www.ni.rs

OFFICE FOR ORGANIZATION OF MILAN OF EDICT JUBILEE

CELEBRATION

RECEPTION FOR HIS GRACE BISHOP JOVAN OF NIS

MAYOR PERISIC MET WITH BELGRADE ARCHBISHOP

MONSIGNOR HOCEVAR

DEPUTY MAYOR ELECTED

NIS CITY YOUTH DAY

RECEPTION FOR THE AMBASSADOR OF GREECE

AMBASSADOR OF HUNGARY IN

NIS

MAYOR PERSIC MET WITH USAID MISSION IN SERBIA DIRECTOR

SUSAN FRITZ

FIRST LOCAL NALED GREY BOOK PRESENTED

III ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL

CEDEF FORUM: ENERGY SUPPLY AND ENERGY SECURITY IN SEE

ONE MORE E–WASTE RECYCLING

FACTORY

RECEPTION FOR FRENCH ORTHODOX SCHOLAR JEAN

CLAUDE LARCHET

PAINTING COLONY SICEVO 2012

MAYOR PERISIC MET WITH RUSSIAN PILOTS

EHXIBITION - HOW DO WE

PROTECT OZONE LAYER

THE DAY WITHOUT CARS

1

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

8

9

9

MAYOR PERSIC MET WITH USAID MISSION IN SERBIA DIRECTOR SUSAN FRITZ

III ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CEDEF FORUM: ENERGY SUPPLY...

6 7 7 ONE MORE E–WASTE RECYCLING FACTORY

OFFICE FOR ORGANIZATION OF MILAN OF EDICT JUBILEE CELEBRATION

This separate department will be established at the initiative of RS Ministry of Culture and Information. The team responsible

for the organization of celebration will be led by Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic and the Advisor for Cultural Affairs to RS President Mr. Radoslav

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic announced the opening of the special department, within Nis City Office of the Mayor, for the organization of the Milan of Edict Jubilee celebration.

No. 45 - September 2012

E-Newsletter prepared by Niš City Mayor’s Office

In This Issue:

www.ni.rs

2

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

Pavlovic. Slavica Trifunovic will be the project manager and other team members will be Bojana Simovic, the acting manager of Nis Cultural Center, Ivan Vukovic, the acting manager of Nis National Theatre, Uros Parlic, the acting manager of Nis Tourism Organization and Dragan Milosevic, an entrepreneur from Nis. The Office will be open to all the citizens who are invited to take active part in the celebrations.

All the activities to be undertaken in relation to the organization of jubilee celebration will be implemented either by Republic of Serbia relevant institutions or by the City of Nis. The biggest event within the jubilee celebration will be the concert Constantinus Magnus by Balkanika and Sanja Ilic on June 3rd as the integral part of the traditional city festivities. Also during June 2013, the

Symphonic Orchestra from Belgrade will perform 9th Symphony by Ludwig Van Beethoven. The opera In Hoc Signo Vinces is scheduled for October 2013. The theatrical play based on the novel Constantine’s Crossing by Dejan Stoiljkovic, the writer from Nis, is also planned. The official web site of the celebration of 17 centuries of Milan of Edict is:

www.edictofmilan2013.com

www.ni.rs

3

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

During this cordial meeting the two officials discussed the proposals regarding the organisation of the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan in 2013. Both sides were pleased that this significant jubilee would be commemorated in Serbia and in Nis. As pointed out by Mayor Perisic the Catholic Church would be actively involved in celebration of this important jubilee and all city departments would be ready to provide any assistance needed in the preparation for the celebration. “We have the same task - to organize festive manifestations during the whole year of celebrating the jubilee which would leave the positive impressions and motivate people to come and visit Nis after 2012”, as Mayor Perisic said. Monsignor Hocevar said that main messages of this jubilee should be freedom, dialogue and encounter. “The jubilee carries in itself

the messages for all citizens of Europe that human dignity should be valued and uplifted and that it would be a great honour for Nis to be the center of bringing together the East and the West” as Monsignor Hocevar said. Mayor Perisic and Monsignor Hocevar discussed also the spiritual importance of the Nis Catholic Parish Church dedicated to Exaltation of the Holy Cross for the catholic community

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic met with Belgrade Archbishop Monsignor Stanislav Hocevar at Nis City Hall.

MAYOR PERISIC MET WITH BELGRADE ARCHBISHOP MONSIGNOR HOCEVAR

in Nis and expressed the mutual wish that the cooperation between the Parish and Nis City would be continued. The meeting was attended by Parish Priest Niko Jozic who presented to the Mayor the activities of this church community which was celebrating its day - Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14.

