CorD Magazine, November 2019, issue no. 181

H.E. EDUARDO BOTELHO BARBOSA

VIOLETA BULC

80 Years Of “Unfaltering Friendship”

Moving To The Fast Track

of the European Volleyball Federation (CEV)

Collector Of Successes

NOVEMBER 2019/ ISSUE NO. 181

www.cordmagazine.com

Ambassador of Brazil to Serbia

ALEKSANDAR BORIČIĆ, President

European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport

interviews opinions news comments events COMMENT: BOJAN VRANIĆ

The Echo

OF THE BERLIN WALL FOCUS

Are We On The Back Seat Again?

Exclusive

HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

783002 771451 9

The Region Should Not Despair

ISSN1451-7833

PRESIDENT EMERITUS EUROPEAN COUNCIL, MINISTER OF STATE, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN POLICY CENTRE

CONTENTS

COMMENT

BOJAN VRANIĆ

THE ECHO OF THE BERLIN WALL With the end of the third decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is safe to make two claims: Firstly, enough time still hasn’t passed for those who participated in the November demonstrations in East Germany to forget the key reasons for their revolt; Secondly, sufficient time has passed for the Berlin Wall to become a political myth. We are faced with a confluence of the actual and the mythical regarding the ideas that drove the ‘Fall of the Wall’ 30 years ago

08 THE REGION SHOULD NOT DESPAIR

HERMAN VAN ROMPUY President Emeritus European Council, Minister Of State, President Of The European Policy Centre

HOW THE NEW COMPOSITION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IMPACTS SERBIA’S EU ACCESSION PROCESS Focus

27 MOVING TO THE FAST TRACK

VIOLETA BULC European Commissioner For Mobility And Transport

Founder And Chief Editor Of Arhipelag Publishing

52 BETWEEN THE MEDIA & THE BODY POLISH CONTEMPORARY ART

56 FACES & PLACES 59 COLLECTOR OF SUCCESSES

ALEKSANDAR BORIČIĆ President of the European Volleyball Federation (CEV)

14 80 YEARS OF “UNFALTERING FRIENDSHIP”

H.E. EDUARDO BOTELHO BARBOSA Ambassador Of Brazil To Serbia

30 WEEK OF ITALIAN CUISINE IN THE WORLD H.E. CARLO LO CASCIO Italian Ambassador To Serbia

31 BUSINESS DIALOGUE

WWW.CORDMAGAZINE.COM

48 INSPIRATION IS PARAMOUNT

@CORD_MAGAZINE

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20 GLOBAL DIARY

CORD MAGAZINE COVER PHOTO FROM THE OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE OF MR HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Miroslava Nešić-Bikić m.bikic@aim.rs

Mirjana Jovanović, Miša Brkić, Ljubica Gojgić Radmila Stanković, Steve MacKenzie, Zorica Todorović Mirković, Sonja Ćirić, Miloš Belčević

DESIGN: Jasmina Laković j.lakovic@aim.rs CONTRIBUTORS: Rob Dugdale, Maja Vukadinović,

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22 ARE WE ON THE BACK SEAT AGAIN?

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Comment

The Echo

Of The Berlin Wall

BY BOJAN VRANIĆ XX

T

o include more clarity here, we need to (de)brick the Wall as a symbol and as a political event. Symbolically,The Wall’s meaning was always related to liberties. Like every symbol, it is vague and open to interpretation. The impression is that the discontent of the citizens of East Germany peaked when the system refused to allow their freedom of movement, despite the fact that Hungary and Poland had already liberated their border policies. The openness to interpretation is clear – as the symbol was transformed in the subsequent decades into a neo-liberal driving force behind the creation of a free and open market for people, ideas and goods, thus providing the justification for the unipolar world of the “end of history”.

Politically, the ‘Fall’ was an anti-communist project. It marked a wave of democratisation sweeping across Eastern Europe, starting in Poland and ending in the former Yugoslavia.

In East Germany, it was the desire for systemic change that came first, with the project of national unification coming only later. The slogan Wir sind das Volk! (We are the people) had two meanings: the negative, that we are not (only) the working class, and the positive, that we are all one people. The same phrase expressed the divergent goals of democratic freedom and ethnic unity. The interpretations of the slogan that later followed became a constitutional part of the Wall’s myth.

The echo of the Fall resonated in a different way in the Western Balkans. The dissolution

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With the end of the third decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is safe to make two claims: Firstly, enough time still hasn’t passed for those who participated in the November demonstrations in East Germany to forget the key reasons for their revolt; Secondly, sufficient time has passed for the Berlin Wall to become a political myth. We are faced with a confluence of the actual and the mythical regarding the ideas that drove the ‘Fall of the Wall’ 30 years ago

of the communist Yugoslavia wasn’t initially seen as a project that would increase political liberties. This idea only became a key in each of the successor states respectively once the path to the EU was taken. The ethnic goal took primacy. Claiming that the Fall determined the ascent of ethnic identities would be far fetched, however. As Gourevitch claimed, as authoritarian power declines, national identities emerge in their full form. Combined with the authoritarian heritage, the das Volk revolt was interpreted in the Western Balkans as a need to create a new kind of bond, one between strong national leaders and the people, thereby weakening unconsolidated institutions.

The memory of this political fact needs to be nurtured if Europe wants to preserve the symbolic meaning of the Fall and remove radical political interpretations that are taking primacy in the postBerlin Wall legacy

The case of the Western Balkans shows the validity of Mudde’s claim that the November events in East Germany created a political space for populism. Even in Germany, the sense of the unequal development of the former West and East parts, coupled with nostalgia for former times, led to the decline of leftist parties and the rise of radical right populism (AFD). In Eastern Europe, discontent with the free market pushed voters into the protectionist hands of conservative populist leaders, with Poland and Hungary representing the prime examples. It is this feeling of resentment for the legacy of 1989 that is leading to deeper divisions across post-communist Europe, between the elites and the people, the capitalists and the workers, and between the people of the heartland and minorities and, most recently, immigrants.

What is forgotten in the post-communist states is that it was the Fall of the Berlin Wall that made it possible for the people to freely express their resentment toward the political establishment. The passage of time has taken its toll. The memory of this political fact needs to be nurtured if Europe wants to preserve the symbolic meaning of the Fall and remove radical political interpretations that are taking primacy in the post-Berlin Wall legacy.

Interview Exclusive HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

PRESIDENT EMERITUS EUROPEAN COUNCIL, MINISTER OF STATE, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN POLICY CENTRE

Just a few days after Herman Van Rompuy visited Belgrade and said the lever for the region’s prosperity shouldn’t be sought in Moscow, Ankara or Beijing, but rather in Brussels, his successors at the helm of the European Union didn’t agree for North Macedonia and Albania to open accession talks. In this interview for CorD Magazine, the President Emeritus of the European Council and the former Prime Minister of Belgium analyses the reasons for the lack of support for enlargement, but adds that he is convinced that the current situation shouldn’t be interpreted as closing the door to the countries of the Western Balkans. Quoting Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić, Van Rompuy notes that he sees Serbia as a key country in the region that could contribute to strengthening Europe by engaging to bridge the differences between the peoples of the region, fostering reconciliation and building on each others strengths to promote the well-being of all.

The Region

Should Not Despair The latest (European Council) decision on North Macedonia and Albania reflects some concerns about the readiness of the EU itself to welcome new members at this juncture, but does not at all raise doubts about the principle of the European perspective of these countries itself – Herman Van Rompuy 8

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COLD SHOWER

The decision to postpone the start of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia is felt like a cold shower in the Balkan countries

PASTURES

It would be a historic mistake by the leaders of this region to turn their back on the EU and look elsewhere for greener pastures

CHALLENGES

Europe has to show that it can deal with security and stability challenges in its immediate neighbourhood

Advocates for the EU integration of the Western Balkans are disappointed with the decision of European leaders to postpone the opening of membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania.

Many believe that this initiative serves to undermine the EU’s credibility in the region. How do you view this stance of the European Council? Do you believe that the EU enlargement process will continue in the near future?

It is obvious that the European Council’s decision about the postponement of the start of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia is felt as a cold shower in the Balkan countries. I do not hide my personal conviction that this is a missed opportunity: we could have shown the region that we appreciate the efforts made towards the peaceful settlement of bilateral disputes, and towards the equally important internal reform process that will qualify the countries of the Western Balkans to become EU member states in the not-so-distant future. But the region shouldn’t despair. The (European council) decision reflects some concerns about the readiness of the EU itself to welcome new members at this juncture, but does not at all bring into doubt the principle of the European perspective of these countries itself. It is a pity that Europe was not able to give the encouraging political signal today, but in the medium and long term it is probably beneficial for all the peoples involved that we have a careful look at how the accession negotiation process can actually better deliver on its promise to bolster transformational forces in society and governance, prior to enlargement. You said whilst in Belgrade that the key to prosperity isn’t to be found in

Let’s not forget the European Council decision was taken at the same meeting during which the European leaders had to decide about future steps regarding Brexit.

So, yes, it is obvious that Europe is struggling with internal problems that shift attention away from other issues, including enlargement

Beijing, Moscow or Ankara, but rather in Brussels. Do you agree with the assessment that postponing EU enlargement inevitably prompts countries like Serbia to turn towards new partnerships beyond the EU?

There is nothing wrong with building partnerships outside the EU. We have seen before how special relationships, often built for historical reasons between member states and the world outside Europe, has contributed to strengthening the Union’s capacity to deal with this world. Looking at the Balkans, there is, however, one major difference: geography makes the European destiny of this region inevitable; you are already surrounded by EU member states, the bulk of your trade is with the EU, which is also the source of the

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Interview Exclusive

majority of the foreign direct investments in your countries. It would be a historic mistake by the leaders of this region to turn their back on the EU and look elsewhere for greener pastures. At the end of the day, here and everywhere, political decision-makers should let their strategic decisions be guided by the interests of the citizens they represent. There is, in my view, not the slightest doubt that the security, political, social and economic interests of the countries of this region continue to be be better served by the European integration path. I do admit that this will require patience and some political will and courage, especially these days, but difficult times always give an opportunity to show real statesmanship. In evaluating the current situation, do you consider that the obstacles to the swift EU integration of the Western Balkans are greater within the region or within the EU?

Let’s not forget the European Council decision was taken at the same meeting during which the European leaders had to decide about future steps regarding Brexit. So, yes,

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The new Kosovo government has yet to be formed, and this will be an indispensable interlocutor for everyone who tries to break the present stalemate in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

It is positive to see more engagement from the international community, including the U.S., to contribute to this process it is obvious that Europe is struggling with internal problems that shift attention away from other issues, including enlargement.

The obstacles in the accession countries are also indirectly, or for some leaders directly, related to internal European problems, with

respect to the way some member states deal with fundamental issues of the rule of Law, democratic governance and media freedom.

There is a fear in many countries in the EU that the European construction, based on fundamental respect for these core democratic values, could be weakened from within or by admitting new member states that have not yet shown sufficient commitment to preserving this acquis in their own countries. So, we need time and political resolve to overcome obstacles both in the EU and in candidate countries. A Belgian is again at the helm of the European Council, and also – like yourself – has experience as the prime minister of Belgium. What do you consider will be the biggest challenges facing the EU’s new leaders and European Council President-elect Charles Michel?

Every European President has one overwhelming, and indeed extremely challenging task: to retain unity among the members in one of the most daring experiments of supranational integration the world has ever seen. The readiness of the member states to pool part of their

sovereignty to address problems and opportunities on a scale that goes beyond their countries’ borders requires permanent care, to make sure each and everyone’s interests are respected. The Belgian coat of arms “L’Union fait la force” (Unity makes strength) applies to Europe as well: without unity among the member states, we cannot properly digest Brexit, we cannot build instruments that combine solidarity with a sense of responsibility in the economic and social field, nor can we play a significant role on the world stage, to tackle problems such as climate change or migration. If European leaders cannot ‘get their act together’ and show that they are collectively a force to be reckoned with, to meet these challenges, Europe risks becoming irrelevant and falling into the hands of populists and nationalist forces that may undermine the very essence of the European project. Do you believe that the separation of the EU and the UK is imminent, and how

Every European President has one overwhelming, and indeed extremely challenging, task: to retain unity among the members in one of the most daring experiments of supranational integration the world has ever seen do you see future relations between the Union and the UK?

These very days we are going through a process with an outcome that remains clouded by uncertainty. Whatever the result of the Brexit negotiations, there will always be the necessity to maintain a deep, multidimensional and intense relationship with a country that remains a direct neighbour of the EU, and

with which we share the same values. One may argue that the same geographically reality that makes the European destiny of the Balkans unavoidable will also constitute the principal argument to make sure we maintain a close partnership with the UK in all areas of common interests. Speaking about Serbia, you noted that you see the country as a bridge between the eastern and western parts of Europe. Can you elaborate on what significance Serbia could have in that interconnection?

The Bridge Over the Drina, by Yugoslav Nobel Prize Winner Ivo Andrić, in some way symbolises what I wanted to say: the Balkans, and Serbia in particular, has been the meeting point - unfortunately often accompanied with a lot of bloodshed between cultures and societies that together constitute Europe’s sociocultural and religious heritage. Serbia is the most

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Interview Exclusive migrant crisis, the degree of affirmation of the rule of law, in relations with Russia, China and third countries, but also in relations regarding the EU’s further enlargement. Do you think this is linked to serious stratification within the EU?

The Central and Eastern EU are not homogeneous. The concept of ‘new member states’ is not homogeneous either, as the Baltic States form a separate group in many respects. There is no reason why the EU’s ‘Mittel Europe’ should be doomed to be less democratic than others. It simply depends on the government that each country has. The situation was very different a few years ago. A government is not a regime - governments come and go. You consider that it is the EU that can contribute to creating an atmosphere of trust that would ease the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. Do you have the impression that current events – such as the appointment of two U.S. envoys to the region – suggest the conclusion that this crisis on European soil will also be resolved by another factor – America or several of the most influential EU member states – without the reaching of a consensus within the Union?

important country in the Western Balkans.

It has an historic vocation in the region of reconciliation and progress. Bridging the differences between the peoples of the region, fostering reconciliation and building on each others strengths to promote the well-being of all is what Europe is about.

This is indeed also our Belgian experience, and could become Serbia’s contribution to strengthening Europe, as the pivotal country in the Western Balkans. Serbia, moreover, lies on the interconnectivity crossroads between northern and southern Europe, in terms of communication and transport infrastructure. Individual analysts of relations within the EU talk about the growing differences between Europe’s East and West, which are expressed in relations towards the

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The Central and Eastern EU are not homogeneous.

The concept of ‘new member states’ is not homogeneous either, as the Baltic States form a separate group in many respects. There is no reason why the EU’s ‘Mittel Europe’ should be doomed to be less democratic than others. It simply depends on the government that each country has

I would like to plead for a little patience.

European elections took place only a couple of months ago, and the EU Commission is being formed and will only take office in the coming weeks. The new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr Borrell, has already indicated that Pristina will be his first destination. The new Kosovo government has yet to be formed, and this will be an indispensable interlocutor for everyone who tries to break the present stalemate in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. It is positive to see more engagement from the international community, including the U.S., to contribute to this process. Bigger EU member states, such as France and Germany, have also indicated their willingness to step up their efforts, but I believe it would ultimately be logical for the initiative to remain in the hands of High Representative Borrell. Europe has to show that it can deal with the security and stability challenges in its immediate neighbourhood.

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Interview H.E. EDUARDO BOTELHO BARBOSA AMBASSADOR OF BRAZIL TO SERBIA

The more you know Serbia, the more you like it, says Brazilian ambassador Eduardo Botelho Barbosa, who is approaching the completion of the first year of his residency in Belgrade. Speaking in this interview for CorD Magazine, this Brazilian diplomat reiterates his country’s commitment to jointly fighting for the rule of law in international relations, but also talks about the successful privatisation of Serbian company Galenika, which – provided plans to restore the significance of this former pharmaceutical giant prove successful – could provide encouragement to invest in Serbia among other Brazilian investors.

80 Years Of

“Unfaltering Friendship” Brasilia and Belgrade defend values and principles that contribute to a safer, more peaceful world, such as the defence of multilateralism and promotion of the rule of law in international relations ~ Eduardo Botelho Barbosa 14

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RESOLUTION 1244 Resolution 1244 is not about empty words!

TRADE

Exports to Serbia total around US$110 million, while imports total US$16 million

Your Excellency, you stated recently that you are satisfied with your residency in Serbia to date, after having arrived less than a year ago. What do you like about it in particular?

My wife, Monique, and I are very happy to be here, in beautiful Belgrade, which radiates with European charm. We arrived in early February and are still familiarising ourselves with the impressive cultural and leisure possibilities of this truly endearing capital. It is easy and comfortable to live here. The people of Belgrade have been unfalteringly friendly.

As we get to travel around Serbia and better understand the ways of the land, we are increasingly fascinated by this society. In my experience, the more you know Serbia, the more you like it. And the varied gastronomy and quality wines are another pleasant surprise!

second largest economy and second largest market for Serbian products in the Americas. You spoke in another recent interview about Brazil’s adherence to Resolution 1244 and its unchanged stance regarding the provisions of international law as they relate to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia. How would you comment on the fact that there

AMAZON

The main challenge in the Brazilian Amazon is fighting illegal practises

are strong voices on the international scene, including in the UN, suggesting that the time has come to withdraw that resolution?

UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) is central to Brazil’s unwavering position on the Kosovo issue, so we don’t agree that it has become irrelevant. As you know, besides Brazil, many other major countries – including European ones – adhere to Resolution 1244.

Your posting to Belgrade began during the year marking the 80th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations. Do you share President Vučić’s assessment that Brazil is one of Serbia’s most important political and economic partners in Latin America?

