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400 NEW JOBS AT LOGISTIC CENTER

SOUTH CHEESE FIRST FAIR

SOCIAL HOUSING PROJECT APPROVED BY NIS CITY

COUNCIL

MEETING WITH GERMAN DELEGATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CITIES OF MARIBOR

AND NIS

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CITIES OF AARHUS AND

NIS

DAYS OF HAPPY AARHUS

GO AN HOUR WITHOUT THE POWER: EARTH HOUR 2012

HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS FROM DENMARK VISITING

NIS

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SOUTH CHEESE FIRST FAIR

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CITIES OF MARIBOR AND NIS

2 3 4 DAYS OF HAPPY AARHUS

400 NEW JOBS AT LOGISTIC CENTER

Milan Randjelovic, the Head of Nis City Office for Local Economic Development said that the Study had been done according to the model used for preparation of Feasibility Studies for leasing land properties to the companies Yura, Dytech, Haj Ararat and Shin Won. The Company Eyemaxx planned the construction of logistic, commercial and cargo centre with the total area of more than 100.000 m2 on the land property of total area of 8.4 hectares. 60 million Euros is

the projected value of this particular investment. During 2009 and 2010 the City of Nis undertook several activities to resolve the property ownership issue regarding the land slot intended for the construction for the cargo center. The project has to be completed in five years time. Eyemaxx forwarded its Letter of Intent related to this investment project last summer and Nis City Council decided to initiate the preparation of the Feasibility Study last September.

Nis City Council adopted Feasibility Study for Leasing Construction Land to Eyemaxx Management GmbH from Austria or to its Serbian branch.

The Company Eyemaxx planned the construction of logistic, commercial and cargo centre

No. 39 - March 2012.

E-newsletter prepared by Niš City Mayor’s Office

In This Issue:

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Se-Newsletter: No. 39 - March 2012.

The Cheese Cluster SOUTH project is carried out within Regional Socio-Economic Development Programme 2 (RSEDP 2) and is financed by the European Union with the total of 350,000 Euros. Partners on the project are the City of Niš, Municipality of Prokuplje, Municipality of Pirot and Regional Development Association South. Cheese Cluster South is an Association that connects and gathers different stakeholders involved in the chain of cheese production. Farmers, manufacturers, research institutions and local governments in Toplica, Nisava, Jablanica and Pirot district, with the EU support, gathered around a mutual goal to raise the level of cheese production with recognizable quality. This model of association may be applied to other forms of agricultural production and processing.

The first fair of SOUTH cheese was opened by Nis City Mayor Milos Simonovic, who stressed the importance of connecting together the outstanding producers and processors of milk from the area of southern Serbia and the need to familiarize consumers with high quality of their

products. Mayor Simonovic expressed his satisfaction with implementation of the projects within EU funding and underlined his expectation of the Serbian candidate status to attract even larger development processes of this region. Dairy producers, members of the Cheese Cluster South, attracted attention of numerous citizens of Nis. Several thousand visitors had the opportunity to become acquainted with the varieties and quality of cheese in Southern Serbia. Besides dairy products, fresh milk producers also presented their brands through their associations Niska sansa and Niski pastir. The fair was also an opportunity to establish new business relationships and to form a recognizable cheese brands from Southern Serbia. In addition, students of agricultural schools and farmers had the opportunity to learn more about cattle breeding on specially organized seminars and workshops.

SOUTH CHEESE FIRST FAIR In Nis, throughout the weekend (March 3 - March 4) the first cheese caravan was organized by the Association Cheese Cluster South and Nis City Adminsitration for Agriculture and Rural Development.

The first cheese caravan

Nis City Mayor Milos Simonovic opened fair

SOCIAL HOUSING PROJECT APPROVED BY NIS CITY COUNCIL

Nis City Council approved the Project of Social Housing prepared by Nis City Housing Agency.

237 housing units with the total area of 11.500 m2 will be built at the location near Bubanj thanks to the loan from Council of Europe Development Bank provided to RS Government. Republic of Serbia Government decided to allocate the funds from the loan by CoE development Bank intended for assisting development of the construction industry in Serbia for this social housing project. 12 cities in Serbia will participate in this programme. City of Nis is ready to start using allocated funds immediately since it has completed necessary project documentation and infrastructurally equipped land slots where the housing units would be built.

Nis City Council

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Municipality Pantelej and the members of the agricultural associations last year. On that occasion the delegation had the opportunity to find out more about the ways EU is financing regional and local development through accession aid programmes and to learn more about practice of integrated production for the needs of local markets.

its final stage. The project would help a local self government to establish requisite instruments to regulate land use and the distribution of added value through land use changes. Each local self - government must determine the economical profitability of the available land property in order to use it in best possible way for stimulating economic development.

The Head of Department for Serbia and Kosovo at Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation Johanna Bridgemann said after the meeting that she was optimistic about further development of the cooperation with the city and region. The cooperation with Nis City institutions has been good so far and that, together with Serbia becoming formal candidate member, would represent good basis for attracting new investments by German private companies. “It is important that the City of Nis and whole region of South East Serbia improve their cooperation with the strongest European economy. I am very pleased that German delegation

came to visit Nis immediately after Serbia getting its formal membership candidacy and that is a good signal for foreign investments. It is up to us to use every chance we get. I am an optimist and I am sure that we can rely on new German investments in the future period. The delegation from the city went to Mainz a few weeks ago and presented our potentials. We are expecting new investors”, said Mayor Simonovic. Uwe Stumpf, GIZ Country director for Serbia, said that GIZ and City of Nis have been cooperating successfully in the implementation of many joint projects. The current ongoing project - Strengthening Municipal Land Management is reaching

Nis City Mayor Milos Simonovic with his associates held a meeting at Nis City Hall with the German delegation constituted of representatives from German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, German Embassy in Belgrade, KfW Bank and GIZ organization.