The two officials discussed many issues related to the spiritual and cultural life of our fellow citizens. Special attention was paid the forthcoming celebration of the anniversary of Edict of Milan signing which represented the opportunity for our city to improve the spiritual and cultural contents and to expand its contacts with the world. Among other projects that will be implemented during the year of celebration special place will be given to the construction of temple dedicated to Saint Basil of Ostrog in the settlement of Duvaniste. The meeting was concluded with

the expressions of mutual readiness to always speak openly about the difficulties with which the institutions represented by these two officials are faced every day and by reiterating

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic met with His Grace Bishop Jovan of Nis at Nis City Hall to discuss the current problems which the citizens of Nis are facing on a daily basis.

RECEPTION FOR HIS GRACE BISHOP JOVAN OF NIS

the agreement to join efforts for the benefit of Nis citizens and to persevere.

www.ni.rs

4

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

In his addressing the members of City Parliament Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic pointed out undisputable qualifications of Mr. Slavkovic to perform the job for which he has been nominated as well as great experience and knowledge in the areas of economy which could only contribute to successful management of Nis City administration functioning. Upon the completion of the formal voting, Mr. Ljubovoje Slavkovic, newly elected Nis City Deputy Mayor, in his address to the members of Nis City Parliament, said that one of his task as the Deputy Mayor would be to bring new investors to Nis. “With the help of the science and domestic investors we want to do significant restructuring and direct all our efforts to start the production with adequate stimulation for the entrepreneurs by the state”, Deputy Mayor Slavkovic concluded.

“The citizens deserve efficient city administration and according to the authorizations provided by the Mayor

The members of Nis City Assembly, on their second session, accepted the proposal made by Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic and elected Mr. Ljubivoje Slavkovic for the position of Nis City Deputy Mayor.

DEPUTY MAYOR ELECTED

Addressing the young people at Nis City Hall Mayor Perisic said that the City would not allow the battle for young people in this city to be lost and that it would do everything possible in order to create better living conditions in our city so that young people would not have to leave the city or go abroad. “I believe that motivation is important; that it is important that you want to stay here, to find jobs here. I am sure that seven out of ten

will have a wish to leave this city. I do not want that. I do not want to lose the battle for young people”, Mayor Perisic said. By the end of this year official Nis City Youth Office will be established which will take care of the needs of this particular group and it will submit the suggestions to local self government how to act in relation to the affairs concerning young people.

On the occasion of celebrating Nis City Youth Day the representatives of the youth organizations in Nis met with Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic and Nis City Council Member Milan Pesic at Nis City Hall.

NIS CITY YOUTH DAY

I would do my best to achieve better results in the functioning of the city administration.”

www.ni.rs

5

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

After the official part of the meeting Mayor Perisic said the Greeks and the Serbs were linked by ancient and inextricable bonds. “These strong religious, historic and friendly relations between two nations give the sense of unity and constitute the most important foundation to improve any form of cooperation in the field of politics, economy, culture, sports or education. Greece and its citizens have proved many times to be the true friends. We are facing great economic crisis which caused the investments from Greece to be not so numerous as before but we hope that times will change and that, in the near future, there will be significant influx of capital from Greece”, as Mayor Perisic said. Mayor Perisic added that Greece would be actively involved in the celebration of Edict of Milan signing and announced potential

visit of Nis City delegation to Patra in November this year with the objective of initiating the twinning project between the City of Nis and the Municipality of Patra. H.E. Ambassador Stoidis thanked the Mayor for the warm welcome and expressed his optimism in relation to future economic development between our two countries. He added that Greek investments should be extended especially to this part of Serbia and he announced the visit by the associations of Greek entrepreneurs. Earlier that day the representatives of the Nis City together with the delegation from Greek Embassy paid their respects at Greek-Serbian Memorial Complex in Pirot on the occasion of marking the anniversary of Thessaloniki battle during the World War I.

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic met with H.E. Mr. Dimostehenes Stoidis, the Ambassador of Greece in Serbia and the representatives of Greek Municipality Patra led by the Mayor Yannis Dimaras.

RECEPTION FOR THE AMBASSADOR OF GREECE

AMBASSADOR OF HUNGARY IN NIS

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic met with H.E. Mr. Oszkar Nikowitz, the Ambassador of Hungary in Serbia. Mayor Perisic and Ambassador Nikowitz discussed the possibilities of improving the cooperation between Serbian neighbours in the North and South East Serbia especially in the area of economy by bringing closer the entrepreneurs from two countries.