The bilateral relationship between Brazil and Serbia goes back a long way. We are celebrating 80 years since the first exchange of resident ambassadors. Thanks to the Archives of Yugoslavia, the official relationship has been documented in an exhibition that is to be held in November on their premises, along with the publication of an accompanying catalogue.

The dialogue between our two governments has been consistently based on mutual respect, and has always been friendly and collaborative.

Brasilia and Belgrade defend values and principles that contribute to a safer, more peaceful world, such as the defence of multilateralism and the promotion of the rule of law in international relations. Very importantly, we also coincide on human rights.

The economic dimension is also relevant: Brazil is an open, global trader. We are the

Brazil is an open, global trader. We are the second largest economy and second largest market for Serbian products in the Americas

In line with this Resolution, Brazil supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, and a political solution that allows both parties to solve their issues. Resolution 1244 is not about empty words!

I also believe that the rewards of reaching a solution will include the reinforcement of the pace or socio-economic development of both Serbia and Kosovo. As President Vučić

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Interview

How far have negotiations advanced when it comes to bilateral agreements between Brazil and Serbia in the areas of justice, education and air transport?

We have six agreements currently under negotiation, comprising one Air Services Agreement, four agreements in the area of justice, and a Cooperation Agreement in the field of education. Most of them are at a very advanced stage. These instruments cover specific issues of interest to both parties, and signal their wish to reinforce bilateral cooperation. himself pointed out, solving the Kosovo issue is crucial to the future of the Serbian nation, and, I would add, to wider regional stability. You noted at the start of your mandate in Serbia that there is room to advance economic cooperation between Brazil and Serbia, citing agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry as areas where such advances could come the fastest.

Were you thinking of some specific investments?

Exports to Serbia total around US$110 million, while imports total US$16 million. There is a Brazilian investment in the local pharmaceutical sector. Tourism from Brazil is still in its infancy, but is noticeably on the rise. I am optimistic about the future: Serbia’s growth is back on track and, I believe, will increasingly attract the attention of Brazilian companies.

One of the main activities of my Embassy is to promote commercial cooperation with Serbia. Galenika, Serbia’s former pharmaceutical giant, was sold to Luxembourgbased Aelius - a branch of Brazil’s EMS S/A - two years ago. Could you tell us something about this investment and

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We hope that the Galenika experience will encourage other Brazilian companies to seize the opportunities offered by the Western Balkan market by coming and investing in Serbia the current situation at Galenika?

The acquisition of Galenika in 2017 by EMS S.A. represents the first major Brazilian investment in Serbia. In the short time that’s followed, the company has undergone modernisation, its financial health has been restored and operations returned to profitability. Exports are on the rise. Galenika is on the right path to regaining its previous importance, which will in turn create more job opportunities in the Belgrade area. We hope that the Galenika experience will encourage other Brazilian companies to seize the opportunities offered by the Western Balkan market by coming and investing in Serbia.

The world was shocked by this summer’s images of wildfires in the forests of the Amazon. Could you tell what the situation is like at present?

The fires in the Amazon region are a matter of huge concern for Brazilian society and the government. It’s important to bear in mind, however, that the situation in the Amazon – though serious – was much less dramatic than reported by the international media.

Fires are more frequent in my country from June to October, because that is the dry season.

So far, 2019 has been exceptionally hot (as is the case all over the world, unfortunately).

Many Amazonian countries (60 per cent of the Amazon is in Brazil) suffered even greater fire activity than Brazil, compared to the same period of 2018.

Historical records show that the fires registered between January and August 2019 were in line with those recorded in the previous years, only slightly exceeding the average between 1999 and 2019. Based on these records, it’s not possible to infer that the increase reported for 2019 reflects a tendency.

President Jair Bolsonaro launched a huge operation in last August to reinforce the fight against environmental crimes and wildfires,

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Interview

coordinated by a central command centre established in Brasilia. Satellite data showed a quick decrease in the number of fires after the launch of this ongoing intervention, which has to date mobilised 8,000 personnel, 220 vehicles, 60 vessels and 11 aircraft. Since the beginning of the operation, 1,500 fires have been tackled, 68 people have been detained and more than 10 million euros has been issued as environmental penalty fees. Many countries have offered their solidarity and are helping us in this emergency, including - among others - Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Israel, Japan and the United States. Could you speak in more detail about the causes of the fires and the possible human factor, given that it has been mentioned that the fires could be the result of tactical attempts by individual farmers to expand the area covered by their crop fields?

The main challenge in the Brazilian Amazon, which represents an area equivalent in size to the entire territory of Western Europe, is fighting illegal practises. Seventy per cent of all deforestation takes place outside rural estates,

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i.e., on public and unclaimed land. The blame lies with illegal activities, such as unlawful occupations of land and unauthorised logging.

I’d like to emphasise that deforestation rates in the Amazon region have declined

Brazil became the first country to receive payments (totalling US$96 million) from the Green Climate Fund for environmental services of decreased deforestation significantly, from 27,700km² in 2004 to 7,500km² in 2018, representing a reduction of 72 per cent. In February 2019, Brazil became the first country to receive payments (totalling US$96 million) from the Green Climate Fund for environmental services of decreased deforestation.

Brazil has increased its agricultural production more than sevenfold over the last 40 years, whilst using only 30 per cent more land.

This reduced the pressure on conservation areas. More than 60 per cent of my country’s land mass is covered by native vegetation, with farming limited to approximately 30 per cent of the territory, eight per cent of which is cropland, while approximately 22 per cent is dedicated to livestock farming.

This a much lower usage of the land base than in Europe. This case has also gained a political dimension following Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s statement that the most powerful countries in the world approach the problem of these fires in a “colonial way”, by interfering with Brazil’s internal affairs. What prompted such an assessment?

Quoting President Bolsonaro, the situation in the Amazon, though pressing, has to be addressed with serenity. The spread, even by foreign authorities, of scientifically unfounded affirmations does not help to solve the problem, and lends itself to political use and misinfor-

mation of the public. Wildfires happen all over the world and should not be used as a pretext for the imposing of international sanctions.

Some sectors in our export markets seek to associate Brazil with the destruction of the environment in order to pressure us on trade issues and to influence consumers negatively.

There is clearly a protectionist agenda behind these attacks.

Brazil has solid credentials in the area of sustainability and on the international environmental agenda. Bolsonaro’s message is that Brazil is aware of its sovereignty and responsibility for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the environment. Despite President Bolsonaro having sharply criticised the alleged attempts of major powers to meddle in Brazil’s domestic affairs when it comes to the Amazonian wildfires, in neighbouring Venezuela Brazil has sided with opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who speaks

openly about the support he receives from Washington. What caused most neighbouring countries to turn against President Maduro?

President of Chile – who wrote in her recent report that economic sanctions only serve to worsen the economic situation and deepen the humanitarian crisis?

Nearly 180,000 Venezuelan refugees have taken shelter in Brazil. My government passed legislation, dubbed “Operation Welcome”, to help them settle. They are part of the more than four million Venezuelans (source: UNHCR) of a population of 28 million that have had to flee the economic collapse of Venezuela’s economy. These numbers are expected to keep growing. This is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions never before seen in the Americas, which impacts on nearly all countries in that part of the world.

The 11 American countries that comprise the Lima Group, which includes Brazil, impose sanctions on Venezuela, but oppose violence.

The sanctions imposed by the U.S., which is not a member, are supported. Although sanctions will also impact on the most vulnerable people, who have already suffered too much, they are necessary to bring the Maduro regime to the negotiating table with the democratic opposition. The Group also calls on the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and investigate the situation in Venezuela.

Brazil fully supports president, interim, Juan Guaidó, who was designated by the regularly elected National Assembly, in his efforts to re-establish democracy. Mr Guaidó enjoys popular support and recognition from nearly 60 other countries, while Mr Maduro is increasingly isolated.

Members of the LIMA Group, including Brazil, didn’t oppose the new sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S. Do you share the concerns of Michelle Bachelet – current U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and a former

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GLOBAL DIARY

Commom Good

“Once we are guided by the considerations of common good for the entire humankind, once we put aside geopolitical, minute-serving reasons stemming from the necessity to resolve internal political matters of electoral cycles in this or that country, we will be able to achieve results” – SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

EU ALLOWS BREXIT EXTENSION The EU has allowed the third Brexit postponement this year. Although the public voted to leave the EU in 2016, Parliament has failed to agree on an exit strategy.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeatedly promised that it would never happen, even saying he would rather “die in a ditch” than see it come to pass. But on 28th October — three days before the UK was due to leave the EU — the seemingly endless Brexit process was extended again. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, confirmed that this request had been accepted.

The EU has thus given the UK until at least the end of January to find a solution, but the question of how the UK will leave the bloc remains unanswered.

64TH BELGRADE INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR The 64th Belgrade International Book Fair took place from 23rd to 27th October, under the slogan “Heads = Tails”and with about 500 exhibitors presented, including around 60 from abroad. On behalf of Egypt, the honorary guest country of this year’s book fair, attendees were greeted by President of the General Egyptian Book Organisation, lecturer of literary

criticism, Director of the Cairo International Book Fair and visiting professor of Nanjing University in China, Haitham Al-Haj Ali. A panel of judges decided to present the Belgrade Publisher of the Year 2019 award to Laguna Publishing House.

This year’s award for Publishing Venture of the Year was also presented to the Tenth Circle of the 10th Century Anthology Edition published by the Matica Srpska Publishing Centre from Novi Sad, and to Prose Works of Serbian Scholars – Official Gazette and the Svetozar Marković University Library.

TRUDEAU WINS NARROW VICTORY TO FORM MINORITY GOVERNMENT Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has secured a second term after winning the country’s federal election, but his narrow victory means he will lead a minority government that will be forced to depend on other parties to govern.

“We seek hardship for none and prosperity for all, and if we unite around these common goals, I know we can achieve them,” Trudeau told cheering supporters in Montreal, saying that Canadians had sent a clear message of support for progressive policies.

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November

ZORAN ZAEV, PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA AND EDI RAMA, PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA

Serious Threat

“No one is fooled by the so-called ceasefire. Any course other than a Turkish withdrawal means unacceptable suffering, a victory for Daesh (the Islamic State group), and a serious threat to European security” – DONALD TUSK, EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT

JAPANESE EMPEROR NARUHITO DECLARES ASCENSION TO THE THRONE New Japanese Emperor Naruhito has declared his enthronement, in accordance with the country’s constitution and the Law of the Imperial Household, thus confirming his coronation. The enthronement ceremony took place at the Tokyo Imperial Palace’s Seiden State Hall.

The monarch, dressed in traditional attire, proclaimed his ascendancy to the throne from an elevated dais.

The ceremony was attended by as many as 400 representatives from 174 countries and territories, including more than 70 monarchs and heads of states. About 1,600 Japanese citizens were also invited to the ceremony, among them senior state officials, prefecture governors, former prime ministers, scientists, athletes, writers and business community members.

RUSSIAN-AMERICA HOLIDAY PROPOSED

date of 19th July, signed into existence by Tsar Paul I, when the Russian-American Company, which had been created in 1799, served as the vehicle for spreading Russian interests in North America.

The initiative is set to go through a lengthy process of discussion and approval. If all goes according to plan, the new honorary date in the Russian calendar would be formally established

by President Vladimir Putin sometime in January 2020.

In a move that may rattle some Russia-watchers in the U.S., the Russian Defence Ministry has suggested the establishing a new holiday: Russian-America Day. The new honorary date may be set in Russia as soon as 2020.

The Russian Defence Ministry wants RussianAmerica Day to be commemorated on the

EP SUPPORTS NEGOTIATIONS WITH ALBANIA AND NORTH MACEDONIA In a resolution adopted on 23 October, the European Parliament stressed that North Macedonia and Albania meet the requirements to start negotiations.

Parliament expressed deep disappointment over the failure to agree on opening EU accession talks with both countries at the EU summit on 17th-18th October.

The text was adopted by 412 votes in favour, with 136 against and 30 abstentions.

MEPs regret the move by France, Denmark and the Netherlands to block the decision and say that Albania and North Macedonia have made considerable efforts over the last few years and meet the EU’s criteria to start membership talks. rd

HOLLAND OR THE NETHERLANDS? The Dutch government has decided to stop describing itself as Holland and will instead use only its formal name – the Netherlands– as part of an attempted update of its global image.

The national rebranding, which has received the support of business leaders, the tourist board and the central government, will be rolled out later this year. Ministers want to shift the international focus away from certain aspects of national life with which the country is commonly associated, such as its recreational drug culture and Amsterdam’s red-light district. As part of the new strategy, the Netherlands will be the official brand at the Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place in Rotterdam next May, and during the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

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Focus

How the new composition of the European Commission impacts Serbia’s EU accession process

Are We On

The Back Seat Again?

In times when the European Union and its citizens are grappling with global and internal challenges, there is no place for the enlargement process on the list of the top priorities of the new European Commission. Yet that doesn’t mean that the focus will shift away from expectations regarding the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, an improved electoral system and media freedom in Serbia

W

hile there are doubts about whether the new appointments in the European Commission will slow or accelerate the accession process, it seems obvious that this topic won’t be on the list of the EU’s top

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priorities. Yet the new EU leadership will insist on promoting the rule of law in the Western Balkan, and will rethink the support to ‘stabilocratic’ leaders in the region as the guardians of the stability, say CorD’s interlocutors.

BOŠKO JAKŠIĆ JOURNALIST

NEW COMMISSION – NEW DEMANDS IT IS TO BE EXPECTED THAT THE NEW EUROPEAN COMMISSION WILL DEMAND MORE VIGOROUS REFORMS AIMED AT BUILDING INSTITUTIONS FOR THE RULE OF LAW, MEDIA FREEDOMS, THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION AND ACHIEVING CONDITIONS FOR FAIR AND FREE ELECTIONS Since the German Chancellor launched the initiative to encourage the faster integration of the Western Balkans into the EU in 2014, known as the “Berlin Process”, assurances have been arriving from various addresses that the accession of the region is of “strategic interest” to the Union.

For now, Serbia and Montenegro are the only ones negotiating with Brussels, with their prospects of entry linked to 2025, but progress is slow. Also contributing to this is the lack of unity and a clear political strategy of the EU for the region, which suggests that the Union has learned little from the wars of the former Yugoslavia, which uncovered deep historical divisions among the most influential members - which are being repeated.

While the EU begins to focus more on its neglected backyard, a “thorny path” awaits Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, and one of the biggest obstacles is represented by the Kosovo conflict, which has the potential to spillover and engulf the region.

The signing of a legally binding agreement between Belgrade and Pristina would certainly have a positive effect and represent a “decisive step” on Serbia’s European path. But Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have failed to revive the dialogue that was postponed in November 2018 due to Pristina’s unilateral decision to impose import duties on goods coming from Serbia and B-H, and now the Americans are stepping up their engagement.

The outcome is uncertain.

PROGRESS IN EU INTEGRATION FOR THE When it comes to enlargement, a problem WESTERN BALKANS REQUIRES NEW ELITES is presented by the very different approaches of WHO WILL NO LONGER FOLLOW THE Berlin and Paris. Macron is not too keen on the word “enlargement”, because – in his opinion, POLICY OF “STABILOCRACY” THAT HAS which is shared by some other members, like ALLOWED THE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA AND the Netherlands – that would weaken the fragile CHINA TO PENETRATE AND NATIONALIST cohesion of the Union and encourage populists or right-wingers.

AND AUTOCRATIC TENDENCIES TO RISE And while the region continues to hope that Merkel will change Macron’s approach, progress requires new elites who will no longer follow the policy of “stabilocracy” that has allowed the influence of Russia and China to penetrate and nationalist and autocratic tendencies to rise – with which the EU has lost credibility.

Taught by such an experience, it is to be expected that the new European Commission, apart from supporting the Brussels dialogue, will take on the platform contained in the latest EC report and demand more vigorous reforms aimed at building institutions for the rule of law, media freedoms, the fight against corruption and achieving conditions for fair and free elections.

The speed at which that will progress doesn’t depend exclusively on Belgrade, rather also – to a large extent – on the consolidation of relations within the Union, with Macron having made it clear that he is against enlargement that isn’t preceded by the implementing of internal EU reforms. The model of “reform in return for integration” has been decommissioned, because the mood in many EU member states doesn’t favour enlargement.

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Focus

How the new composition of the European Commission impacts Serbia’s EU accession process

FLORIAN BIEBER PH.D.

CENTRE FOR SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ

WHAT THE NEW COMMISSION REALLY WANTS THERE ARE SEVERAL DAMPERS TO THE EU ACCESSION PROCESS – ONE CERTAINLY WOULD BE THE CHOICE OF A HUNGARIAN COMMISSIONER FOR ENLARGEMENT AND A SECOND WOULD BE THE FRENCH VETO OVER ACCESSION TALKS WITH ALBANIA AND NORTH MACEDONIA

The new commission offers both good news and bad news for Serbia and the Western Balkans.

First, a new High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy offers the opportunity to reset the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and could thus reenergise a process that recently run out of steam. On the other hand, the naming of a Hungarian candidate to the enlargement portfolio has been a problematic choice.

While Hungary supports enlargement, the autocratic rule of Orban has isolated the country in the EU and gives it limited weight. A Hungarian commissioner can not credibly speak for the countries of the region in Brussels, as key member states, in particular sceptics of enlargement will view a Hungarian commissioner with reservation.

Thus, naming a Hungarian commissioner raises doubts over the committment of von der Leyen to seriously promote enlargement. In the region, a Hungarian commissioner cannot credibly promote the rule of law and democratic freedoms, which undermines the EU agenda in the region.

THE EU WILL BE IMPORTANT IN Finally, the French veto over accession talks FACILITATING A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE with Albania and North Macedonia has put a GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION IN SERBIA, further damper on the prospects of enlargement. This drastically reduces the likelihood YET CONSIDERING THE DIFFICULT of bringing the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue to a DEMOCRATIC CONDITIONS IN THE successful conclusion. After all, the dialogue COUNTRY, TWO FORMER MEPS MIGHT BE was based on the EU offering a path to memTOO WEAK TO MANAGE IT ON THEIR OWN bership if the parties resolve their differences.

