February 21^st

The City of Nis and Nis National Theater will be the hosts and organizers of the First Festival of Drama and Theater of the Balkan Cultural Space “Theater at the Crossroads” from 12 to 19 March, at which 8 performances by theatre groups from the region would compete. The idea of the festival is to affirm the similarities and differences of the countries and peoples in the region of the Balkan. The festival will be opened on March 11^th on the day of the Nis National Theater with the premiere performance of the Traveling Theater Sopalovic. “Theater at the Crossroads”, will gather performances from the region from Maribor, from Cetinje, Varazdin to Pleven. The program council is chaired by the director Nebojsa Bradic and the jury of the festival is led by actress Mia Begovic, bringing together eminent theater producers from the Balkans.  The newly established festival will offer to the audience, through eight competitive performances, and debates and promotions, the similarities and differences of the cultural identity of the countries from this region. The new festival offers the opportunity to offer different platforms for dialogue with theater producers in the name of the Balkan theater and the possibilities of cooperation – from the exchange of programs and artists to co-productions.

 GIZ AND THE CITY OF NIS SIGNED MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

February 14^th

One of the first local self-governments in Serbia that has expressed a strong commitment to improving energy efficiency in the public buildings sector is the City of Nis. The first step towards this goal is the review and analysis of the current state of school buildings, and then the assessment of potential energy savings, the proposal of adequate measures for their energy rehabilitation, and the definition of the next steps and operators. According to estimates there are about 6500 schools and kindergartens in Serbia, most of them built in the seventies and eighties. Most buildings have inadequate thermal insulation, outdated heating and cooling systems and significant structural damage caused by inadequate maintenance. On the other hand, studies conducted within the framework of the Serbian-German Development Cooperation Project, such as the National School and Kindergarten Typology, indicate that investments in the energy efficiency measures in schools have a great potential for energy savings and a reduction in CO2 emissions. In this regard, Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, and the leader of the GIZ sector for energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, Stephan Heieck, signed the Memorandum of Understanding, which officially marked the beginning of cooperation in the field of energy efficiency in public buildings, with a special emphasis on schools. In this way, the City of Nis will be among the first local self-governments in Serbia (along with Kraljevo, Pancevo, Priboj, Bajina Basta, Uzice, etc.), which will use the Calculator which is based on the “cost-benefit” approach for analyzing the potential of applying EE measures to school facilities, creating priority lists of school facilities for energy rehabilitation. The priority lists created in this way are a good and solid support for planning various rehabilitation programs, but also for applying for funds with available donor and national funds for improving energy efficiency. The Memorandum foresees close cooperation between the GIZ and the City of Nis in the area of ​​energy and energy efficiency, and it is planned that the activities covered by the Memorandum will be implemented by the end of 2019.

In the former Nazi Concentration Camp Crveni Krst memorial service was held and the flower wreaths were laid paying respects to patriots who lost their lives in the camp or were executed at Bubanj between 1941 and 1944. This day is also the day of remembrance the first organized breakthrough and the escape of detainees from a concentration camp in the territory of Europe in the winter of 1942. Vladimir Jovanovic from the village of Kravlja, one of the rare survivors and a man who was barely seventeen years old when he was detained behind the barbed wire of the camp, ant relocated to infamous Mauthausen spoke about those years on this occasion. Aleksandar Gaun, the deputy president of the Union of Jewish Municipalities of Serbia, spoke about the suffering of the Jews, who, in addition to captured members of the Partisan and Ravnogorski movement, were the most numerous among the inmates, who pointed out that no camp should ever be forgotten or set aside from the historical scene as the eternal warning of the evil that took over Europe, and which, if these memories were not nurtured and remembered, can quickly be revived. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović, reiterated that every February 12^th, every year, we gathered together in the place where the most brutal pages of our history had been written, because only so united could we preserve our tradition, our past and our roots. “The winner is the one who is able to love and forgive. Therefore, on behalf of all the victims, we are sending a clear message from the Crveni Krst today that the executionsites must be remembered, but not repeated! They should be kept as a historical warning that the war will destroy a man if a man does not destroy the war! “, said Mayor Bulatovic. Traditionally, on the occasion of marking the anniversary of the camp breakthrough, the march of the scouts along the trails along which the prisoners were escaping was organized.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of Romania to Belgrade, Oana- Kristina Popa at Nis City House. On this occasion Ambassador Popa told the host that during the presidency of Romania over the European Council it would support Serbia on its European path, and the enlargement would be at the very top of the European agenda. Popa, whose country presides over the Council of the European Union in the first half of this year, said that the European perspective of the Western Balkans in 2018 was reaffirmed, adding that Romania would help candidate countries to advance in European integration.  “Serbia is one of the leading candidates for the EU and plays a key role in the stability of the Western Balkans,” Popa said, who presented the goals of Romania during the presidency of the European Union in a lecture at the EU info corner in Nis. She reiterated that Serbia could count on Romania’s assistance in the accession process and in the reform process, and that Nis, as one of the most important cities in Serbia, can find partners in many cities in Romania, to work more closely on solving issues that are common to cities of this size and degree of development. Mayor Bulatovic presented the potentials of Nis, economic, cultural, scientific and historical, and pointed out that Nis was interested in establishing close ties with the cities in Romania, first of all with those who had experience in the development of modern, advanced technologies, having in mind that there were already several “IT Hubs” in Romania similar to those that Nis wanted to create in the future Scientific and Technology Park and StartUp center at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering. Bulatovic reiterated that Romania and Serbia have been building good neighborly relations for centuries and that city and municipalities with the help of the embassies, have deepened this relationship.