Ambassador Nikowitz used the opportunity to express the wish by City of Debrecen to initiate the twinning project with our city since both Niš and Debrecen were the cities with important university centers and rich cultural life. Also City of Debrecen has significant spa resources and the cooperation with Niska Banja Municipality would be interesting. Ambassador Nikowitz remarked that the City of Nis would be the capital city of the world for the year 2013 and expressed his wish to organize the days of Hungarian culture in Nis at that time and thus take active part in the celebration of this great jubilee. After the meeting at Nis City Hall, Ambassador Nikowitz and Mayor Perisic went to European Corner for the opening of the exhibition dedicated to famous bridges of Budapest.

www.ni.rs

6

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

USAID Mission director Susan Fritz presented to Mayor Perisic the work of this American agency for international cooperation in Serbia and pointed out the importance of the City of Nis as the leader in the projects of the economic development in this part of Serbia. “I think that we are on the same side and that we have the same task to implement the projects which are important for this part of Serbia and to connect you and our partners with the funds that could help with the realization of the initiated activities” as Director Fritz said. Both Mayor Perisic and Director Fritz agreed that thing should not be left on the level of the ideas and project proposals. During the meeting, two officials discussed also the importance of the construction of cargo center for this part of Serbia and about the level of media coverage dedicated to the work of USAID in Nis.

During the open dialogue between Mayor Perisic and USAID Director Fritz, Mayor Perisc, while commenting the current results of the USAID programme in the field of local economic development, pointed out that the cooperation with smaller local communities would be best realized if the specific tasks were set with the specific deadlines. “Taking into consideration the situation the local self-governments are facing presently, the key structures of the local self-governments lack the initiatives and that is why I believe that the activities you are undertaking would function better with direct proposals coming from the communities themselves. The assistance that is being offered to us is more than welcomed; however, I believe that, the success of your mission depends on the true benefits for thousands of people in local community with the implementation of your projects” as Mayor Perisic said.

MAYOR PERSIC MET WITH USAID MISSION IN SERBIA DIRECTOR SUSAN FRITZ Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic met with the representatives of the USAID Mission in Serbia led by the Director Susan Fritz.

FIRST LOCAL NALED GREY BOOK PRESENTED

The Mayors of Nis and Leskovac and the Presidents of the Municipalities of Gadžin Han, Doljevac and Merosina signed the Codex on the Cooperation between Local Self - Governments with Business Community and thus committed themselves to the improvement of the cooperation with the entrepreneurs and to the joint work on the improvement of the conditions for business doing and attracting of new investments in order to create new jobs and improve the life of the people. Prior to ceremonial signing of the Codex, the presentation of NALED GREY BOOK was held at the University of Nis. This book of recommendations for removing administrative impediments, on the local level, to doing business in Serbia offers simple and concrete solutions for administrative obstacles faced by businesses. The implementation of these recommendations does not require additional costs or amendments of sector laws and they would bring significant savings to businesses and make them more competitive. The Grey Book was published by NALED with the support of USAID. The representatives of the companies doing business in South East Serbia have recommended suspension or modification of 21 bureaucratic procedures. They also asked for the transparency in spending the funds collected by charging the ecological taxes, simplification of the procedure for obtaining of the construction permits, improving of the professional relations between the administration employees and their clients and adjusting the working hours of the administration services to the needs of the private sector. We, as the local self-government will try to help out small and medium sized enterprises to function better” as Mayor Perisic said.

www.ni.rs

7

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

other hand this was the right manner for preserving the environment.

250 new workers will find the job in this plant while the waste collector network will comprise more than 4000 partners. 8 million Euros have been invested into this plant and it represents the biggest investment in the recycling industry since its establishment in Serbia and it also represents the biggest Brownfield investment in Nis by local investor for last ten years. The production will be export oriented. Thank to MeWa Recycling, the strategic partners from Germany, which is the world leader in this industrial area, the recycling process will separate the maximum of usable high - quality secondary raw materials. On the occasion of the official opening of the plant Mayor Perisic said that the venture like this is based

on the vision of the company which recognized the future potentials of the recycling on one hand and on the

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic and General Manager of E-Recycling Factory Ninoslav Milenkovic opened officially new plant for the recycling of electronic and electrical waste.

ONE MORE E–WASTE RECYCLING FACTORY

The Forum was opened by Mrs. Zorana Mihajlovic, RS Minister of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection and the participants were welcomed by representatives of the Trade department of Russian Embassy and Mr. Zoran Perisic, Mayor of Nis. The Third International CEDEF Energy Forum aimed to highlight the ways and possibilities to increase energy security by comprehensive analysis of energy resources and reserves and existing infrastructure for energy distribution in the region of Southeast Europe and to provide suggestions for improving this sector. Minister Mihajlovic announced

the addendums to the RS Law on Energy Efficiency and emergency procedure for submitting it to the Serbian parliament for adoption. This Law envisages the establishment of the Fund for Energy Efficiency administered by Ministry of Energy, Development and Environment. In his address to the public Mayor Perisic pointed out that the Forums like this were organized with the objective to inform the public about all energy priorities that a country and its government set ahead for itself and its citizens because the general public is not familiar enough with the very concepts of energy efficiency and its importance and its benefits.