What reward can the EU plausibly offer now?

The EU will be important in facilitating a dialogue between the government and opposition in Serbia, as it has also done in the past in Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia. Considering the difficult democratic conditions in the country, I am sceptical that two former MEPs can manage on their own.

Kukan and Fleckensteiner are senior and experienced mediators, no doubt, but also in North Macedonia we noticed that the engagement of MEPs is not enough to turn the corner. It remains to be seen whether there will be the backup and more senior level engagement by the commission, but signals are rather discouraging at the moment.

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November

SLOBODAN G. MARKOVIĆ

PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND THE INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES

STABILOCRACY WON’T EASILY GIVE WAY TO DEMOCRACY ALTHOUGH THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL EUROPE ALSO HAD TO WAIT 14 YEARS TO JOIN THE EU, TODAY THE GLOBAL SITUATION IS QUITE DIFFERENT AND SCEPTICISM REGARDING EU ENLARGEMENT IS MORE PRONOUNCED. AS SUCH, A PARALLEL WITH THE WESTERN BALKANS CANNOT EASILY BE DRAWN The new European Commission will continue to be dedicated to the enlargement of the EU, given that the parliamentary majority in the European Parliament clearly supports the EU prospects of the countries of the Western Balkans. However, some member states may not be equally enthusiastic.

This scepticism regarding new EU members is a result of several factors: 1. There is a traditional enlargement fatigue that was strengthened by the recent economic crisis in Greece; 2. There is a growing view that the transformation of some EU member states that joined the Union in 2004 and 2007 did not go at all as expected – if there are EU member states with 15 years of membership facing serious problems in terms of the rule of law, then there are serious doubts about how the same standards could be achieved by the countries of the Western Balkans; 3. There are also perceptions that these countries – due to their specific cultural issues, such as Serbia’s links with Russia or huge Islamic populations in some of them – may have difficulty harmonising their aspirations with the EU, both in terms of the Union’s values and in terms of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy; 4. Finally, since 2015 the European migrant crisis has strengthened fears in some public discourse in The West that there would also be a wave of economic migrants from the countries of the Western Balkans once they join the EU. It is a combination of all of this that is the real reason why there are problems with enlargement and doubts about it in some member states. The general rise of populism in some Western countries only amplifies all these THERE WILL BE NO REAL claims formulated in opposition to further EU enlargement.

DEMOCRATISATION OF THE WESTERN The focus on reform within the EU is just a good excuse for BALKANS WITHOUT REAL PROSPECTS the leaders of some EU member states.

One should, however, bear in mind that the countries OF EU ENLARGEMENT, SINCE THE EU IS THE of Central Europe also had to wait 14 years to join the EU, ONLY FOREIGN ACTOR THAT’S GENUINELY and that all of them also faced ups and downs in their INTERESTED IN THE DEMOCRATISATION aspirations. The main problem is that the global situation is OF THE REGION different in 2019 compared to the 1990s. There are different global compactors in the region, and no real democratisation of the Western Balkans could be expected without real prospects of EU enlargement, since the EU is the only foreign actor that’s genuinely interested in the democratisation of the region.

Regarding Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, the EU will continue to insist that Belgrade and Pristina reach a comprehensive and legally-binding agreement on the normalisation of their mutual relations, and that Serbia cannot not join the EU before such an agreement has been achieved. No substantial changes in this general attitude should be expected. What is not clear is what the division of roles will be in the process normalisation between the EU and the U.S. There is a kind of consensus in academic circles dealing with EU integration that, in the second decade of the 21st century, EU officials have given preference to stability over democratisation in the countries of the Western Balkans. In other words, the so-called system of “stabilocracies” has been supported in the Western Balkans. In the following period, one could expect a slight refocusing of the EU on issues of democratisation and the rule of law in the Western Balkans. That will include the issue of media freedoms, reform of the judiciary and electoral conditions. However, stability is likely to remain a key word for some time – and as long as the full normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina is not achieved.

Focus

How the new composition of the European Commission impacts Serbia’s EU accession process

SRĐAN MAJSTOROVIĆ

CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNING BOARD, EUROPEAN POLICY CENTRE

ENLARGEMENT WILL NOT BE ON THE LIST OF PRIORITIES THE NEW EUROPEAN COMMISSION WILL BE FOCUSED ON POLICIES AND MECHANISMS THAT LEAD TO THE ASSUAGING OF CITIZENS’ FEARS REGARDING UNPREDICTABLE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CLIMATE AND SECURITY CHALLENGES, RATHER THAN THE UNION’S ENLARGEMENT PROCESS The new composition of the European Commission reflects the fragmented political reality of today’s Union.

Its composition is determined by the balance of power among political groups within the European Parliament following the May elections. A priority of the next European Commission will be policies and mechanisms aimed at assuaging citizens’ fears regarding unpredictable economic, social, climate and security challenges. Under such circumstances, the Union’s enlargement process will not be high on the list of priorities.

It is certain that member states will continue their own kind of “nationalisation” of the Union’s enlargement policy throughout the term of the new European Commission. Some member states have already expressed their views on the need to reform the accession negotiation process as a precondition for opening negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia. Any possible change in the methodology of accession negotiations will also have a direct impact on Serbia’s negotiations. It remains to be seen how and to what extent this will impact on the dynamics of accession negotiations.

Two issues will certainly continue to be a focus of interest within the European Commission and among member states: respect for the fundamental principles and democratic values that form the basis of the EU, with a particular emphasis on the application of the rule of law; and advancing good neighbourly relations and resolving THE EU IS CHANGING AND THAT WILL bilateral disputes.

INFLUENCE ITS ENLARGEMENT POLICY. At a juncture when the president of the Commission has SERBIA NEEDS TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE announced the launch of an energetic fight for respect for the principle of the rule of law within the Union, it is realistic ON THESE CHANGES AND ADAPT TO THE to expect that the EU will require unequivocal evidence VALUE-BASED DEMANDS OF MEMBERSHIP of candidates’ compliance with the noted principles and MUCH MORE DECISIVELY, HONESTLY THAN democratic values. Serbia will have to prove that it’s capable BEFORE, AND UNAMBIGUOUSLY of ensuring courts and prosecutors’ offices are able to function without political influence; that its parliament conducts controls over the work of the executive; that elections are held in accordance with democratic standards; that it respects the freedom of the media and the right of journalists to do their jobs without fear and pressure; that it is prepared to tackle high-profile corruption cases and prosecute those responsible, regardless of their function or affiliation with those in power.

Serbia has simultaneously recognised the importance of enhancing regional cooperation and its role in creating a free flow of goods, people, capital and services in the Western Balkans is worthy of praise. It is also significant that this initiative is open to all countries of the region. Establishing a customs union and cooperation on the basis of the four freedoms that underpin EU member states’ cooperation can serve not only to further boost trade cooperation and economic development, but also send a message testifying to the maturity of the countries of the region. However, the implementation of this initiative will depend – among other things – on the normalising of relations with Kosovo, and in that sense the EU will insist on the continuation of negotiations with Pristina.

There is no doubt that the EU will remain the chief mediator in the negotiations. In this regard, it is realistic to expect the nomination of a special envoy who will play an important role in finding a compromise solution in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

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Interview VIOLETA BULC

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT The official opening of the Transport Community’s Secretariat in Belgrade is important for Serbia and the region in both symbolic and practical terms. It is yet another step in moving forward on the regions’ path towards the EU, but should bring palpable changes in the way businesses can connect and people can travel. It is also about security, which is often a painful topic in a region where many people lose their lifes in traffic. This month we spoke with Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport.

“The Transport Community provides a stable legal framework aligned to that of the EU, to push for greater connectivity,” says Bulc.

Ultimately, she notes, “this alignment to the European transport market’s rules is a step towards accession. When you become a Member State, there will be no need for transition”. What does the establishment and work of the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community mean to the advancement of mobility in the Western Balkans? And how symbolically important is the opening of the Secretariat?

First of all, the EU and Western Balkan coun-

Moving To

The Fast Track

The Community Treaty will open up the region for business opportunities, whilst also opening travel perspectives for citizens of the Western Balkans and the EU. This alignment to the rules of the European transport market thus represents an important step towards EU accession November

27

Interview tries should be very proud of this achievement.

The location of the Transport Community’s Secretariat in Belgrade is very important not only for Serbia, but for the entire region. The Transport Community is helping to initiate long-awaited transport reforms, which will lead to better quality services across the region. It is paving the way for better use of funding to build better transport infrastructure and reconnect the Western Balkans with the rest of Europe, where the region belongs. I would invite all stakeholders to go beyond and see the seat of the Western Balkans Transport Community as a regional centre of excellence in transport. It should become an inspiration for what we can do when we work together closely. Its ultimate goal is to promote peace and reconciliation in the region, and of

over the last five years, first in order to extend the EU’s core transport network to this region, identify priority projects and start their implementation. The EU Investment Framework for the Western Balkans has already made 760 million euros available in direct grants for infrastructure projects, and – as grants – these funds will not have to be paid back. Combined with loans and private investments, the leverage effect is expected to exceed three billion euros.

We are now accelerating work with the Transport Community and focusing on projects of regional interest. At the most recent Western Balkans Summit, in Poznan, leaders approved nine regional projects, including three submitted by the Transport Community Secretariat, and additional funding for them. The goal of the

latter three projects is to unblock administrative barriers and physical bottlenecks at the borders, so that trucks don’t spend 10 to 15 hours awaiting clearance at each border crossing.

We’ve also started working to remove dangerous spots along the major roads of all Western Balkan countries, through targeted road upgrades along key corridors covering several partner countries. Then there is rail – the most efficient and green mode of transport, but one that is under-used due to inefficient rail operations and poor infrastructure in the Balkans. The Permanent Secretariat strongly focuses on rail, with the setting up of a regional railways action plan to boost this mode of transport. This inclusive approach, for which I have pushed, will lead to better and faster results compared to isolated initiatives.

Thus, in order to accelerate investment that the region can absorb and capitalise on, the Secretariat will focus on capacity building, transposition of the EU acquis, cross-border projects and the promotion of matured projects with the investment community. What kinds of benefits can the transport community bring to transport companies and firms operating in the region that rely on this type of freight transport?

course to bring the Western Balkan countries a step closer to the EU. It is also a priority that this is the first international organisation in Serbia. What impact should the opening of the Secretariat have when it comes to the better utilisation of financial assistance provided to the Western Balkans by the European Union? Do you consider that projects in this area are progressing well in Serbia?

The most crucial things for financial engagements, especially instruments for transport, are predictability and well-prepared projects. We have worked with our Western Balkans partners

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I would invite all stakeholders to go beyond and see the seat of the Western Balkans Transport Community as a regional centre of excellence in transport. It should become an inspiration for what we can do when we work together closely

Let me stress that, through the Community Treaty, WB6 countries are fast becoming a part of the single EU transport area and EU single market. That means that we now share common values and priorities. Firstly, transport connectivity, efficiency and reliability are key elements of successful legislative systems. Companies in Serbia and further afield will see many benefits – I’m very confident of this. Secondly, a more stable and predictable transport policy and investment framework will help attract new investors from within the region and elsewhere, giving a boost to economic growth. Business opportunities, alongside travel opportunities for citizens of the Western Balkans and the EU, are key results that we expect from the Community. Let me stress that my ultimate aim is for this alignment to the rules of the European transport market to represent a step towards accession. When you become an EU member state, there will be no need for transition. Thirdly, after the regulatory frameworks are aligned, stakeholders will be able to act on an equal footing within the common EU transport market.

In your opinion, why is it important to improve the mobility of people in the Western Balkans?

and serious injuries, with a view to achieving ‘Vision ZERO’ in the Western Balkans.

Mobility is about building bridges and removing obstacles – physical ones, but not only them.

Well-connected transport networks, both within the region and with neighbouring EU member states, are crucial to sustainable economic growth in the Western Balkans and beyond. Improved connections not only facilitate trade and open new opportunities, they also bring people together.

The Transport Community provides a stable legal framework aligned to the EU’s in order to push for greater connectivity.

For example, our focus on road safety is saving lives in the region. Our focus on green transport is bringing a reduction to zero of pollution and emissions that directly impact on human health and quality of life. Last but not least, digitalisation, which is one of the core horizontal objectives, creates conditions for more inclusive and sustainable mobility as a service.

Around 70 per cent of investment in transport in the EU is being directed towards railways during the 2014-2020 period. Will your focus in the region also be directed in this way – given that railways are in very poor condition in many countries, including Serbia?

It is true. Our investments focus on rail, as it has the potential to become sustainable as an alternative mode of transport both for passengers

We also often encounter unsecured level-crossings in Serbia. How should these points be secured according to new European standards?

The question of safety at level-crossings has already been addressed by the Permanent Secretariat as one of the priorities for 2020. The issue in Serbia, and the rest of the region, is that many accidents are taking place at so-called “unauthorised” level crossings and due to a misperception of the dangers by road users. In the coming months, the Permanent Secretariat is to set up a joint technical committee that will include road and rail safety experts, as well as police authorities to propose specific solutions.

EU member states and infrastructure companies have already agreed to share their experience in the field. I believe that such a coordinated action is key to improving the situation.

Serbia has witnessed a significant increase in the number of deaths on the roads this year. How much will achieving the goal of a zero mortality rate by 2050 be on your agenda for the Balkans?

Indeed, as I mentioned before, managing negative externalities from transport is a moral duty and a political obligation. So many lives are lost every year as a result of road accidents, many of which could have been avoided. Road safety is a top priority for the EU and we continue to work hard to achieve “vision zero” – no deaths or serious injuries on European roads by 2050. This was also placed on the agenda for the Western Balkans in Ljubljana at the 2018 TEN-T days, where all ministers of WB6 countries signed the declaration on road safety and ‘Vision ZERO’.

At the Poznan Summit in July, we put forward additional grants, via the Western Balkan Investment Framework, to improve road safety. In parallel, the Transport Community Secretariat has set up a technical committee on road safety, which first met in Podgorica on 2nd October.

The role of this committee is to plan targeted measures for each of the regional partners, which are aiming to align their legislation, but also their approach to road safety, to that of the EU. Through these actions, the Transport Community will contribute to reducing fatalities

and freight. This priority is also prominent in our cooperation with the Western Balkans. We came up with a regional rail strategy at the Poznan Summit that will now be managed, with the help of the TCT Secretariat, to tackle rail issues jointly.

Rail infrastructure was a priority under my mandate and will remain so in the new Commission. We count on railways to take a large part of the freight traffic away from roads. That’s why we are aligning all freight conditions with the TEN-T corridors, which need to be completed by 2030.

A large part of your portfolio relates to innovation and digitalisation. To what extent can countries in the region approach the EU in this field?

The Permanent Secretariat focuses strongly on railways, with the setting up of a regional rail action plan to boost this mode of transport. This inclusive approach, for which I have pushed, will lead to better and faster results compared to isolated initiatives

This is clearly a priority. If these new technologies are not properly considered when planning new infrastructure, the “connectivity” gap between the Western Balkans and the EU may severely increase, instead of being reduced. I have always insisted on this point with all my interlocutors and I can also hear it clearly expressed by your leaders. I’m inviting the Western Balkan partners to align their innovation and digitalisation strategy with that of the EU and to ensure that standards are properly implemented in their respective legislations. New solutions make sense only if all partners are using the same standards.

Once again, the role of the Permanent Secretariat will be crucial in ensuring that this is properly considered in the region.

November

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Feature

Week Of Italian Cuisine In The World Food Education

H.E. CARLO LO CASCIO ITALIAN AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA

T

he official opening of Italian Cuisine Week takes place on Monday, 18th November, with a press conference at Belgrade’s Hotel Hilton. Italy’s whole “Country System” in Serbia will be involved, as is usual on such occasions, and in this case that means the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Trade Agency, Confindustria Serbia, and the Italian-Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Serbia. Speaking to CorD about this year’s event is Italian Ambassador to Serbia H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio.

Your Excellency, the fourth consecutive “Week of Italian Cuisine in the World” will be held from 18th to 24th November. What are the basic themes forming the pillars of this year’s edition?

This year’s edition is mainly inspired by the theme of “food education”: the pillars of this idea are the connection between health and nutrition, education to taste and a holistic approach to well-being. Italy’s policy for the “Week of Italian Cuisine in the World” in 2019 is, thus, also focused on placing a value on products with controlled and protected origin, as well as on food and wine coming from Italian regional traditions, and on the internationalisation of our food education sector.

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What are the differences between this year’s edition and the 3rd Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, held in 2018?

Firstly the theme. The Mediterranean diet, which was the central focus last year, is certainly still part of our programme, but the concept is now much wider: taste and health are not opposing principles, rather they certainly can live together combined, as our diet demonstrates. Then, we are always very keen on organising events not only by promoting our typical products – and this will happen this year also, with a fair – but also by sharing knowledge and tradition through conferences and discussions, especially on

Michelin-star Chef Eros Picco will be with us again, with classes at the High School of Tourism in New Belgrade, and Italian products will be promoted in Mercator group supermarkets

such important topics as the approach to health through food, and this aspect will be very much increased this year.

Can you provide us with some expectations regarding the events envisaged for Serbia?

The official opening will be on Monday, 18th November, with a press conference at the Hotel Hilton. Italy’s whole “Country System” in Serbia will be involved, as usually happens on these occasions: in this way, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Trade Agency – Confindustria Serbia, and the Italian-Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Serbia will together offer a great variety

of opportunities for experts, professionals and the public. As for specific events, I can announce that Michelin-star Chef Eros Picco will be with us again, with classes at the High School of Tourism in New Belgrade, and Italian products will be promoted in Mercator group supermarkets. Moreover, as you know, we are this year celebrating the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Serbia and the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership, so we would add some particular ad hoc celebration. Stay tuned with us!

