Nis, 19 July 2007 – The City of Nis has organized a public presentation of the draft document of the City of Nis Development Strategy. The draft strategic document is the result of a six month long process which saw the engagement of the citizens of the City of Nis, including the Mayor and his office, representatives of the City Assembly, the Development Council, city administration and public companies, chamber of commerce, finance and bank sector, SMEs, NGOs, trade unions, minority associations, students’ parliament, experts, professionals and practitioners, academicians and religious leaders.

The process of formulation of the City of Nis Development Strategy has been carried out with the support of UN-HABITAT SIRP Programme, and the technical assistance of Ervet the specialized development agency of the Emilia Romagna Region in Italy.

In the presence of the Head of Italian Cooperation Office in Belgrade, Ms. Anna Zambrano, the event has been chaired by the Mayor of Nis Mr. Smiljko Kostic who made an introductory presentation of the strategic document, highlighting the importance of such a strategic document and expressing his appreciation to all citizens, regardless of their occupation, political affiliation, age group ,etc, who participated to the formulation process contributing to the definition of the vision of the future development of the City of Nis: a “crossroad and meeting point for people, ideas, culture and tradition; regional economy, university, sport and tourism leader; center of sustainable development where high quality of life for all citizens in achieved”.

Following the presentations of the main steps of the formulation process by UN-HABITAT SIRP, and the applied methodology by Ervet, the team of local experts engaged for the project by the City of Nis, presented the contents of the Draft Strategic Document.

The Head of the Department for Economy, Sustainable development and Environmental Protection explained the procedures for the adoption of the Strategy and that comments to document will be collected by the City of Nis who will finalize the Strategy for the adoption by the City Assembly

The Draft Document in Serbian language of the City of Nis Development Strategy can be downloaded from the City of Nis official web site www.nis.org.yu.

During the presentation of the draft Document, the second issue of the Newsletter of the Nis Development Strategy was distributed.

More info on the City of Nis Development Strategy