The Financial Times ranked the city of Nisava among the ten cities and regions of Europe with the most favorable financial, economic and business potentials. – The Science Technology Park will be handed over for use in mid-April.
Since the beginning of 2020, diplomats from the consular offices of a large number of countries in Serbia, delegations of the world’s most famous companies and investors who would invest in development or construction in the Nis area have been visiting almost every day in Nis. In the past three and a half years, the city of Nisava has significantly changed its appearance, economic, cultural and complete living environment. As Mayor Darko Bulatovic announces, this year Nis will be one of the largest construction sites in Serbia.
– The construction of a large factory will start in the next month and will receive about two thousand workers. This is a large company from China that has a wide range of state-of-the-art lighting, so-called LED car headlights, and much more in its product line. We are also in talks with a well-known Austrian company that insists on building its new production facility in the Donje Medjurovo Industrial Zone. Preparations are underway for a new location to which the city, in cooperation with the Serbian government, will bring another world company in the spring to build a factory for several thousand workers – Bulatovic told Politika.
In mid-April, after less than a year and a half of construction, the Science and Technology Park (NTP) will be put to use, and equipment will be rapidly completed, and in mid-summer, the most up-to-date research laboratory within the Faculty of Electronics will be highlighted in the same space.
– As the completion of the NTP is approaching, there is a growing interest from domestic and foreign firms and companies in the IT sector. We have already established direct contacts with the Chinese multinational networking and telecommunication equipment company “Huaweii”, with which they have been largely involved in the implementation of the project “Nis is the first smart city in Serbia”, and in the last month we have been visited twice by representatives of the big Turkish company DTechnology Group, which cooperates with over 120 largest companies and IT sector in the world, who wants to cooperate with Nis and Serbia, but also to become the first “tenant” in our new science and technology park – says the Mayor of Nis.
– We have exceptional cooperation with many European countries. We have signed a memorandum with the Swiss government on a grant of 550 thousand euros for our new science and technology park, German companies are interested in investments in Nis, close cooperation with St. Petersburg in Russia has been established…All of this, it must be emphasized, contributed in high ranking of Nis in the well-known magazine “Financial Times” among ten cities and regions of Europe with the most favorable financial, economic and business potentials – says Bulatovic.
On the situation in other areas, Darko Bulatovic especially singled out the municipal system of Nis in recent years, especially in the past and at the beginning of this:
– Large funds were invested in the construction of the water supply network in Nis, as well as in a large number of settlements in the rural area and in the completion of three and the beginning of the construction of the fourth collector in the city itself. In the middle of this year, the largest investment in Serbia begins in Nis, in cooperation with Sweden – construction of a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant in this part of the Balkans. Considering the exceptional investment in the modernization of the hot water system in the city, it is clear that in Nis we have reached the level that during the heating season there are no delays, and that citizens are satisfied with the heating and, of course, the cost of services. Also, we have modernized urban and suburban transport and as much as 91 million euros will be invested in this area over the next seven years.
The number of unemployed in Nis in recent years has been reduced by almost half – in 2012, there were about 39,000 unemployed in the labor market, and at the beginning of this year, there were 22,000. Bulatovic said that the opening of a dozen factories of foreign companies contributed to this, as well as the investment of the city, in cooperation with the republic authorities, on the promotion and development of private entrepreneurship.
– In the last two years only 2,800 people have got jobs in small and medium-sized enterprises in our city. Definitely, Nis is once again becoming what it was – the largest economic, industrial, scientific and R&D, as well as cultural and sports center of this part of Serbia and the Balkans. It should be noted here that forty years ago, when the Electronic, Mechanical, Tobacco and Aluminum, Textile and Rubber Industries, numerous factories were operating successfully, around 40,000 workers worked in Nis and industry alone. In the meantime, this relationship has changed drastically, disrupted and that is why all our efforts to recover Nis in the true sense of the economy are economic and much stronger than in the last few decades – said the Mayor of Nis.
Finally, Darko Bulatovic said that “this year’s new investments, further investments in the city’s development and activities undertaken by the current Nis leadership are not related to the upcoming elections.”
– It must be understood that in the last three and a half years we have been constantly doing exactly the same thing, alone and with the wholehearted assistance of the state leadership – developing Nis, building and opening factories and reducing the number of unemployed, improving the lives of citizens and creating a modern European center. Until the end of the term of this government, we will not change the route and activities, and if we regain the confidence of citizens in the coming period – we will do the same. However, if, after the election, someone else runs Nis, they will have only one task – they will have to continue what we have done in previous years. Our city must not, at any price and under any circumstances, allow, and hopefully will not, allow us to return to the not so great past – said Darko Bulatovic for Politika.