ANDREW DERRY, Director, International School of Belgrade

MARKO VOJINOVIĆ, Owner and Director of Inpridi D.O.O. (Ltd.)

Learning Is An Active Process

Inpridi Promotes New Technologies In Serbia

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KATARINA JOVANOVIĆ BUĆAN, HR Manager for the SEE Region at Ingram Micro

DANKA SELIĆ, Belgrade Fair CEO

Our Employees Define Us

We’re Designing A Flawless Fair

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ASSOC. PROF. MIODRAG ŠĆEPANOVIĆ, DDS, PhD, A1 Dental Studio

MEETING POINT

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DUŠKO BELOVIĆ, Owner, IPG Investment

Dental Studio – Dentistry For The New Age!

Investors Trust Us

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ĐORĐE POPOVIĆ, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Telenor Serbia

Leaders’

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Pioneering The First 5G Test Environment PAGE /46

OGNJEN FARKAS, General Manager, Phosphea Danube

We Export 90% Of Our Production PAGE /47

ANDREW DERRY, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BELGRADE

Learning Is An Active Process The International School of Belgrade (ISB), the leading light of international education in Belgrade for more then 70 years, has a new Director – Andrew Derry. Andrew, who has worked in international education for 28 years and in school leadership for 22 years, has many plans and is very ambitious for ISB the ISB, an institution with decades of tradition and an enviable reputation. What kinds of plans do you have for the ISB? I am very ambitious for ISB. It already has the foundation and a reputation as being the best international school in Belgrade. Our next goal is to be recognised as the best international school in the entire region. That’s ambitious, but also realistic, and why wouldn’t we want to be ambitious for our students?

E

ducation is undergoing a fundamental shift all over the world.

Traditional models, where pupils sit in rows and the teacher delivers information, are outdated and largely ineffective. A personalised approach, based around inquiry and understanding concepts, is far more effective.

You’ve spent almost three decades working in international education and have been involved in school management for 22 years, and now you are at the helm of

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You’ve worked around the world, participating in the work of committees and advisory councils for economic development, universities and the advancement of education. What is the future of education?

Education is undergoing a fundamental shift all over the world. The traditional models, where students sit in rows and the teacher delivers information, are outdated and largely ineffective. They were never based around the best learning practises, instead they were designed for the industrial revolution and a need to ‘control’ the population. Modern brain research and pedagogical research show clearly that a personalised, student-centred approach, based around inquiry and understanding concepts, is far more effective. While the old traditional model is passive and relies on the teacher ‘doing learning at the student’, the modern approach is active, where the student has ownership over the

learning and the teacher works alongside them in a personalised way. As a full IB school, ISB has been using this approach for years and really has the personalised approach down to a fine art.

The results of ISB pupils are outstanding even in global frameworks, which ensures that they can enrol in the most prestigious universities without a problem. How do young people motivate themselves to strive for and realise great achievements?

Motivation has to be intrinsic. In my experience, lack of motivation and poor behaviour stem from students not being engaged or empowered in their learning.

Quite honestly, if I had to sit all day, in rows, listening to a teacher deliver information to me, or doing worksheets that are all the same for every child, I think I would also lack motivation. Unfortunately too many schools still use this approach.

If your approach is truly personalised, where learning is an active process, with

All of the work we do ensures that our students have access to the finest universities around the world

the student at the centre, where students are fully engaged and empowered, then there is intrinsic motivation and, of course, this leads to amazing progress.

At ISB, you believe that the education process isn’t all about achieving the required results, but rather also about

mastering the skills and knowhow required for the new age. Do you also teach pupils critical thinking, problem solving, communication skills, assuming personal responsibility etc.?

Absolutely yes, but we also create opportunities to put these skills into practise. According to The World Economic Forum report, 65 per cent of our children currently in Primary School will enter a job that does not yet exist. How do we teach a child for that? At ISB we talk about preparing our children for a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous). So, while knowledge is important, for us it is more about applying your understanding and using your skills and attributes to solve real-word complex and ambiguous problems.

How are your teaching programmes designed and which doors are opened by your

primary and secondary school diplomas?

All of our programmes are built around the International Baccalaureate. This is recognised as the gold standard in international education and we are the only school authorised to offer the full suite of IB programmes, including the Primary Years Programme (PYP), The

We actively recruit the very best teachers from around the world, ensuring that our faculty is diverse, highly qualified and highly trained

Middle years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP). In addition, we are fully accredited by international agencies, including The Council of International School (CIS) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

What is the top quality of your teachers/ lecturers?

Our teachers are our most important

asset and they have the biggest impact on student learning. We actively recruit the very best teachers from around the world, ensuring that our faculty is diverse, highly qualified and highly trained. We are proudly a non-profit school and 75 per cent of our revenue goes directly to cover staff costs. At this moment in

time, almost 70 per cent of our teachers have international teaching backgrounds and qualifications.

How important is it for parents to be actively engaged in the educating of their children and in the school community?

At ISB, we talk about purposefully building ‘Social Capital‘. This is the idea that when we all work together for the benefit of the child, it has a profound impact on their learning. Having an active and engaged parent body has a direct and positive impact on the whole school. Already this year we have held numerous parent conferences, parents’ coffee sessions and feedback sessions.

In addition, as a non-profit school, we have a Board of Governors with elected parent members, as well as a very active Parents, teachers, Student Association (PTSA).

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Integration

“I think the initiative we are referring to as ‘Little Schengen’ is aiming not only to deepen but to accelerate the European integration processes to prepare us for the EU as soon as possible.” – MARKO CADEŽ, PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY OF SERBIA

LOCAL NEWS

PKC WIRING SYSTEMS

FREE ZONE PIROT

INVESTMENTS OF €50 MILLION PLANNED fDi Magazine, a special publication of the Financial Times, has published a report entitled Global Free Zones of the Year 2019, with Serbia’s Free Zone Pirot receiving awards in four categories.

Free Zone Pirot in Serbia has been credited for supporting its surrounding area. For the first time, 11 hectares of free zone territory is being extended to the underdeveloped and devastated neighbouring municipalities of Dimitrovgrad and Babušnica. The expansion will see the creation of 121 jobs, with company Eco Rubber set to start production in Dimitrovgrad in 2019, investing €2.5 million in a new plant for recycling waste tyres.

Free Zone Pirot also won a Special Award for Connectivity, while the planned expansion will see an investment of €50 million that is planned in the period ahead by existing users of Free Zone Pirot.

ENOUGH ENERGY PRODUCED TO SUPPLY A NOVI SAD-SIZED CITY

PKC Wiring Systems recently bought land and a hall that it has been renting from the City of Smederevo since 2014.

The company currently employs 1,509 workers, but it plans to expand capacities and employ a further 1,200 workers in the coming period.

PKC, which predominantly produces wiring systems for commercial vehicles, plans to invest €20 million in the purchase and equipping of the land with infrastructure, as well as for the purchase and reconstruction of the existing hall and construction of a new extension.

The PKC Group has 23 production facilities in Brazil, China, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Russia, the U.S. and Serbia, employing more than 28,000 people worldwide.

The largest wind farm in the Western Balkans, Ćibuk 1, has officially opened in the village of Mramorak near Kovin. The investment is worth €300 million and the wind farm will supply 113,000 households with electricity, thus preventing the annual emission of more than 370,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide.

The Ćibuk 1 Wind Farm has 57 wind turbines and installed power of 158 MW. This project contributes to stability in the supply of electricity and will enable Serbia to produce 27 per cent of its energy needs from Renewables by 2020, thereby also helping to reduce the use of coal in the production of electricity in the country.

MTU

INVESTOR OBLIGED TO INVEST €100.9 MILLION AND EMPLOY 440 WORKERS The Republic of Serbia will give land worth €6.25 million to German investor MTU for the construction of a facility in Nova Pazova that will be used for the maintenance and repair of aircraft engines and accompanying services.

As stated in the decision of the Commission for allocating the land, the total value of the gifted land is €6,250,683, according to an estimate by the Tax Administration, while the total surface area of the two cadastre parcels is 25 hectares – 68 acres and 72 square metres respectively.

Under the draft agreement, MTU is obliged to build the facility at its own expense, i.e., to make the initial investment in capital assets of no less than €100,900,000 by the end of 2025 and to permanently employ at least 440 workers in the period between 2021 and 2027.

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ĆIBUK 1 WIND FARM

INVESTMENT WORTH €20 MILLION

AMCHAM

BELGRADE HOSTS ACE ANNUAL MEETING The AmCham Europe (ACE) holds its annual conference in Belgrade upon the invitation from the American Chambers of Commerce in Serbia, N1 reported on Thursday.

Jelena Pavlovic, the President of the AmCham Serbia Steering Committee, said this was an opportunity for the country to present itself as an attractive investment destination.

The conference focused on the exchange of the best practices among the members, the ways how other countries deal with challenges of the business climate and improve the work of state administration, but also contribute to the development and prevent the brain drain. AmCham Europe organises two annual meetings. One is always held in Washington, while the Source: AmCham Serbia other in some European city.

Offer

&

appointments@aim.rs

H.E. ANTHONY F. GODFREY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA

H.E. JØRN GJELSTAD, AMBASSADOR OF NORWAY TO SERBIA

Photo: Predsednik.rs

H.E. Jørn Gjelstad was born in 1955 and has a master’s degree in International History from the University of Oslo, a bachelor’s degree in history, literary science and political science, and completed music teacher training at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Barratt Due Institute of Music. Prior to serving as Norway’s ambassador to the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Cyprus, Gjelstad was director of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for policy development in a number of areas. Ambassador Gjelstad is married to Trine Ditlevsen, with whom he has three children.

H.E. TARZAN MILOŠEVIĆ, AMBASSADOR OF MONTENEGRO TO THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

H.E. Ambassador Tarzan Milošević, born 1954, graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and began his professional career in 1982, as a private entrepreneur.

From 1998 to ‘99 he was Head of Investments and Public Works for the Municipality of Bijelo Polje, before becoming the Mayor of Bijelo Polje and serving in that position from 2001 to 2010. He entered government in 2010, holding the post of Montenegrin Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2010 to 2012, after which he served as Political Director of Montenegro’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) from 2012 until his posting to Belgrade in 2019.

H.E. GABIT SYZDYKBEKOV, AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN TO THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

H.E. Gabit Syzdykbekov was born in 1980 and graduated from the Kazakh State Law University with a degree in Law, after which he earned a degree in International Relations from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

He began his diplomatic career in 2004, serving initially as Attaché of the State Protocol Department, Third Secretary of the Department of Europe and America, and Second Secretary of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Between 2007 and 2011 Syzdykbekov held different senior positions within the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

From 2012 to 2017, he was Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in France, then – from 2017 to 2019 – he served as Advisor to the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Head of the Department of International Relations, Defence and Security of the Senate Office of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Having held the position of Ambassador at Large in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan from May to September 2019, he was appointed Ambassador of Republic of Kazakhstan to the Republic of Serbia in September 2019.

Ambassador Syzdykbekov speaks English, Turkish, French and Russian, and is a married father of five children.

Photo: Predsednik.rs

Photo: Predsednik.rs

U.S. Ambassador to Serbia H.E. Anthony F. Godfrey graduated with Highest Honours from the University of California at Davis. The recipient of numerous awards, including the James A. Baker III Award as the Best Deputy Chief of Mission for 2018, Ambassador Godfrey is a career diplomat of the Minister Counsellor class. He served at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 2015 to 2019 , initially as MinisterCounsellor for Political Affairs and then as Deputy Chief of Mission. From 2013 to 2015 he was director of Iraqi affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, prior to which – from 2012 to ‘13 – he held the post of Political Minister Counsellor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Over the course of a career spanning nearly 40 years, encompassing service in both the U.S. Navy and the State Department, Ambassador Godfrey has become an expert in Central and Southern European affairs. Married to Anne Godfrey, formerly O’Toole, with whom he has three children, Ambassador Godfrey speaks Russian, Serbo-Croat and Turkish.

H.E. YORGOS DIACOFOTAKIS, AMBASSADOR OF GREECE TO SERBIA

H.E. Ambassador Yorgos Diacofotakis was born in Alexandria, Egypt, (1961) and began his diplomatic career in 1989. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Athens Faculty of Law, National School of Public Administration, and a ‘DEA’ Master of Advanced Studies Degree in International Relations, University PARIS 1 Sorbonne, Paris, Ph.D. in International Law, Panteios University, Athens. During the last decade he has served as a Defence Counsellor Permanent Representation of Greece to NATO in Brussels; Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, A5 Directorate on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, the Black Sea and Central Asia; Policy Coordinator on EU human rights policy in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova; Chef de File on OSCE Human Dimension, European External Action Service, Brussels, Director, MFA, A12 Directorate on European CFSP & CSDP. Ambassador Diacofotakis speaks English and French and has a good knowledge of Arabic (Egyptian). He is a married father of four children.

Photo: Predsednik.rs

Placements postings

Photo: Predsednik.rs

“Serbia can offer better conditions for a Volkswagen plant than all other countries combined. We have already offered the maximum allowed state aid in cash - €258.5 mln. – ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ, SERBIAN PRESIDENT

H.E. THURAIN THANT ZIN, AMBASSADOR OF MYANMAR TO SERBIA

H.E. Thurain Thant Zin, born 1959, has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in defence affairs.

He served in the Myanmar Armed Forces, holding various ranks - the highest being Colonel – and has served as director general of the Protocol Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Tokyo, and until now as ambassador-designate at the Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Belgrade. H.E. Thurain Thant Zin is a married father of one daughter and one son.

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MARKO VOJINOVIĆ, OWNER AND DIRECTOR OF INPRIDI D.O.O. (LTD.)

Inpridi Promotes New Technologies In Serbia Inpridi has already benefited from the ability of Canusa-CPS to effectively mobilise material and highly-skilled training services in the support of complex projects initiated within Serbia with a focus on high quality, high performance and ease-of-application. In Serbia, the market has grown over the last few years, with increased investments in preinsulated pipelines for district heating and in the oil and gas infrastructure markets.

There was a need for improved delivery and product range breadth in order to service these markets in an efficient manner.

These factors contributed to the development of my company, Inpridi d.o.o., which is an official distributor of Canusa-CPS in Serbia. The relationship has enabled Inpridi to provide reliable, durable and lasting high-quality products, with prompt delivery to the market.

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ccording to Marko Vojinović, Owner and Director, Inpridi, the growth of the market has contributed to the development of Inpridi d.o.o. (Ltd.), which is an official distributor of Canusa-CPS products in Serbia.

Your company is a representative of Canusa-CPS, a Shawcor company, the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of field-applied coatings. It must be a great honour to gain the trust of the world’s No. 1 player in this field?

It is indeed an honour to represent such a company as Canusa-CPS which offers a complete range of field-applied coatings

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How does Canusa-CPS’s technology differ from that of others operating within the market?

Canusa-CPS’s highly-engineered fieldapplied coatings are used in the construction of pre-insulated pipelines, oil and gas, and water pipelines. Canusa-CPS prides itself on developing high performance materials for these markets that are fully in compliance with all major oil and gas, petrochemical and district energy standards, and that have the maximum window for application within every possible expected construction environment. The materials must be capable of being installed in all seasons, this is where Canusa-CPS’s technology is proven to protect against a range of challenges, including corrosion, extreme temperatures, mechanical damage and more.

How does Inpridi, with the help of CanusaCPS, approach the need for materials that provide enhanced HSE benefits – not only to operators using the materials, but throughout the expected life cycle of the pipeline?

Canusa-CPS, as part of the Shawcor Ltd., benefits from having access to extensive laboratory facilities at their R&D headquarters in Toronto, ON, Canada. In addition to designing the chemistry of the coating materials to utilise advanced, non-hazardous polymers, all materials are also tested against the most stringent environmental, health and safety standards to ensure that the operator is fully aware of all HSE requirements. Furthermore, Canusa-CPS and Inpridi provide numerous training sessions throughout the year, certifying operators in the correct installation procedure of all field-applied materials, including health and safety initiatives for the value-added benefit of the operators tasked with installing the products.

Inpridi is a completely domestic company engaged in the distribution of oil and gas pipeline protection products. Do your specialised products have applications on newly installed pipelines or are they used for both the repair and maintenance of existing pipelines?

Inpridi is a Serbian company. The materials supplied by Canusa-CPS to the Serbian market via Inpridi are used for both newly constructed projects in the oil and gas, and pre-insulated pipeline market and in the repair and maintenance of existing pipelines,

structures, tanks, storage facilities etc.

The application procedures are remarkably similar for both new-build and repair/ rehabilitation programmes, with the key differentiator being the high-performance and low pre-heat adhesive technologies offered by the Canusa-CPS range of products.

Are the products used in the field compatible with pipeline coatings applied in factories?

Are they designed for application in different conditions?

Yes, Canusa-CPS products are compatible with all the factory mainline coatings in Serbia. However, there isn’t a single product that’s used for all situations. Inpridi and Canusa-CPS carefully evaluate each project based on a number of factors, both from the perspective of the operating conditions of the asset in question and also the capability of the contractor tasked with executing the works to ensure the correct product is supplied for the project and can be applied correctly, safely and in full accordance with the expectations of the asset’s end-user.

Infrastructure projects are in full swing in Serbia, with district heating pipelines and oil and gas pipelines being installed. Have your products been included in most, if not all, of these construction works?

Yes, there is currently a lot of activity in pipeline infrastructure all over our country, whether that’s in energy or district heating.

This really is a broad market for Inpridi, even though it represents a significant responsibility. However, participating in such significant projects is what makes this rewarding. Inpridi is well on its way to being present in pipeline projects. With the quality of Canusa-CPS products, Inpridi can contribute to increasing the quality of infrastructure under construction, and this is recognised in our market.