The Member of the Nis City City Council Mihajlo Zdravković signed the contract for the implementation of the project under the grant scheme Exchange 5 – EU support to local governments in the field of property management in Belgrade today. The RoS Minister of State Administration and Local Government Branko Ružić and RoS Minister for European Integration Jadranka Joksimović, as well as the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Secretary General of the SCTM, Djordje Stanicic, attended the signing ceremony of the contract with the representatives of local self-governments whose projects were elected.

In order to increase the efficiency and transparency of the public administration through the improvement of property management, the City of Nis will, in partnership with the Municipality of Cuprija, implement the project “Efficient and Effective Property Management in Nis and Cuprija through the Introduction of the Geographic Information System”. The goal of the project is to create conditions for improving property management through the inventory and legalization of public property in Nis and Cuprija and increasing the transparency of public administration work, introducing and developing the Geographic Information System and creating an application for GIS. In this way public administration will be closer to the citizens and the business community.

Both Nis and Cuprija have a large number of different real estates, but without precise and legally relevant data. Bearing in mind that efficient management of public property is imposed as a priority requirement in the process of development and modernization, the partners jointly developed a project proposal to solve the identical problems that are encountered in this area. Nis and Cuprija intend to provide rational use and management of property in accordance with the Law on Public Property and the Law on Planning and Construction and to put the property in the function of investing and increasing the revenues of local self-government. In these two cities, currently, there is not any integrated system that connects all services and record and process data on real estate in public ownership. The existing approach does not give positive results, so we are faced with unregistered and unclassified property, irrational use of space and objects, relatively low rates of rent, using property without appropriate fees, lack of organization and professional staff and non-transparent and non-functional work of local administration.

The implementation of the project in Nis and Cuprija will create unique databases of integrated records for the entire property, together with applications for all aspects and property management processes. The specificity in connecting Nis and Cuprija is in the introduction and development of GIS as a software package that will integrate complete data on property and provide access to them for internal departments as well as for the citizens and potential investors. The use of this property management model owned by Nis and Cuprija means strengthening administrative capacities and more efficient property management, increasing revenue, better control of costs, better risk management and adequate asset maintenance. As inefficient use of public property costs all citizens, partner cities expect that, after the implementation of planned project activities, there will be a reduction in costs and an increase in revenues from property owned by two local governments.

The beneficiaries of the project are, first of all, the administrations of the local self-governments of Nis and Cuprija, i.e., the departments and services dealing with public property management, as well as the competent republic authorities. The project should contribute to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills of employees in local self-governments, which will result in more comprehensive fulfillment of their work tasks and improvement of work, and consequently, in providing better quality services to the citizens of Nis and Cuprija. It is of paramount importance to potential investors who will be able to obtain faster information about targeted locations, as well as for citizens who, as end-users, need a reliable, accountable and open administration. Improving the management of public assets and finances creates the possibility for savings in the budget as well as conditions for sustainable local economic development.

The project is EU-funded (IPA 2014) through the Exchange5 Program – EU Support to Local Governments in Property Management. The program is implemented by the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government in cooperation with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) as the implementing partner of the program and the Ministry of Finance (the Sector for Contracting and Financing Programs from EU funds) as the Contracting Authority in the program.