Under institutional auspices of the Ministry of Energy, Development and Environment of the Republic of Serbia and sponsorship of the Public Enterprise Electric Power Industry of Serbia and in cooperation with Energy Efficiency Agency of the Republic of Serbia and E3 Podgorica, Central European Development Forum, CEDEF, organized the Third International CEDEF Energy Forum: Energy Supply and Energy Security in South-Eastern Europe.

III ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CEDEF FORUM: ENERGY SUPPLY AND ENERGY SECURITY IN SEE

www.ni.rs

8

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

RECEPTION FOR FRENCH ORTHODOX SCHOLAR JEAN CLAUDE LARCHET

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic met with French Orthodox scholar and researcher Jean Claude Larchet on the occasion of author’s promotion of the books The Theology of Illness and Iconographic Artists in Nis organised by Center for Church studies.

Mayor Perisic welcomed Mr. Larchet to Nis. He said it was an honor to have in our town one of the most important and interesting Orthodox scholars writing today. Mr. Larchet is widely acknowledged for his studies and his books have been translated all over the world. He will also participate next year as one of lecturers at the scientific symposium entitled “Constantine the Great and Christianity “planned to be held from May 31 to June 2, 2013.

PAINTING COLONY SICEVO 2012

Art Colony Sicevo 2012 was ceremonially opened on Saturday, September 1. This year colony gathers artists from our country, Hungary and Austria.

On the occasion of the opening, the participants were addressed by the representatives of the organizers Niš Contemporary Art Gallery and the member of Nis City Council Srdjan Aleksic. Mr. Aleksic pointed out that traditional city cultural manifestations were good ways to present and to promote to broader public the numerous potentials of Nis City which was preparing for the celebration of 17 century anniversary of Edict of Milan signing. “The City of Nis will do its best to maintain the good reputation and ranking of this manifestation and to preserve the pieces of art created at one-century long traditional art event”, Councilor Aleksic said. Sicevo Art Colony was founded by Serbian painter Nadežda Petrović in 1905. It was re-established in 1964. Every artist who has ever taken part in the work of these colonies left to the City of Niš at least one of master pieces. So far more than 400 artists from the country and abroad have participated in Sicevo Art Collony. Niš Contemporary Art Gallery is the home of 1094 pieces of art work done by foreign and domestic painters and sculptors.

MAYOR PERISIC MET WITH RUSSIAN PILOTS

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic hosted the reception and the lunch for the Russian pilots who participated actively in fighting against the wildfires all around Serbia this summer.

On this occasion Mayor Perisic thanked Russian pilots for all the courage they showed fighting fire in the field. Over 30 pilots from Russian Emergency Ministry worked hard every day to put out wild fires endangering the citizens of West Serbia. The crews of the two multipurpose, amphibious Berievs Be-200 and Kamov Ka-32 helicopter flew overt tens of times each day trying to extinguish blazes that have destroyed hundreds of acres of forests and threatened some villages.

www.ni.rs

9

NEW

Se-Newsletter: No. 45 - September 2012

City of Nis has joined European Mobility Week Campaign which is an awareness raising campaign aiming at sensibilizing citizens to the use of public transport, cycling, walking and at encouraging European cities to promote these modes of transport and to invest in the new necessary infrastructures. This manifestation has 13 - year long tradition in Europe. City of Nis has marked it for 11th time. City of Niš also marked European Car Free Day - September 22nd, by organizing many sports activities for pre-school children, primary and secondary school students on the square at the city center. The main city traffic route was closed for several hours and it became the playing ground for sport activities and pedestrian walking

zone. The organizers of this manifestation were the City of Niš Administration for Education, Culture Youth and Sports and Administration for Communal Services, Energy and Traffic in cooperation with RS Ministry of Interior and other institutions. Mihajlo Zdravkovic, Nis City Council Member, said on this occasion, that the great number of Nis citizens participated in this event with the aim to show the importance of using the alternative methods of transportation and practicing healthy life style. He invited the citizens of Nis to keep this good practice and he promised that the City of Nis would put extra efforts to provide better conditions for cycling in the city.

From 16 to 22 September 2011 the Mobility Week is the opportunity for European cities and towns to participate to the most widespread event on sustainable mobility.

THE DAY WITHOUT CARS

The exhibition was organized by NGO Green Key within the implementation of the project supported by RS Ministry of Energy, Development and Environment Protection and UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization. On this occasion Mayor Perisic said that environment protection was one of the most important tasks of every well organized society and he added that special attention should be paid to constant education of young generations. Minister Zorana Mihajlovic thanked the pupils for their participation in this project and invited them to be the guest of the Ministry.

Nis City Mayor Zoran Perisic and RS Minister of Energy, Development and Environment Protection attended the opening of the art exhibition comprising the works done by all pupils from Nis region on the subject of ozone layer and its protection.

EHXIBITION - HOW DO WE PROTECT OZONE LAYER