Has Canusa-CPS been involved in any of these large projects and, if so, do you envisage the technologies involved being adopted on the Serbian market?

Canusa-CPS is indeed involved in many of the largest and most challenging oil and gas, and pre-insulated pipeline projects around the world. Many of these projects utilise

Canusa-CPS’s capability in the bespoke design of field joint coating systems, automated equipment and its unique production capability to supply large quantities of material to suit demanding construction schedules.

Inpridi has been working with Canusa-CPS for a relatively short time (approximately two years) and has already benefited from Canusa-CPS’s ability to quickly mobilise material and highly-skilled training services

Canusa-CPS and Inpridi are actively working together to provide innovative solutions to increase the integrity of pipelines with an everincreasing focus on advanced corrosion protection with enhanced HSE benefits and customer support in Serbia

to support the complex pre-insulated pipeline projects initiated within Serbia and is working effectively with Canusa-CPS to promote the use of newer products within the oil and gas markets.

What technologies are Inpridi and CanusaCPS hoping to implement in Serbia to help

the construction of pipelines in a more efficient manner?

Canusa-CPS and Inpridi have been actively working to promote several technologies, which are readily used throughout the industry. Such technologies include: 1. The use of high-performance threelayer field joint coating systems for maximum protection against corrosion for girth welds on oil and gas pipelines. Three-layer

systems include the use of liquid epoxy coating, applied directly to the bare steel area, which acts as the primary corrosion barrier under the sleeve. These systems are widely adopted worldwide.

2. Use of induction heating equipment – in line with the adoption of abrasive blasting systems, Inpridi and Canusa-CPS have been promoting the use of automation like the induction heating equipment, which is used to quickly and consistently heat the pipe area before the application of the field joint coating system itself. Advantages to contractors in Europe include; productivity, speed and consistency of application; 3. High-performance sacrificial overcoating systems for horizontal directional drilling (HDD) – Canusa-CPS has a fiberreinforced composite mechanical protection System, called Scar-Guard®. Scar-Guard is straightforward to apply, requires minimal equipment and cures within hours, providing the contractor with significant operational advantages versus traditional UV-cured systems.

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Member

“Croatia has taken the measures to ensure that the necessary conditions are met (to join Schengen). It will need to continue working on the implementation of all ongoing actions, in particular its management of external borders” – DIMITRIS AVRAMOPOULOS, EU COMMISSIONER FOR MIGRATION, HOME AFFAIRS AND CITIZENSHIP

REGIONAL NEWS

NORTH MACEDONIA

HOPES OHRID WILL SATISFY UNESCO

ALBANIA

PREPARING FOR 5G TECHNOLOGY When it comes to preparing for 5G communications technology, the first step for Albania will be for frequencies to be monitored by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority, to determine the usage of the new generation.

They will be using the same procedure, followed by the removal of analogue broadcasts.

The first tests will be conducted in 2020, while TV outlets will be able to use a new generation for their frequencies, with the current ones to be used for 5G technology.

The 5G license will be sold to cell phone operators, while TV outlets will be compensated for changing their frequencies.

The new frequency monitoring system will also make it possible to identify signal interference and measure the level of electromagnetic radiation emitted form antennas.

Ahead of a planned UNESCO inspection due in November, which is tasked with assessing progress in protecting the natural and cultural heritage of the Ohrid region, North Macedonia has drafted a plan to protect the area and prevent it from being added to the list of “World Heritage Sites in Danger”.

The plan, which will soon be opened to public debate, awaits adoption by the end of this year. Until then, the authorities say a moratorium on all new builds in Ohrid imposed last August will remain in force.

The plan includes a tough ban on building along the shoreline of Lake Ohrid, reduced heights for buildings in urban areas near the lake, and the preservation of the authentic look of buildings in the old town and elsewhere.

If developments advance as planned, the region will be divided into three protected zones. The first will cover the shore of the lake and up to 50 metres deep inland, where all new construction will be prohibited.

HUNGARY

COMPRESSOR STATION OPENS NEAR ROMANIAN BORDER A compressor station has been opened by Hungary’s FSZG Ltd. gas delivery company at Csanádpalota near the Romanian border, marking the latest energy development project. Over the past five years, the connecting of the gas networks of Hungary and Romania and increasing capacities have been the most important energy security development projects in Hungary. Once Romania completes its related development projects, the interconnection is expected to allow a two-way delivery of at least 1.75 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year as of May 2020. The compressor will form part of a Bulgaria-Romania-HungaryAustria energy corridor. Completing a south-north supply route is of strategic importance for the region and will facilitate the importing of gas from Azerbaijan, liquefied natural gas from Greece, as well as gas planned to be extracted offshore in the Black Sea.

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10 THINGS TO DO TODAY THAT WILL GROW YOUR BUSINESS TOMORROW

You’ve done a lot to get your business off the ground, but it’s now time to plan for your business‘s future. From your company’s sales strategy to its processes and procedures, there are plenty of steps you can take now to guarantee meaningful growth down the road.

1. Focus on the Top of the Funnel 2. Become a Media-Focused Company 3. Improve Your Processes and Procedures 4. Focus on a Specific Niche 5. Plan for Diversified Growth 6. Focus on Relationships Over Transactions 7. Be Consistent 8. Focus on Search Engine Optimisation 9. Have a Ready-to-Execute Plan 10. Focus on Your Go-To-Market Strategy

Stability

“The EU’s decision — already postponed once — will be crucial not only for the country and regional stability, but for what it says about Europe itself, its reliability and what it stands for.” – ALEXIS TSIPRAS, FORMER GREEK PRIME MINISTER CROATIA

CONSTRUCTION OF NEW BRIDGE OVER THE SAVA UNDERWAY

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

FIRST RESTAURANT FOR PEOPLE IN NEED OPENS IN TRAVNIK The “Goodwill” restaurant has opened in the Bosnian city of Travnik for people in need, according to a press release of the Association “Pomozi.ba”.

This is the first restaurant of this type in the country, where people will be able to get a meal in dignity.

“This is the concept of a public restaurant, where there is a focus on the dignity of people. This is a public kitchen, but a kitchen in which there are no rows, a kitchen in which there are no white cans, cans that are so reminiscent of war.

“This is a kitchen where people will feel better – at least we hope they will.”

Customers will take a meal, sit down and feel like they do at every other restaurant.

BULGARIA

TURKSTREAM PIPELINE SECTION TO BE COMPLETED BY 2020 Bulgaria has promised to complete its stretch of the TurkStream gas pipeline by 2020 as planned. Bulgaria signed a €1.1 billion euros contract with Saudi-led group Arkad to build the 474 km pipeline across its territory.

Russia, which is building TurkStream to bypass Ukraine to the south, has said its second portion, with an annual capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres, will pass via Bulgaria to central Europe.

The pipeline stretch is part of Bulgaria’s plans to link its southern border with Turkey to its western frontier with Serbia and provide a link to the Russia-backed TurkStream twin pipeline to Serbia, Hungary and Austria.

The construction of a bridge over the River Sava that represents one of the most significant projects jointly implemented by the Republika Srpska Entity (RS), the BosniaHerzegovina Federation and Croatia, began in the town of Catrnja near Gradiska.

This bridge will soon connect the already constructed Gradiska-Banjaluka Highway with the network of European highways.

With a length of 462.2m, a width 22.6m and a load-bearing steel structure weight of 4,650 tonnes, this bridge will have four pavement lanes, two in each direction.

MONTENEGRO

ADDITIONAL FUND OF €3.8 MILLION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE Montenegro’s Public Works Administration has signed a contract for the second phase of reconstruction of the Plav–Vojno selo– Gusinje road, worth €3.5 million. The works will be carried out by Bar-based company Putevi Bar, with the deadline for the completion of works set at 18 months.

The first rehabilitation phase of 1.2km of roadway is underway, with €850,000 having been allocated for this job. Together with the final phase, the modernisation will cover about 10 kilometres of road.

ROMANIA

BRASOV POURS €13.6M INTO NEW BUSINESS CENTRE The central Romanian municipality of Brasov has completed a business centre that also includes a business incubator, marking an investment of around €13.6 million. The centre is located in the Bartolomeu Nord neighbourhood, near the Research and Development Institute of the Transylvania University and in the vicinity of the future regional hospital.

The Centre for Business, Technology Transfer and Business Incubator (CATTIA) was built on an area of 181,500 square metres and the three-storey premises encompasses a total area of 18,242 square metres. Besides the office spaces, this centre also provides the possibility of organising conferences, events, meetings and training courses, as well as exhibitions.

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KATARINA JOVANOVIĆ BUĆAN, HR MANAGER FOR THE SEE REGION AT INGRAM MICRO

Our Employees Define Us Ingram Micro Belgrade is part of a global IT company and this year we are celebrating 40 years of success in technology and supply chain services. During this time, the company has grown into a global leader, operating in 160 countries and with more than 35,000 employees

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ur employees have deep expertise in technological solutions; they are provided with tools and processes, and are exposed to exchanges of knowhow and support from all internal resources. We are passionate about our jobs, innovations and market needs ~ says Katarina Jovanović Bućan.

Ingram Micro Belgrade is part of a multinational company. Does that mean that your employees have accepted a global way of thinking and working?

Keeping employees’ minds on thinking globally and acting locally is important as a principle that guides us to better decisions and behaviours, enabling us to focus on the success of our business partners and associates. Some tenets of our success are result orientations, integrity, courage to embrace changes and bring difficult decisions, taking responsibility in the sense that we say what we are going to do and we do what we promise.

Ingram Micro employees have deep expertise in technological solutions; they are provided with tools and processes, exposed to exchanges of knowhow and support from all internal resources. We are passionate about our jobs, innovations and market needs, which enables our business partners to operate more efficiently and successfully. Saying something

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is one thing, but doing it – by being driven with examples and great teams – is the way we think and act. All of us.

Young people are fast learners, who quickly embrace changes and find the best solutions in the new IT-led world. Are they the basis of your success as a company?

Young people are a very important part of our success, especially with a balance between seniors and juniors, as we rely on a combination of fresh ideas and deep business knowledge.

Achieving 40 years of success is a great accomplishment, given today’s changes in the business environment

Diversity is also one of the key contributors to our success. We support the personal and professional growth of associates with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

It is natural that we are bringing in young, external talents in more entrance levels of the organisation. During the period when

young people are crystallising their interests, business knowledge and passions, senior leaders and HR business partners are there to recognise talent and to create planned, meaningful, individual career development plans, so talented individuals can advance to senior positions within Ingram Micro.

A significant number of our senior managers have been with the company for more than 20 years and we are particularly proud that they are keeping a focus on market needs and mentoring their successors. In practise, young people bring talent and we find the job that is the best fit for them.

Is it difficult to find good experts when demand is greater then supply? We know what makes you stand out as a partner, but what makes you stand out as an employer?

Finding experts is hard and challenging, but it is more challenging to retain talented people, because employees and their variety of diverse talents define us. We are committed to providing succession plans, to learning and growing together, to inspiring employees to remain attracted by opportunities, knowledge and meaningful projects. Integrity, knowledge and having a sense of purpose are important in our team. We are passionate about what we do to contribute to the world and to realise the promise of technology.

DANKA SELIĆ, BELGRADE FAIR CEO

We’re Designing A Flawless Fair The International Fair of Furniture, Equipment and Interior Decoration has again this year, for the 57th time, brought together the most relevant domestic, European and world exhibitors, which make this the most prestigious event of its kind in Southeast Europe. Also contributing to this greatly has been a new conceptual approach

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onsidering the reform efforts that we’ve been applying to all significant aspects of this fair in recent years, last year’s figures were even better than our optimistic expectations, so we believe that we’ll also be satisfied with the effect after this year’s edition, emphasises Belgrade Fair CEO Danka Selić.

Did you succeed in bringing together the most relevant domestic, European and world companies again this year?

We should perhaps remind readers that the epilogue of last year’s fair was 508 exhibitors from 38 countries, covering almost 29,000 square metres of exhibition space, which – with 87,000 visitors, including tens of thousands with business legitimation – represents the right answer to this question.

We are also building our optimism based on the fact that some of the most reputable brands in this industry, which have not previously been present at the fair, have become very interested in presenting themselves to the public and the market here. Thus, for example, this year we will witness and host the local premieres of two prestigious Italian brands - ColombiniCase and Cappellinia.

North Macedonia’s Fagus is coming again, as are NUNC and Prostoria from Croatia, while there will also be Denmark’s Muuto, Switzer-

land’s WOAK, Kraljevo-based GIR, Extraform from Senta, Gard from Valjevo, Simpo from Vranje, Trstenik’s Rast, Belgrade’s Dsignedby studio, Sarajevo’s Gazzda and hundreds more local and foreign exhibitors whose participation in this event is implied.

The Belgrade Furniture Fair underwent a significant redesign recently and strides in two directions – in a conceptual sense, with the programme-based highlighting of design-orientated companies, and on the business front with the strengthening of business visits through the introduction of the Hosted Buyers programme?

Visitors have already had the opportunity to see this new conceptual approach, in the scope of which essential innovative and original design solutions are motivated in various ways, including throughout designer-orientated projects and companies. We do this with the best intention of keeping pace with key global trends and leading world industries in this field, but in parallel with those “classical” manufacturers

Participating in the Design Talks programme will be Francesca de Ponti, Marco Souse Santos, Gorazd Malačić, Branko Nikolić, Tanja Jović et al.

and designers, both foreign and domestic.

Moreover, paying additional attention to business, “personalised” business visitors, large and influential professional buyers, under the auspices of the so-called Hosted Buyer programme, proved to be a successful business endeavour, as it involves people who often crucially fuse markets and create demand on the international front.

What kind of interest prevails in the Young Designers Exhibition and the Design Talks programme? Will the most eminent participants from all over Europe again gather for them?

The Design Talks programme is actually the most visited programme intended for the exchange of professional experiences among designers and architects, because speakers and participants often include top international names in these fields.

Among them this year will be experts such as Francesca de Ponti, Marco Souse Santos, Gorazd Malačić, Branko Nikolić, Tanja Jović et al. As such, the audience will be able to find out how movements are created in the furniture industry, the systems that determine the functioning of the industry, which trends are current and what the situation is like on the market. The International Exhibition of Young Designers is just the creative whipped cream on top of that designers’ cake.

Is there something that we mustn’t overlook; something brand new and different?

In short – yes; and in short – that’s absolutely everything that can and should be seen at this fair.

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ASSOC. PROF. MIODRAG ŠĆEPANOVIĆ, DDS, PHD, A1 DENTAL STUDIO

A1 Dental Studio – Dentistry For The New Age! Modern dental practices are not possible without digital technologies and advanced materials

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he Zirconia Centre, digital smile design, digital orthodontics, computer-guided implantology and even aesthetic facial treatments - at A1 Dental Studio we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the practices in the most developed Western countries.

How do you see the future of dentistry and in which direction are you developing the A1 Dental Studio?

The future of dentistry is certainly in new technologies and materials. Many people think that these innovations are a privilege of developed Western countries, but we can state with pride that at this moment, in Belgrade, at the A1 Dental Studio, we use digital technology according to the latest world trends!

Under the auspices of the A1 Dental Studio, the Zirconia Centre has been operating for over a year – it is specialised in digital dentistry and zirconia, today’s most advanced dental material. Here, with the help of digital dentistry and zirconia crowns (or bridges), our patients get new smiles and, more importantly, new confidence!

We also apply digital dentistry in orthodontics. Patients today want to know in advance what their teeth will look like after wearing the device. With the help of new technologies, we carry out a diagnosis, design and simulation of a future smile,

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as well as developing precise individual therapy plans, to create the ideal solution for a patient’s smile. When patients see a simulation of the final tooth position on the screen and how their new smile will look like, they are much more motivated and determined to make their dream smile a reality! When it comes to orthodontic

Thanks to new technologies, we offer patients a completely different experience and the kind of treatment that that wouldn’t be feasible without digital technologies

devices, patients now have a much greater choice than previously – from standard braces, via aesthetic devices with minimal visual impact, incognito braces to invisible aligners that gradually correct the position of teeth.

You recently became a Certified Digital Technology Master for Trios. What does this mean for you and your practice?

By using digital technologies in dental

office, our work become more efficient, precise and patient-friendly, allowing us to work in even smarter ways than before. At the A1 Dental Studio we use Trios 3Shape – currently the best intra-oral scanner in the world – in our daily work.

Me and the members of my team are constantly improving our skills and adopting new knowledge, in order to be able to keep pace with the latest trends and provide our patients with dental treatments in accordance with the highest world standards.

Changes are present not only on the technology and materials side, but also when it comes to the wishes and demands of patients. Are aesthetics more important today than before?

The health of teeth comes first, both to us and our patients. However, there are ever more people who want a beautiful, perfect smile, in addition to healthy teeth.

The smile is directly related to the aesthetics of the face. We have recognised and understood these demands of our clients.

Is it for all those who, alongside a beautiful smile, want a healthy and youthful look that we founded the A1 Esthetic Studio.

So now, alongside the perfect smile, we also offer our patients the opportunity to look great and to have youthful, healthy looking skin! www.a1dentalstudio.rs

DUŠKO BELOVIĆ, OWNER, IPG INVESTMENT

Investors Trust Us IPG Investment, which deals with the design, implementation and supervision of the most complex construction works, began operations with smaller projects in Serbia and Montenegro, while it today operates successfully on three continents. The company works for both the private sector and for government bodies, but also for the governments of other countries

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espite being unusual, IPG Investment doesn’t have a single failed project behind it, and this represents the company’s best recommendation. Over the course of the past ten years, the company has gained the trust of the world’s most prestigious investors, and the management states modestly that they are satisfied with the results, and truly want to achieve much better results.