MEETING WITH GERMAN DELEGATION

Meeting with German Delegation

The focus of the meeting was potential partnership and joint projects in the area of energy efficiency and waste oil recycling. This meeting was the continuation of the discussions initiated during the visit of Nis City delegation to Maribor earlier this month. Mrs. Krajtner said on this occasion that new possibilities opened up for the cooperation in the above stated areas and Maribor and Nis could prepare joint projects to apply to EU funds. After the meeting Mayor Simonovic and guests from Maribor went to the Church of Saint Pantelejmon to plant the oldest vine in the world which Mayor Simonovic got as a token

of friendship and cooperation during his visit to Maribor at the ceremony of Old Vine Pruning, which was traditionally being held every March 2 in Maribor. Old Vine, the oldest vine in the world, is the oldest living specimen on our planet of a noble grape vine that still bears grapes! With an age of over 400 years it is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest vine in the world. The visit to Maribor was the continuation of cooperation established during the study visit by the representatives from Niš City Administration for Agriculture and Rural Development, Institute for Viticulture and Wine Making, RDA South, City

Nis City Mayor Milos Simonovic met with the official delegation from City of Maribor, Slovenia led by Mrs. Marjana Krajtner, the member of Maribor City Council.

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CITIES OF MARIBOR AND NIS

Mayor Simonovic in Maribor

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Councilor Halsvoren said that he believed this agreement was a good base for extending already good cooperation between two cities. In 2009 City of Nis and City of Aarhus signed the Twinning Agreement. So far three projects have been implemented jointly: establishing of Job Center, providing institutional support to Center for Local Democracy in Nis and improving the functioning of city administration departments and services which as a result had establishing of Nis City Call Center and Building Permits Issuing Center. Both cities have been active through Association of Local Democracy Agencies which among other things resulted in opening in partnership in opening of Nis City Representative Office in Brussels. The Agreement signed to today refers to the activities primarily done by Nis City Job Center which was established in cooperation with the City of Aarhus and LEDIB Programme. It is the mediator between the unemployed, National Employment Service and potential employers and investors. The main priority of Job Centre is to help

the unemployed find a job and to help businesses find new employees according to their specific needs. The basic task of the center is to harmonize the demand and offer at the labour market with the aim of solving the problem of unemployment in City of Niš with active cooperation with the stakeholders dealing with the issue. The data base of unemployed and potential employers is formed with the objective of establishing better communication between those two groups with the special attention paid to the requirements coming from the employers in relation to specific trainings and additional education. The Danish delegation spent two days in Nis during which it made visits to the Nis City Job Center, National Employment Service. The delegation met with the members of Nis City Socio Economic Council and Employment Council. On the occasion of the visit, Aarhus International Office in Nis organized the exhibition entitled Happy Aarhus in European Corner together with LDA Nis, Nis City Mayor’s Office.

Nis City Mayor Milos Simonovic and Aarhus City Councilor Hans Halvorsen signed the Agreement on Cooperation between those two cities related to the joint work on decreasing unemployment in Nis.

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CITIES OF AARHUS AND NIS

Cooperation between the Cities of Aarhus and Nis

DAYS OF HAPPY AARHUS

Aarhus International Office in Nis in cooperation with Nis City Office for European Affairs and LDA Office in Nis and with the support from pre-school institution Pčelica and Legal and Administrative High School organized the exhibition of the photographs representing Happy Aarhus at European Corner.

A recent research has showed that Denmark is one of the most comfortable countries for living and that the Aarhus is the place where the happiest people in the world live. Staff from Aarhus International Office in Nis used social network Facebook to ask from their fellow citizens the photos of the places in Aarhus where they feel the happiest and to explain what makes them happy. The exhibition shows many aspect of living in Aarhus and some of the city attractions. Aarhus International Office in Nis was opened in November 2010 based on the Twinning Agreement between the City of Nis and City of Aarhus.

Happy Aarhus at European Corner

Happy Aarhus at European Corner

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City of Nis joined this initiative for the fourth time this year by turning off the decorative and public lights in the city. Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. With the invitation to ‘switch off’ extended to everyone, Earth Hour quickly became an annual global event. It’s scheduled on the last Saturday of every March - closely coinciding with the equinox to ensure most cities are in darkness as it rolled out around the Earth.

In 2010 a record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common - our planet. In 2011, Earth Hour saw hundreds of millions of people across 135 countries switched off for an hour. But it also marked the start of something new - going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action on climate change.

GO AN HOUR WITHOUT THE POWER: EARTH HOUR 2012 On March 31, 2012, hundreds of millions of people around the world, in thousands of cities, at hundreds of landmarks, on all seven continents, switched off their lights for one hour to display a universal commitment to protect the one thing that unites us all-the planet.

Earth Hour Nis 2012

HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS FROM DENMARK VISITING NIS

High school students from Hillerød, Denmark, came on study tour to Nis and on this occasion they met with representatives of the associations of citizens Osvit, an organization which lobbied for the affirmation and protection of rights of Roma people and with their peers from secondary schools Svetozar Markovic and Legal and Administrative Vocational Secondary Schools. Junior Secondary School from Hillerød through its regular curricula pays special attention to minority issues and life in multi-ethnic environment. Since Denmark is one of the most homogenous country from the aspect of lingual, ethnic and religious aspect, the objective of the study tour was to introduce to students to minorities living in South East Europe. Meeting their peers from Serbia presented an excellent opportunity for students from Denmark to establish direct and personal contacts and thus learn more about the life of the young people here overcoming the prejudices that both groups might have had.