Serbia.” The national team coach Marina Maljkovic thanked for a nice reception and said: “I am truly that we are in a city that loves basketball. Nis was a great organizer in men’s and women’s basketball in the last few years. We are especially pleased to bring gold from the European Championship, which is new when the women’s basketball is at stake and the richest thing we have – the bronze from the biggest sporting competition, Olympic Games. I would like to thank the Mayor for the warm reception. Tomorrow’s match is a very important for us, it will be very difficult. We will try to win, but I appeal to all Nis citizens to support us in the right way tomorrow, and I know that you can do it. I repeat, it will be a very difficult game, so we will really need the energy from the stands. I am sure that we are in the best place in Serbia when the support and understanding of basketball is in question, “said Maljkovic.