Your enterprise is involved in the design, implementation and supervision of construction works, but not any kind fo works – rather the most complex projects. In which areas do you operate in total? Are you satisfied with your current position, which you’ve built over the course of 13 years?

Our company is engaged in the design, supervision and execution of complex construction works, and over the last 13 years we’ve concluded that executing works is our most profitable activity. We could today state modestly that we are satisfied with the results, while we truly want much better results. Implementing works is a complex undertaking that requires collective and individual persistence in order to ensure they are realised as best as possible, and thereby to ensure the best effects of the work.

What are your fundamental advantages over the competition? Flexibility; willingness to meet the demands of investors under the shortest deadlines; your team of engineers and workers who’ve gained experience around the world; quality and reasonable prices etc.?

Our company’s advantages are, first and foremost, competence to undertake complex endeavours, speed of executing works, the inclusion of a large number of subcontractors, familiarity with the nature

The country is today regulated as an economic environment.

Everyone who is diligent, who wants to work and generate extra profits, has good possibilities to do so

of the investor’s requirements, as well as low costs. All of that makes us a candidate for activities in places around the world that require various works at the best prices.

We’ve tried our hand in this over the past ten years and gained the trust of the world’s most prestigious investors.

How would you evaluate the economic environment in Serbia and the region? Does our best chance lie in the development of SMEs? The economic environment in Serbia at the present juncture is very favourable for small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the country, indeed there are almost no better conditions anywhere in the region. We don’t consider that state subsidies to foreign investors are any kind of privilege, nor are they an obstacle to us domestic businessmen, so everyone wanting to do business here is welcome. Of course, achieving results requires enormous work and effort, and certainly not merely a vision, which many in Serbia interpret as being a special gift. The economic environment is created by workers, managers and business owners; it is a symbiosis of collective relationships. Our view of the economic environment challenges all those who influence today’s conditions of supply and demand, and who have reams of unpaid subsidies and loans from state-owned banks, which is nothing more than the appropriating of the nation’s money.

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Protect

“Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!” – DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT

WORLD NEWS DENMARK

GOVERNMENT TO COMPENSATE FARMERS

CHINA

SPECIAL RAIL LINES China will plan and construct 127 key special railway lines by 2020, according to the country’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

These special lines, encompassing a total length of 1,586 km, are expected to reduce the number of short shuttle trips, boost traffic efficiency and improve economic and social benefits.

China has released a guideline on accelerating the construction of special railway lines, vowing to ensure 80 per cent of the major coastal ports, large industrial and mining enterprises and new logistics parks will be accessible by the special lines by 2020.

According to the guideline, the scale will reach 85 per cent by 2025, with all the main ports along the Yangtze River accessible by rail.

The Dutch government has made an extraordinary offer in which it says it is willing to compensate farmers who wish to shut down their entire operations in an effort to control nitrogen emissions, which cause respiratory problems and damage to crops, woodlands and water sources.

The offer came after a massive French-style farmers’ protest in The Hague in which hundreds of tractors caused the biggest traffic jams in the country’s history, targeting the as-yet-unidentified “real polluters in the Netherlands”. The government has to comply with a ruling that will mean an immediate ban on all projects that could lead to new emissions – particularly in the vicinity of the Veluwe, a massive nature reserve in the centre of the country that was formed by glaciers more than 200,000 years ago. Compliance with the ruling would involve putting a halt to all infrastructure works, including as many as 18,000 construction projects.

INDIA

PRIVATISING THE BIGGEST SHIPPING COMPANY The Government of India is again looking to sell its majority stake in the country’s biggest shipping company, but may face the same obstacles that have blocked previous privatisation efforts.

The Shipping Corp. of India is at the heart of the country’s industrial economy, with about 70 cargo vessels of all types worth some $1.2 billion. That makes it a key target for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to sell off state assets. The government first tried to sell its stake in 2017, but the sale was cancelled after pushback from various bodies, including the ministry of shipping. Privatisations in India are often complicated, with a number of senior politicians standing steadfast against the sale of what they describe as vital national assets.

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PUERTO RICO

AT&T TO SELL BUSINESS IN EFFORT TO PAY DOWN DEBT American conglomerate AT&T has agreed to sell its Puerto Rican and U.S. Virgin Islands businesses to Liberty Latin America Ltd. for a total of $1.95 billion, allowing the telecommunications giant to shave its debt load and move closer to repurchasing shares.

AT&T’s operation in Puerto Rico provides cellular, landline and internet connections, and had 1.1 million wireless subscribers. As part of the deal, about 1,300 AT&T employees will be transferred to Liberty Latin America.

The two companies said they expect the deal to be finalised within six to nine months. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands account for a small part of AT&T’s domestic operations, but shedding the unit will help it work down a large debt load accumulated through its $80 billion-plus acquisition of Time Warner last year.

RUSSIA

NUCLEAR & WIND POWER PROJECTS WITH CHINA China is interested in working with Russia on nuclear and wind power projects in the Arctic region, in the hopes of raising the contribution of non-fossil energy to above 50 per cent of the nation’s energy mix by 2050.

Russia and China reached an agreement to work together on the Tianwan plant as early as 1992, while the two nations also agreed to build four nuclear reactors in China — two at Xudabao and two more at Tianwan — in June 2018. China, which considers itself a near-Arctic nation, plans to conduct research, excavate resources and develop a network of shipping routes throughout the region.

Relationship

“We have managed to launch a political process inside Syria by establishing close working relationships with Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, other Middle Eastern countries and the United States” – VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT JAPAN

TOKIO MARINE HOLDINGS CEO KOMIYA HAILS $3.1B PURE DEAL

MONACO

WORLD’S FIRST HYDROGEN-POWERED MEGA-YACHT A model of a 110-metre-long yacht designed to run on liquid hydrogen was unveiled at the Monaco Yacht Show, the world’s biggest event promoting mega-yachts.

The detailed miniature model, presented by Dutch firm Sinot Yacht & Architecture Design, measures just over two metres in length and showcases the innovative direction being taken by the mega-yacht industry.

The vessel, named Aqua, would be the first such yacht to run on liquid hydrogen and fuel-cell technology. The yacht’s only emission would be water, and the system would depend on two 28-tonne vacuum-sealed tanks of liquid hydrogen stored at a temperature of -253 degrees Celsius.

In addition to its cutting-edge technology, the vessel would also feature a state-of-the-art design and amenities.

Tokio Marine,a multinational insurance holding company headquartered in Tokyo, has agreed to pay US$3.1 billion to acquire America’s Pure Group, a Florida-based high net worth insurer, from its majority owner’s private equity players KKR and Stone Point. One of Tokio Marine’s biggest previous deals was the $7.5 billion acquisition of Texasbased HCC Insurance Holdings in 2015.

In order to help fund the deal, Tokio Marine CEO Satoru Komiya said that the company would consider issuing subordinated bonds in addition to using cash to finance the acquisition, which is expected to be completed by March 2020.

FINLAND

SPINNOVA RECEIVES €11M FOR COMMERCIAL SCALING With new growth capital of €11 million, Finnish sustainable fibre technology company Spinnova is now launching the commercialisation phase of the world’s most sustainable textile fibre. The company aims to revolutionise the textile industry’s raw material base with its cellulose-based fibre products, in collaboration with major textile brands.

Spinnova is a sustainable deep-tech company that has developed a disruptive technology for manufacturing cellulose-based textile fibres, with the Spinnova patented method including 0% harmful chemicals and 0% waste or side streams.

CUBA

RUSSIA’S SINARA TO INVEST MORE THAN €200 MILLION Russian transportation firm Sinara will invest more than €200 million in the modernisation of Cuban railways.

Sinara explained that there is a comprehensive contract for the supply of 75 locomotives, 51 of which are already in Cuba, while another 19 will arrive next year. Cuba will also receive 80 railbuses next year – as part of a total of 300 that are expected to be supplied to the island.

About 200 workers from the Cuban Railways Union have received training in Russian industries and in Cuba, while Sinara is also participating in the project for the rehabilitation and modernisation of the island nation’s railway infrastructure through a contract worth €1.8 billion.

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ĐORĐE POPOVIĆ, CHIEF CORPORATE AFFAIRS OFFICER AT TELENOR SERBIA

Pioneering The First 5G Test Environment Telenor Serbia covers a 100 % of the country’s population with its 4G network, while more than 300 cities are covered with 4G+ technology

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ost of Telenor’s investments go into infrastructure and network capacity development, mobile internet, digital technologies, as well as innovations.

The Telenor Network was again declared “Best in test” in the second independent mobile benchmarking rating in Serbia, conducted by international company P3. How significant is this recognition?

A specific focus and continual devotion to the highest possible results of the network is part of our DNA. The fact that this latest recognition was awarded by P3 – one of the most relevant and prestigious international organisations – speaks for itself. This is the third independent acknowledgement in a short period of time. The first one came from RATEL, at the end of 2018, when Telenor Serbia scored the best total result in mobile network quality benchmarking in Serbia.

This confirmation was then followed by P3 acknowledgements twice during 2019, demonstrating that the quality of the network is the absolute priority of our business.

Have all the preconditions been achieved for the realisation of your plans regarding 5G technology?

On the legal front, there are more steps that needs to be taken to make 5G fully operable in Serbia, including the adapting

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of local zoning requirements and improving procedures for the issuance of permits.

Equally, in order for 5G to take off, we need a partnership between businesses and the public sector, the government and regulators, as the initiators of the creation of this new ecosystem. Telenor proudly pioneered the first 5G environment at the Science Technology Park Belgrade, in order to develop and test use cases with our partners, which can contribute to developing both business and

We have been working continuously for more than a decade to ensure that the Telenor network has excellent quality for all citizens of Serbia, in all parts of the country

the wider community. But the implementation and commercial availability of 5G technology is not so close, as there are several other preconditions that must first be met, such as fully enabling a regulatory framework, the availability of 5G enabled devices, the transformation of industries that will utilise 5G technology etc. Clearly, one of the key formal preconditions is the auctioning of the radio frequency spectrum. The Government of Serbia should select the model and period for holding that auction, alongside timely consultation with the telecommunication industry, with the aim of selling bands that

are most needed from the perspective of technology usage and market demands.

How much will the 5G network change our lives?

Oh, pretty much. 5G will certainly improve the user experience in the sense of an internet speed that’s 10 to 100 times faster, enhanced services and the possibility of watching TV programmes on phones in real time, for example. It will also make it possible to establish billions of new instant connections, so that many industries can take advantage of cellular networks in ways that wouldn’t have been imaginable before. That implies increasing the level of connectivity between cars and roads, or doctors’ interventions and the personal medical devices of their patients, or improved agriculture processes, while augmented reality will be able to help people shop, learn and explore wherever they are.

To what extent do your investments serve to generate the development of supporting industries and the economy generally?

The telecommunications industry has always been an engine for economic growth and we see important steps that have been conducted in the digitalisation of the society and government. Telecommunications can and will play an even bigger role in this process and will take the lead in key market-shaping initiatives. We could not only secure a better performance, but also contribute to greater market stability. Our customers’ wishes are the key driver and direction for Telenor’s future investments, and we are primarily supporting their increasing data needs.

OGNJEN FARKAS, GENERAL MANAGER, PHOSPHEA DANUBE

We Export 90% Of Our Production Phosphea is a member of France’s Roullier Group, which is one of the world’s leading agribusiness conglomerates. Phosphea acquired its position as one of the largest feed phosphate producer in the world by purchasing a monocalcium phosphate production plant in Prahovo

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ccording to Phosphea Danube General Manager Ognjen Farkas, Serbia’s industrial platform makes it an attractive host for production exports, given that 90 per cent of the company’s production is sold abroad, on four continents and in 34 countries, through all logistics channels.

With the acquisition of the feed phosphate plant in Prahovo, Phosphea has taken over the position as one of the world’s largest feed phosphate producers. How would you assess these first two years of operations in Serbia?

The overall industry operating in the segment of feed phosphates is often highly demanding, owing to its complexity and the diversity of layers that the main industry players, like Groupe Roullier, has to face and challenge each day – from agricultural needs to the rhythm of raw material markets and economic or geopolitical movements. Each stratum requires special attention, adapted strategies, creative and innovative solutions. Establishing the company as a trailblazer in such an environment is achieved not only thanks to the recognition of the excellent results, but rather, above all, thanks to recognition of our quality and knowhow.

Serbia has given us the important ad-

vantage in terms of distance from which to approach Central and Eastern European markets in a more offensive and direct way.

Therefore, Serbia established itself as our hub and epicentre for the development of our business, and generated the creation of a network of logistics & sales platforms covering the whole area of interest. Finally, although we’ve encountered many chal-

Modern, leading-edge products emerge from our production lines every day, and there will be more of them to come

lenges during these first two years since our establishment, we achieved results that justify our investment in Serbia, and we strongly believe in further the development of our operations.

It isn’t possible to be the first and the best without constantly investing in research and technology. Is your position the result of a synergy of industrial and technical expertise, a unique sales force and a constant commitment to innovation?

There is no doubt that new era is leading us to ever more sophisticated and advanced solutions, in order to face the current challenges of livestock production. For the past decade, Phosphea has been placing its unique Global Innovation Centre in Saint-Malo, France, at the centre

of its corporate focus for a reason. Modern, leading-edge products emerge from our production lines every day, and there will be more of them to come. What is avantgarde today might already be a widely accepted standard by tomorrow, and this is how we see our role – pioneering feed solutions ahead of time with the synergy of our technical knowhow and sales approach with local industrial expertise.

How high are your investments in increasing the volume of production on an annual basis, and what kind of plans do you have for the period ahead; how much attention do you devote to the further educating and training of employees?

It is not only a question of production volumes, which is important by all means.

The highest significance for us is not only how much we produce, but how we produce.

Consequently, the issue of the environment and its protection, control of energy consumption, along with the safety of our personnel who are on the production line day in - day out, is an imperative ahead of any other. Phosphea is thereby certified under the full scope of relevant standards, which can only be obtained through such an approach and consistency in terms of quality of production and staff. The exclusive pattern to keep in line with this postulate is, therefore, constant staff upgrades.

In the long run, a large portion of our investments are channelled into ensuring a profound effect on what we consider as the key success of our project: involving all of our employees to acquire the highest possible degree of multivalency and creating a team spirit with genuine style that shapes both the present and the future of our company.

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Enterpreneur

PIERRE OMIDYAR

Inspiration Is

Paramount

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Iranian-American economist Pierre Omidyar is best known as the founder and chairman of eBay, the online auction website. Omidyar graduated from Tufts University in 1988 with a degree in computer science and worked for both Macintosh and Apple before founding eBay. By the end of 1998, the company boasted 2.1 million members and generated revenue of $750 million

It was on the Labour Day weekend of 1995 that a then 28-year-old Pierre Omidyar sat down at his computer to write the code for what would become the business known today as eBay. This company, based in San Jose, California, now has 31,500 employees and revenue of $14 billion in revenue, and has made Omidyar, now eBay’s chairman, one of the world’s richest people. Of late, he has shifted the focus of his energies to philanthropy.

Through the Omidyar Group, he has donated and invested more than a billion dollars in both non- and for-profit organisations, focused on economic, social and political progress. But Omidyar is not interested in random acts of charity. Instead, he is inspired by something he discovered about leadership in the early days of eBay: if you empower others to do good, they will.

When he first started working as a software engineer, Pierre maintained extremely high standards, and often felt that those standards weren’t being met by other people. However, he gradually realised that if others on the team weren’t doing everything as perfectly as he wanted them to – if they were only getting 80 per cent of the way there – that would also be awesome. That’s because there were five of them, and five times 80 per cent far exceeds only him giving 100 per cent on his own. This realisation led him to the idea of leveraging other people: let them bring their own skills and talents to the table, and they’ll solve problems in a way that differs from him.

It was in 1991 that Pierre co-founded his first

start-up: Ink Development, which made software for an early tablet computer. The company, later renamed eShop, was acquired by Microsoft in 1996. This wasn’t a huge acquisition, but it definitely increased Pierre’s appetite for risk.

It was during the summer of 1995 that he started thinking about the idea of building an online marketplace. He had always been interested in markets – specifically, the theory that goods will trade at a fair value on financial markets only when everyone has access to the same information. That’s a pretty cool theory, but the practise of it hit him when he had a little bit of extra money and wanted to invest in an IPO for a gaming company. The company went public at $15 a share. His broker called to tell him that he’d acquired the stock at $24 a share. When Pierre

PIERRE OMIDYAR AND HIS WIFE PAMELA KERR OMIDYAR

Pierre realised that if others on the team weren’t doing everything as perfectly as he wanted them to – if they were only getting 80 per cent of the way there – that would also be awesome

enquired as to why he’d been charged so much, his broker informed him that the ideal price of $15 was not the price for “people like you”. His takeaway from this experience was that the theory of efficient markets is really great in theory, while in practise regular people are locked out.

He then started to consider that the emerging ‘internet thing’ could be used to help bring the power of financial markets to regular people. Of course, regular people don’t sell stocks in their households – they sell stuff. Identifying a real opportunity to create a marketplace that could bring

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Enterpreneur

OMIDYAR’S LAS VEGAS MEGA ESTATE

the power of efficient markets to regular people, he took that fateful step on Labour Day 1995.

About six months after he created eBay, in February 1996, Pierre began receiving a spate of complaints. Everyone was complaining about each other. He felt very much like he was a parent who had to adjudicate feuding brothers who were blaming each other for having “started it”.

Pierre realised that this would be a big problem if things kept going this way. This prompted him to write a letter to the community and post it on the site, saying “I’m giving you a tool, a feedback forum. If you have an honestly bad experience with someone, post it publicly. And if you can take the time to give positive praise when someone does something good, please do that.”

It was a real experiment, and he didn’t know what to expect. However, in the days and weeks that followed, Pierre was enormously gratified to see that the vast majority of the comments coming in highlighted the good things people were doing, which went above and beyond the transactions themselves.