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of South Korea Hyoung-chan CHOE at Nis City Hall. This is the first official visit of the Ambassador to Nis since the beginning of his term of the office in November 2018. On this occasion Mayor Bulatovic presented the economic potentials of this city. Two large companies from South Korea, Yura Corporation and Shinwon, already operate in Nis, so it has been jointly estimated that it is necessary to further improve the cooperation between the city and the management of these companies. Both companies showed great corporate responsibility towards the community providing support to many local projects, cultural events and donating medical equipment to local health care facilities.

CHINESE DELEGATION IN NIS                                                                  

January 20^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic with his associates met with the Chinese state-economic delegation at Nis City Hall. The Chinese delegation visited Nis, as part of a visit to Serbia organized by the Wanli Think Thank Association from Beijing. The delegation was led by Mr. Zhao Yue, the Secretary General. The visit of the delegation to Serbia is the result of the cooperation with the Center for Intercultural Communication and Mediation Konflaks whose president is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Ivan Mrkic. The possibilities for cooperation were analyzed at the meeting and the investment opportunities were presented as well as the possible participation of the delegation of Chinese businessmen at this year’s Nis Advanced Technology Forum.

COOPERATION BETWEEN GIRONDE AND NIS IN EDUCATING YOUNG FIREFIGHTERS January 17^th

The reception was held at Nis City Hall for the guests from Gironde (France) within the framework of the cooperation project between the Gironde fire department and Nis Administrative and Business Secondary School that educates future firemen. The delegation was led by Maryse Dusselier, the Head   of the Department for International Relations, joined by Captain Vincent Latorre, the officer from the department for firefighting training, and Jacques Loche, the director of the college Champs-d ’Eymet à Pellegrue. The guests from France were received by Mr. Sasa Zivic, the Nis City Council Member and Mr. Milos Milosevic, the Assistant Mayor. The meeting was also attended by Honorary Consul of France in Serbia, Mr. Sasa Miljkovic, and the representatives of the Nis Administrative and Business Secondary School. The total value of this project is about 17 thousand euros, and the school from Nis is in charge of its technical implementation with the support of the Nis City Municipality Medijana. In the first year this project will focus on the exchange of French and Serbian professional associates in the training of students for the profile of volunteer firefighters. The delegation from Gironde will donate to Nis Administrative and Business Secondary School the necessary funds for implementation of practical classes for the educational profile of fire protection technician.

January 12^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the management of the Naisus Youth Philharmonic and the soloists performing at this year’s traditional New Year’s concert. Mayor Bulatovic pointed out that it was a real pleasure to see that even at this time, when the so-called “popular music” was absolutely dominant, the classical music still had its audience, and the traditional New Year’s concert has been proving it for years. That is precisely why this event is included in the line of public city events that are supported by the City of Nis, because the city without culture is like a body without soul,” said Bulatovic. The director, founder and conductor of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra Naisus Zoran Andric said that the citizens of Nis would be able to enjoy an unforgettable and unique event. “Twelve soloists, six sopranos and six tenors in one place, at one concert, are something that has never been seen anywhere in the world. That is exactly why we decided to hold a concert with 12 soloists on January 12^th, before the Orthodox New Year, and to introduce a unique program that will be remembered for a long time, “said Andric. The guest coming from Italy, Argentina, Austria, Armenia, during the meeting with the Mayor, spoke about their impressions about the city and their expectations for Saturday’s concert. Marco Frusoni, one of the most respected Italian tenors, who has performed several times at the New Year’s concert in Nis, thanked the hosts for the warm welcome on the behalf of the performers.

January 11^th

By laying flower wreaths at the Monument to Liberators in the center of Nis, the Day of the liberation of Nis from the Turks, January 11^th, was marked. On this day when Nis, after almost five centuries of Turkish rule, was liberated 181 years ago from Ottoman slavery, Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, the President of the City of Nis Assembly Rade Rajkovic, as well as the representatives of the army, the police, the Nisava Administrative District, the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center, the representatives of associations that nurture the traditions of the liberation wars, paid their respect to Nis liberators. On January 11, 1878, Nis was freed from the Turks and after nearly five centuries of slavery, merged with Serbia. The fighting for the liberation of Nis began in mid-December 1877, when the Ibar, Morava and Danube divisions crossed the Serbian-Turkish border and took positions northwest of the city, approaching five to eight kilometers. The Ibar division penetrated the south and cut the connection between Niš and Leskovac. Then the Serbian army won Pirot and Bela Palanka, disabling the connection of the Turkish garrison in Nis with troops in Sofia and conquered Selicevica mountain, closing the ring around Nis and on the south side.