That experience led him to conclude that the company had to do likewise internally at eBay. Instead of telling his executives what to do, he should try to inspire them with a vision of where they are going and let them translate that in their own terms, based on their own experience and expertise. Inspiration is much more effective than delegation.

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His skills were innovation and creation, but in order for all that to thrive they would need real managers, people who knew how to build big organisations

By August of that year, Omidyar started talking with his friend Jeff Skoll and persuaded him to leave a wonderful job at Knight Rider and help him build eBay. But he was never the founder-CEO type, like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Even in those early days, his feeling was that, together with Jeff, he would build the company to a certain point and then – if they were successful – they would bring in professional management. His skills were innovation and creation, but in order for all that to thrive they would need real managers, people who knew how to build big organisations.

It was Pierre’s idea to bring in Meg Whitman as CEO in 1998, and he felt that, with this move, they set an example of how that transition should be done. It is often the case that a founder begrudgingly takes on a more experienced CEO, but then sticks around and still tries to run the company. That wasn’t the

case with eBay. He stayed at eBay for a year, to help with the transition, but from the very first day he made it clear that he was only there to advise Meg behind the scenes, while she would run the show.

As an example, at one point during the year after he left eBay, the site was down for about 22 hours. It was a disaster. What Meg decided – in a move that proved to be a key moment in her leadership – was that the company would call all of its top 10,000 sellers individually and apologise.

She wanted to ensure that the company internalised the notion that it was here to serve real human beings, and that there are consequences when mistakes happens.

The company went public in 1998 and Pierre couldn’t have expected the IPO to be so successful in his wildest dreams. The shares were initially priced at $18, but had reached about $47 by the time trading closed on the first day. It was more money than he could ever use. He felt an immediate sense of huge responsibility and all he could think was that he had now become the steward of a fortune that he wanted to ensure would be put to good use.

As a new philanthropist, the available literature for guidance advises that one works through the non-profit sector. Pierre did that through 2002 and 2003, until he started feeling frustrated. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but he felt like the full potential wasn’t being met. That led to the formation of the Omidyar Network, which was built on his insight that having a large-scale positive impact on change in the world meant not limiting oneself to working with the nonprofit sector.

His entire approach to philanthropy is rooted in what he witnessed at eBay; the way millions of people used the platform to create their own businesses. As a philanthropist, Pierre tries to help people take ownership over their own endeavours.

Everything he has done is rooted in the notion that every human being is born equally capable, with people only lacking equal opportunity.

His goal has been to expand opportunities to encompass as many people as possible, so they can achieve their potential. That’s the approach they took with eBay, and it’s harder to make bad decisions when such a notion is at the forefront of one’s mind. No wonder, then, that Pierre describes his life’s mission as helping people to realise their potential.

PROFILE

Not Everything’s Bad – Books Are Good When I founded Arhipelag in the spring of 2007, I wanted to work with authors and contributors, partners and friends, to form a space in which readers would have the possibility to choose

GOJKO BOŽOVIĆ, FOUNDER AND CHIEF EDITOR OF ARHIPELAG PUBLISHING

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ow, after exciting years in complicated times, and with the clear knowledge that such times are still ahead of us, I’m glad that the readers have inhabited that space, both literally and symbolically. It is only in the hands of readers that books gain their meaning and final form, but in order to reach that sense and form, in something that differs with every real reader, books must first provide readers with content. I would republish any book published under the Arhipelag brand in recent years, regardless of sales results or the initial resounding of some of those books in public.

That’s precisely why I advocate the concept of authorial publishing, superior literature and the cultural and social responsibility of publishers. As an editor and publisher, I only publish books that I would definitely want to read even if I wasn’t a publisher, but rather just a reader. I only publish books that, due to their values, I

can freely recommend to my children or my friends. And I’m ready to pay a price for that decision to make the publishing work I do part of high culture and superior literature.

A publisher is responsible to its readers, not just its own interests, economic or any other. The value of publishing work is measured as long as a single book of some publisher exists in bookshops or in public or private libraries. In modern history, publishing has been in a natural alliance with high culture and markets. High culture provided equally high and verifiable criteria, while the market created a space for ideas to be

Literature mustn’t be boiled down to one taste, one colour, one trend. It must be the voice of differences and the voice of values... The best books have always embodied true securities

tested and validated. The contemporary marginalisation of culture has served to unravel this enduring and fruitful alliance, which is why most publishers around the globe have cut their ties with culture by adapting to trends and meeting their real or assumed expectations. Readers need to be

offered a choice. And today this possibility is very limited, despite us being surrounded by many book-shaped products.

We want the Arhipelag mark on the covers of our books to be a kind of contract with the reader. We haven’t abandoned that contract and, more importantly, nor have our readers.

People who read good books understand the circumstances of their own lives. And that is the best asset we can acquire, the safest asset that any kind of crisis is powerless to confront. We don’t live to read, write and publish books, but rather we read, or even write and publish, in order to fill our own lives with meaning, the foundations of freedom and the power of independence.

Literature mustn’t be boiled down to one taste, one colour, one trend. It must be the voice of differences and the voice of values.

It must pose questions and we must bear witness, over and again, that a particular writer has something to say to us and that, as such, his book had to be written. The best books have always embodied true securities.

In terms of the crisis of taste, we are completely consciously and decisively going against the current, because I believe that’s an expression of our social and cultural responsibility. I am very satisfied with the way readers have accepted and supported our choice. The year of Arhipelag’s work relies primarily on the fact that there are enough readers in Serbia who are interested in the kind of literature and human stories that we publish. And from thence we can repeat to readers: “not everything’s bad – books are good”.

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Art

Polish Contemporary Art

TADEUSZ KANTOR, DAMN I’M FALLING!, 1988

Between The Media

& THE BODY 52

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Contemporary Art in Poland has always provoked huge controversy and extreme reactions. Often misunderstood and used by right-wing politicians to favour their radically conservative views, it has electrified not only the art world, but also the general public – to such extent that damage to works or their removal were common, as were exhibition closures and protests in front of artistic institutions. Politicians, clerics, artists and critics – the whole country has been involved in the national discussion.

There is always something much more important hidden behind accusations of profanity and that the artist is simply seeking notoriety.

The works described in this article weren’t created to be scandalous, but rather to draw attention to significant issues and problems that are still present within Polish society

T

he growing interest in innovative Polish artists shouldn’t surprise anyone. As home to a rich legacy of avant-garde art, Polish artists fundamentally changed and re-evaluated artistic traditions during the 1980s. These examinations challenged not only classic avant-garde works, but also works of neo-avant-garde artists. Focused on the ideas and theories championed by German artist Joseph Beuys, Polish artists transformed the understanding of both painting and sculpture.

Cultural politics, political changes and the role of the Catholic church, along with traumatic historical events experienced by the nation, play a crucial role in ensuring the variety of contemporary Polish artists. As a result of all these forces, the country has a rich and often controversial stock of artworks exhibited across international and local galleries and art museums.

The work of artists who made their debuts in the ‘80s fundamentally changed and re-evaluated the artistic traditions that had been relevant until then. Firstly, it changed the avant-garde tradition which had – and continues to have an exceptionally powerful influence on artists, predominantly thanks to the work of married couple Władysław Strzemiński (painter, designer and theoretician, 1893-1952) and the Katarzyna Kobro (sculptor, 1898-1952). The concept of

‘Unism’ in Strzemiński’s painting and of timespace rhythms in Kobro’s constructions were permanently etched into the classic European or “first” avant-garde. The main bastions of this classic avant-garde art in Poland have been represented by two institutions that are still operating in Warsaw today and which, upon their establishment in 1966, were closely linked to the renewal of interest in the avant-garde during the ‘60s, leading to the emergence of neo-avant-garde or “second” avant-garde.

Thanks to artists who debuted in the ‘80s, not only was the classic avant-garde re-examined, but rather new aspects were also revealed by the work of neo-avant-garde artists. Many young artists of that period, like sculptors Mirosław Bałka (1958) and Krzysztof M. Bednarski (1953), drew on the social theories of German sculptor Joseph Beuys, co-founder of the neo-avant-garde movement Fluxus, and the dramatic interpretation of their material. It was in 1981 that Beuys presented his collection of works entitled Polentranstport to the Łódź Museum of Art, which served to considerably intensify interest in his work.

It was also in the ‘80s, following a period of limbo brought about by the thrust of postmodernism during the late ‘70s, that interest was renewed in the work of the middle-generation Polish artists, linked to the neo-avant-garde of

KATARZYNA KOZYRA, ANIMAL PYRAMID

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Art

Polish Contemporary Art

The growing interest in innovative Polish artists shouldn’t surprise anyone.

As home to a rich legacy of avant-garde art, Polish artists fundamentally changed and re-evaluated artistic traditions during the 1980s the 1960s, with an acknowledged international reputation. The canvasses of Włodzimierz Pawlak (1957) used the work of Roman Opałka (1931), permanently resident in France, as a starting point for the painter’s dialogue. The black-andwhite canvasses of Ryszard Winiarski (1936), “painted” according to the rules of chance theory, became an important reference point for many young artists, like Jerzy Truszkowski (1961) and Robert Maciejuk (1965). The richly varied art of Krzysztof Wodziczko (1943), who works mainly out of North America and Western Europe, influenced the socially-orientated work of the young artists of the ‘90s.

The most pervasive – and perhaps accordingly most controversial – tradition in Polish art, that of the colourists, was also subjected not so much to alteration as to a kind of final acceptance in the work of succeeding generations of artists. The paintings of the Polish colourists of the inter-war years, members of the Paris Committee (such as Jan Cybis, Jozef Czapski, Piotr Potworowski, Artur Nacht-Samborski and Zygmunt Waliszewski) who were also pupils of Pierre Bonnard and the École de Paris, were condemned even before the war for their aestheticism, escapism and ostentatious pictorialism.

A huge role in the assimilation of the work of the colourists was played by one of Poland’s most important artists – painter Stefan Gierowski (1925).

A separate tradition of contemporary Polish art emerged in post-war artistic circles in Krakow, with the organising of the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Krakow in 1948, only to ultimately be concentrated around the Krakow Group. An overpowering influence on this group

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ZDZISŁAW BEKSIŃSKI, UNTITLED

PAWEL ALTHAMER THE NEIGHBOURS, INSTALLATION

By author

Instead of politics, which – though not obvious in the works of the artists of the ‘80s – clearly defined them, the subject matter of art became civilisation as a whole was exerted by Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), an individual creative genius – an artist who was arrogant, provocative and avant-garde, but who also battled against what he ironically referred to as “The Official Avant-Garde”, a man like no other, because there could never be anyone else like him anywhere in the world of European art of the 20th century. The artists of the Krakow Group are primarily individualists who cannot be pigeon-holed with any group or into any -ism, though critics eagerly highlight their preoccupation with surrealism.

One special aspect of Polish art of the 1980s was its links with the Church. The 1978 election of Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II strengthened the Church’s standing among artists and intellectuals, who had previously been far from firm believers. Such was the viewpoint of, for example, the artists of Gruppa. It must be noted, however, that this period was also marked by truly profound interest in the whole question of the sacred in art, and by deep spiritual changes to many artists, including the youngest.

That is how the ‘80s became the decade of a return to traditional genres of painting, sculpture, architecture and crafts. And, in the Polish situation, it was also a return to truly free work – not free in terms of experimentation, but free of political ambiguity. In such a situation, the avant-garde ceased to be attractive as simply a formal proposition, as a concept of an artistic language, as an experiment acknowledging the new media reality. It became attractive because the young artists became aware of its significance and the possibilities it still offered in its attitude towards art.

The ‘80s, the decade of political resistance, ended with fundamental changes to the country’s cultural politics. They were not, however,

MIROSLAW BALKA, HOW THE BODY DISAPPEARED

WLODZIMIERZ PAWLAK, NOTE ON ART NO. 217, RT

welcomed without some ambivalence. On the one hand, of course, artists were given the opportunity to engage extensively and freely without fear of censorship. On the other hand, however, the political and economic changes at the end of the ‘80s had a huge impact on the already impoverished artistic milieu. This was lost when the free market arrived with democracy.

Polish art stopped taking an interest in current affairs, jettisoning almost entirely the experiences of the preceding decade (its attitude towards the Church, the return to traditional genres, a very distant but questioning attitude towards politics).

Between the media and the body - that could be a shorthand way of describing Polish art in the period from 1991 to 2000. Instead of politics,

WILHELM SARNAL, SOLDIERS

which – though not obvious in the works of the artists of the ‘80s – clearly defined them, the subject matter of art became civilisation as a whole. The specifically Polish context is virtually absent from Polish art. The devaluation of ideas about social cohesion, the painful price paid for the building of democracy, liberalism with its concept of unlimited freedom, the impoverishing of artistic milieus following the introduction of free-market principles, the lack of any kind of cultural policy of the state – all this has done little to encourage artists to participate in current events or deal with them in their own art.

This also points to a new perception of the role of the artist and perhaps even a new sensibility that differs from the traditional.

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&FACES PLACES 2/10/2019

German Unity Day Celebrated In Belgrade

Photo: CorD/German Embassy/Marija Paroski

German Ambassador to Belgrade Thomas Schieb and Mrs Claudia Schieb hosted a reception on the occasion of the Day of German Unity.

The event held at the German Ambassador’s residence was attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, Parliament Speaker Maja Gojković, Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić and representatives of the diplomatic corps, political, public, cultural and sports life of Serbia.

“I will quote Chancellor Merkel, who said that Europe would be united when the Western Balkans joins it. You can count on our support in this. I am happy to announce that the German Finance Minister will soon visit Serbia. Long live Serbia, Germany and the EU,” said Ambassador Thomas Schieb in his speech addressing guests.

ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ AND RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN

7/10/2019

Serbia-Turkey Business Forum

Opening the Serbia-Turkey Business Forum, attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Aleksandar Vučić invited Turkish investors to invest in Serbia and Serbian businesses to invest in Turkey.

Vučić emphasised that it is possible to achieve stronger cooperation in the field of defence technologies, but also of innovative technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics.

Turkish President Erdoğan pointed out that the two countries have a strong intent to improve their relations and expand cooperation in more areas, and said that Turkish businesses have great opportunities for investment in Serbia.

AMBASSADOR THOMAS SCHIEB

TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOĞAN

8/10/2019

Independence Day Of Indonesia Marked

The Indonesian Embassy in Serbia hosted a reception on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day and Armed Forces Day of this country.

Ambassador of Indonesia to Serbia H.E. Mochammad Chandra Widya hosted a number of guests - representatives of the political, cultural and public scene of Serbia, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps.

AMBASSADOR CHOE HYOUNG-CHAN, HIS WIFE AND MINISTER ZORAN DJORDJEVIC

7/10/2019

Celebration Of The National Day Of Korea

The Embassy of Korea in Belgrade hosted a celebration of the National Day of the Republic of Korea at the Hyatt Hotel.

The reception celebrated the 4352nd anniversary of the National Foundation of Korea.

Commemorating this important event in Korean history, Ambassador of Korea to Serbia H.E. Choe Hyoung-chan welcomed hundreds of guests including ambassadors, diplomats, members of the Serbian National Assembly, who gathered in celebration of the National Day of Korea.

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AMBASSADOR MOCHAMMAD CHANDRA WIDYA(FIRST FROM LEFT)

SEE MORE: WWW.CORDMAGAZINE.COM

11/10/2019

National Day Of Spain

Embassy of Spain in Belgrade hosted a reception marking the National Day of this country. The event was held at the Belgrade’s Metropol Hotel.

Ambassador of Spain to Serbia H.E. Raúl Bartolomé Molina said that country supports the territorial integrity of Serbia and fully supports the dialogue on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Ambassador Molina also said that political relations between the two countries are at the highest level and that such relations will continue to improve, adding that Spain is fully AMBASSADOR RAÚL BARTOLOMÉ MOLINA supporting Serbia’s European integration.

13/10/2019

Opening Ceremony Of 141 IPU Assembly st

The 141st Assembly of the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) opened at the Sava Centre in Belgrade. The Assembly will be held until 17 October.

The event will gather 2,000 participants from approximately 150 countries.

The meeting was inaugurated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and was attended by IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and Geneva Office General Tatiana Valovaya.

After 20 years, this is the first time that the IPU Assembly is held outside Geneva.

PRESIDENT ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ

14/10/2019

National Day Of Austria

Ambassador of Austria to Serbia H.E. Nikolaus Lutterotti hosted a reception at the Belgrade City Hall to mark the National Day of Austria.

Special guest of the event was President of the Austrian National Council Wolfgang Sobotka, as well as the delegation of the Austrian members of Parliament.

Ambassador Lutterotti said Austria celebrates its National Day each year on 26th October to mark the day when the Austrian AMBASSADOR NIKOLAUS LUTTEROTTI, PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRIAN COUNCIL WOLFGANG SOBOTKA Parliament adopted the Constitution in 1955.

Ambassador emphasised excellent relations between Serbia and Austria and is honoured that Wolfgang Sobotka visited Belgrade on this occasion, which is his second visit to Belgrade within a year. “This reflects our high level of Austria’s commitment to Serbia, in particular, Serbia’s efforts to become a member of the European Union.”

15/10/2019

Conference The EU And Serbia: Shared Destiny?

Speaking at the conference “The EU and Serbia: Shared Destiny?”, organised by the Embassy Belgium in Serbia, President Emeritus of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy stated that the shared destiny means the same values and expressed his opinion that Serbia can also share the peace and prosperity of the European Union.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic emphasised that it is in Serbia’s interest to join the EU. “I will promote the EU. It is always better to be in a club than out of it”, said Vucic.

It is in the interest of Serbia to have as many as friends as possible – including Turkey, China and Russia, but the added value of these countries is much smaller than the value of the EU, said Van Rompuy. Adding “In order to have a lasting peace in this region, European Union is the best guarantee”.

ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ, BELGIAN AMBASSADOR KOENRAAD ADAM AND HERMAN VAN ROMPUY

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SEE MORE: WWW.CORDMAGAZINE.COM

&FACES PLACES 19/10/2019

Dmitry Medvedev Delivers A Speech At The National Assembly Of Serbia

During his visit to Belgrade Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev delivered a speech at the National Assembly of Serbia.

Medvedev said at the time: “Your country is an old friend of ours. We are bonded by common history, very close culture and common faith. Our peoples have the idea ingrained in their outlook that we are truly brotherly peoples. And Russia always, in the most dire situations, has tried to support the Serbs and has received in return support and understanding from Serbia.”

MINISTER ZORANA MIHAJLOVIC

24/10/2019

Doing Business 2020 Conference Held In Belgrade

The reforms performed by the Ministry of Economy in the field of protecting minority investors and resolving insolvency, as well as the efforts by the Ministry of Construction in further improving the construction permitting system, have fueled Serbia’s progress to the 44th position in the latest Doing Business report, which is a 4-rank advancement compared to the previous year, it was announced at the fourth concluded at the conference “Doing Business 2020” in Belgrade.

The event organised by NALED in cooperation with the British Embassy, World Bank and International Finance Corporation also highlighted the priorities for further advancement in the Doing Business list.

RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER DMITRY MEDVEDEV

25/10/2019

National Day Of The Czech Republic

On the occasion of 101 years since the creation of the independent state of the Czech Republic, the Embassy of this country’s in Belgrade hosted a formal reception.

Ambassador of the Czech Republic H.E. Tomáš Kuchta gave a welcoming speech, highlighting the importance of the date of 28th October 1918 to the contemporary Czech Republic – as the proclamation of independence of the then Czechoslovakia.

The reception was attended by many members of the diplomatic community in Serbia number of guests, representatives of the diplomatic corps, Serbian officials, entrepreneurs, associations of the Czech national minority, media, culture and many others.

AMBASSADOR ATTILA PINTER

22/10/2019

Republic Day Of Hungary

Embassy of Hungary in Serbia hosted a reception marking country’s Republic Day. Hungarian Ambassador H.E. Attila Pinter emphasized in his speech that 23rd October is an important day for the Hungarians because of three reasons.

“First reason is that nothing should break us, we must never give up the fight, even if we must forcefully defend our truth, our freedom. Second, very important message is national unity since Hungarian history is full of events when - let us admit - there is a divide within the nation. And the third very important reason is, I believe, that on 23rd October 1956, one should always remember and look back with dignity,” said Ambassador Pinter.

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AMBASSADOR TOMÁŠ KUCHTA

My life

Aleksandar Boričić, President of the European Volleyball Federation (CEV)

By Aleksandar Miletić

COLLECTOR OF SUCCESSES “In volleyball I didn’t pay attention to points and sets, but I liked the last point to be mine,” says Aleksandar Boričić, who is among the rare few to prove successful in all roles in volleyball (player, coach, administrator) and to have won world medals both as a collector and philatelist. From playing volleyball in the rain, to promoting snow volleyball as a potential Olympic sport…

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My life

Aleksandar Boričić, President of the European Volleyball Federation (CEV)

G

reat credit for the extraordinary successes of Serbian volleyball today – with both the men’s and women’s national teams current champions of Europe – belongs to Aleksandar Boričić, president of the European Volleyball Federation (CEV), who took the helm of Yugoslav volleyball at a juncture when it was ranked bottom in Europe. Actually, it wouldn’t be right to say that it was at rock bottom, rather something much worse than that, because at that moment (1992-95) volleyball - like the whole country (then FR Yugoslavia) - was outcast from the international community. If it could ever be said that someone was the cornerstone of subsequent historic endeavours, then that is precisely Boričić. Of course – as he would point out himself – with the great help of his closest associates and a small group of friends, who were there despite perhaps not believing in miracles.

The unwritten rule is that it is players who write the history of every sport. However, they didn’t feature in the first chapter of this fairy tale, when it was necessary to raise the volleyball organisation to its feet and to convince everyone around it that something which “does not exist” (a national team) was worthy of effort and investment, and that one day this would lead to medals, glory and everything that accompanies all of that. That lightning-fast ascent of Serbian volleyball became Boričić’s masterpiece and the best recommendation for the post he now holds.

His ideas and visions are today not only woven into the work of CEV, but also the World Volleyball Federation (FIVB), in which he serves as the second Vice President. With this, he’s rounded off a six-decade journey through volleyball during which he – like no one before him – was everything and won everything: he began as a player, continued as a coach, and has spent the last three decades as an administrator.

Any story about him wouldn’t be complete without his family – raised from birth with a love for Red Star and sports – as well as his other great passion – collectibles (stamps and historical documents), in which he’s also reached the greatest possible heights. He has won many gold medals at world philatelic exhibitions. But let’s start in order with the childhood he spent in the neighbourhood around King Petar I Primary School, the oldest school in Serbia, in the yard which hosted the first course in “children’s

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BORIČIĆ AS A PHILATELIST

“I’ve been to more than a hundred countries, in many of them many times. In Japan alone I’ve visited 23 cities. Last year I started taking notes: I had 136 flights, and I’ve had 112 so far this year.” games”, in October 1923. In the place where Red Cross envoy William Wayland brought the first balls for team sports (volleyball and basketball), Aleksandar Boričić came into the world a quarter of a century later… One of the few figures in volleyball to have a European medal as a player, a coach and as president of the national federation. How did you spend your childhood; what kind of environment did you grow up in?

I spent my childhood in the Varoš Kapija [Town Gate] area, where I was also born. Back in the 1960s that was a neighbourhood where we all knew each other. No one locked their doors and we lived like a big family. Some imaginary border

was formed by Knez Mihailova Street. And because Kalemegdan was close to us, we often played football in the fortress park’s Lower Town.

When we didn’t have classes, we all ran down to play football for half an hour before returning to school. The exceptional physical education teacher, Ljuba Stefanović, who we all referred to as Ljuba Kifla, instilled a love for sports in all of us. Dragan Kapičić sat on the same school bench with me, so there were future presidents of two federations – basketball and volleyball - sitting side by side. In the year below us were basketball players Zoran ‘Moka’ Slavnić, Goran Rakočević and the Latifić brothers, but also great football striker Slobodan Gavrić, handball legend Andrija Banjanin and many others. It isn’t well known that basketball was one of your first sports?

There was an international match in Slovenia in 1962. I played for the Red Star junior team.

In the meantime, I was already training volleyball. I went to school, then known as the Ribar Brothers School, but now King Petar I School.

People would laugh if they saw that hall today, but we were overjoyed because that was the first hall in Belgrade to have a volleyball net and a basketball court, and gymnastic equipment. It is wedged between the Cathedral Church on one side and the French Embassy on the other,

By Aleksandar Miletić

times a week, and when he secure us with the conditions, we had training nine times a week.

He was at Red Star FC. He is the only man at the helm of both the volleyball and handball clubs. He also became president of the Volleyball Federation of Yugoslavia and created conditions for the first medal at the 1975 European Championships, held in our country. As a player, the only title you won with Red Star was title in 1974. That title didn’t only come after a wait of more than a decade and a half, but was also Red Star’s lasy in the Yugoslav era?

BORIČIĆ, NO. 2, AT ZVEZDA - PARTIZAN

so we suffered whenever the ball went into the yard of the embassy, because we had to beg them to return it to us. A ball was a real treasure back then. Whoever had the ball was in charge. The game would end when he headed home. Who were your first sporting idols?

As is normal, football was to the fore. As I lived in a flat opposite the hotel ‘Palas’, where visiting foreign teams mostly stayed, I collected autographs. I’m proud to have Garrincha’s autograph, as well as Omar Sivori’s. My father took me to watch the famous Honved with the Rifleman, the famous Hungarian “light cavalry”. The first Olympics I remember is Rome 1960, when the Olympics first appeared on the television. I watched all the sports, and was most impressed by marathon runner Abebe Bikila and Hungarian boxer László Papp. Those are my first sporting idols, which is perhaps unusual given that team sports come first with me. Why did you decide to opt for volleyball and when?

One of the most famous people in volleyball at the time was Igor Bogdanovski. We received a lot of good things from educated Russians, and he was one of them. He brought a volleyball ball to our school and gathered together a group of us boys who were nine to 10 years old. Just as

I’d played basketball a bit, so Moka Slavnić had played a little volleyball. I trained in both sports while I could. We had no other entertainment.

A cinema with non-stop cartoons appeared on Obilić’s Wreath for the first time, and we would enter five times a day to watch. Of course, we would try to smuggle ourselves in with the same ticket, because we didn’t have enough money to be able to watch all day. I first arrived on the court of Red Star in 1961, and have been a member ever since. What did sporting equipment look like back then?

At one point the balls for volleyball were also heavy leather balls, and we played outside, in the wind, in the rain, and even in the snow…

It would happen – because at that time there was no spiking in reception, that we played only with fingers – such were the rules: for slightly trickier players to catch the ball, then stand above a puddle, then deliberately drop it and roll it in the water, for the leather to get soaked. So when they served it would hit you like a cannonball.

We entered the halls in the late ‘60s. A huge shift came when at Red Star we got a man who was the sheik of Yugoslavia - the director of Petrol Union. His name was Milan Crevar. He practically transferred volleyball from amateurism to professionalism. By then we were training three

We were an amateur club, and Partizan always had an advantage with the military – going to some tournaments abroad, travelling on military planes. And we, as amateurs, went to a game in Osijek and put a bottle of mineral water on the table… We lived modestly, but we were – and have remained – good friends.

Then Mr Crevar came in and practically created a semi-professional volleyball club, brought in two players and secured the conditions for us to be champions. When the national team won bronze in 1975, five members of the national team were from Red Star. We’d won three cups before, but we always lacked something in the championship. Although we were the best in Yugoslavia for those four years, we only won that one championship. The 1975 European Championships in Yugoslavia, which brought the first medal (bronze) for the Yugoslav men’s national team, was the pinnacle of your playing career?

There was also a European championships in basketball that year, with had larger audiences.

We started from Skopje, where the first round was played, and where the stands were full. We lost to the Poles there. We led 2:0 against the Russians; we were one set away from the title of European Champions. We lost 3:2! When you are aware that you have a chance to be champions, it is normal that you become scared of making a mistake, and we then made a lot of mistakes.

We lost the third set 15:0! In the end, we were overjoyed that we’d won a much-awaited medal.

In tennis and volleyball, time and points differences mean nothing. And when you’re a point away from winning, you’re still not sure. I often

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My life

Aleksandar Boričić, President of the European Volleyball Federation (CEV)

joke: In volleyball I didn’t pay attention to points and sets, but I liked the last point to be mine! Why did you switch to coaching as soon as your playing career ended?

I went into the army after those European championships. Red Star lost 14 players instantaneously: some went abroad, some joined the army, some quit playing... When I came back there was no management and I didn’t know the new players. They persuaded me to do it for a month, and I stayed as a coach for ten years.

I immediately turned to focus on the players who hadn’t wanted to train with any coach.

They accepted everything and we immediately won first place. At one point I was playing with the men and coaching the women, which was pretty exhausting. When the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed, you became president of the Volleyball Federation of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

How did you manage to “invent” a place for the men’s national team at the 1995 European Championships in Athens?

Former CEV president Michalis Mastrandreas, a great friend of ours, helped us to break the embargo and participate as the 17th participant in qualifications for the European Championships.

They were plundering our players; he helped us, because we had nobody in the commissions.

Only an engineer called Kovačević was a member of the Technical Commission. We had no team, no jerseys, nothing. Some players were in twominds over whether or not to continue with us, but we were tenacious. I knew that if we didn’t catch the train then, the older players would never play again and the younger ones would never do anything on their own. We fought like lions. I brought Mastrandreas to a meeting with the Yugoslav Olympic Committee at the Hotel Metropol. In attendance were Yugoslav Olympic Committee President Aleksandar Bakočević and Secretary General Đorđe Perišić. It was there that we learned that our fate would be decided at a meeting to be held in Luxembourg on 9th December 1994. Federation Secretary General Slobodan Milošević and I insisted that we attend the meeting, but we were told that we couldn’t attend. However, we were persistent and went anyway, to be there before and after the meet-

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BORIČIĆ WITH THE YUGOSLAV CUP WINNER IN 1974

ing. Mastrandreas emerged from the meeting as though leaving a funeral and we expected a negative answer, but he said: “You can play!”

Milošević began to cry at that moment. And Mastrandreas said, “The only chance is for you to pay all the expenses of yourselves and your rivals, both at home and abroad!” And we didn’t even have money for ourselves! I laughed and took the paper to sign. After he asked me if I was aware that it was 150,000 dollars, I told him it wasn’t a problem. Milošević and I took the risk, because there was no time for subsequent meetings and decisions. And that signature symbolically marked a new era of our volleyball. We don’t suppose things were easier in 1999?

Another CEV president, Rolf Andresen, also helped us a lot, as a German, during the 1999 embargo. We were supposed to have a meeting in

Geneva on 3rd May 1999, and as we didn’t attend, Andresen asked me what was wrong with us. I told him, “Neutral Switzerland didn’t give us visas!” He asked me where we could travel! As we were able to travel without visas to Budapest and Sofia, he asked me to make it Sofia. We were suspended, but we’d already qualified for the Euro 1999 tournaments in Vienna, but if you don’t play then you lose a point and in that case we wouldn’t have qualified. We took a rental car from our friend Joca Burmaz and headed for Sofia. We had a car, but we had no petrol. It was wartime!

I took 10 litres from Ana Avramović at the club and that’s how we set off. As the highway and bridges had been bombed, we took side roads.

We reached Ćuprija, hoping to find petrol. And Ćuprija had been bombed that very morning...

We entered a city filled with scared people in the streets. After stopping at several petrol stations, we somehow found fuel. At that time you could

By Aleksandar Miletić

history of Serbia. I have the largest collection of propaganda and anti-propaganda against Serbs from World War I. I’ve been a philatelist since the age of nine, thanks to a neighbour. I also have the largest collection of the first Serbian aviators and planes. I have a collection of our first ships on the Sava and Danube. I have lots of things connected to the First Serbian War. I have the oldest letters for Serbia and for Montenegro; I received gold medals for the Balkan War, and for the Partisan Post Office… The following year’s World Exhibition was in London. I was president of the Federation of Serbian Philatelists, but since I have so many obligations I left that position to Nikola Ljubičić. Could you describe your family for us?

My wife Goroslava played basketball at Red Star.

Both daughters, Aleksandra and Ivana, played volleyball at Red Star. My son-in-law Nikola Manojlović played handball at the London Olympics and won a silver medal at the European Championships in Belgrade, and he also started at Red Star. The favourite song of my grandson Mateja and granddaughter Valentina is surely “Red Star score a goal”. We all belong to a healthy red & white family. I was at the final in Bari when Red Star players became the champions of Europe.

BORICIC AND MICHALIS MASTRANDREAS

only enter Bulgaria if you had flight tickets, and we didn’t have any. The customs officer looked at our passports, mine first, which he returned to me, then he took the other. He said, “you’re Slobodan Milošević - I would like to rip your head off!”The situation became strained. However, the president of the Bulgarian volleyball federation at that time was also Bulgaria’s minister of sport.

I called him, he came for us and we somehow entered Bulgaria. At the meeting, Rolf helped us overcome our suspension, and we went to Vienna and won bronze medals. The next year we were Olympic champions. You’ve also won plenty of medals as a collector and philatelist?

I have gold medals from world exhibitions.

Those are large hall attended by thousands of exhibitors. I have the only Grand Prix in the history of Serbian philately. I got it for the postal

How did you become president of the European Volleyball Federation?

Just as I became President of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee, when it was at a standstill, I agreed with a group of lasting international friends that Europe needed to change, and I’m satisfied that we’ve changed a lot. Of course, not everything can be immediate progress, but we are pleased with the way volleyball is moving to a much higher level. We’ve launched snow volleyball that will most likely be a contender for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. We’ve already had the European Championships, the first World Cup, the first competition in Argentina, where the Brazilians won a medal in a winter sport for the first time. Participating were volleyball players from Cameroon, South Africa, China, Japan... We are giving an opportunity to countries where snow has never fallen to participate on snow. That would be one of the cheapest sports if it were to enter the program of the Winter Olympics.

Lightning ascent of women’s volleyball “Girls used to stop playing volleyball when they went to college or started working or got married. The then presidents of the World and European federations told me not to go into that, because we are a small federation and we don’t have money for the men’s selections, let alone women’s. I responded to that saying, “You will be the first to give medals to our girls!” We headed for Sheffield in 2005, we got through the first round, then the second, the third, went to Japan and won bronze at the 2006 World Cup, then silver in Luxembourg in 2007. That’s how the girls also became part of that big story, only for us to go on to have European gold in both selections for the first time in 2011.”

What do you think of today’s Volleyball Federation of Serbia?

The Federation is achieving great results today.

Our women are the strongest female selection in the world by far. With the men, we reached a mini crisis and lack of confidence in the players, who were cadet category world champions. They were third in the world as juniors, second in the world at under-23s… This is a generation that has grown up through excellent results. That’s why they needed a little more optimism, more togetherness, and now they’ve been cheered with a new gold. Belgrade is set to host the Euro 2021 women’s volleyball finals?

At the last European Championship, we increased the number of spectators in eight countries, which is to be expected because everyone wants to watch their team. That was the key. However, the most striking was the final, where Serbia and Slovenia played in front of more than 12,000 spectators in Paris, which thrilled everyone. Volleyball is slowly changing; we had a wonderful super final in Berlin, where more than 60 per cent of the audience had come from abroad... This is all encouraging for the future.

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CHILL OUT PHILIPPINES

World Animal Day Elaborately dressed cats and dogs, and even a palm-sized sugar glider possum, were among the animals blessed outside a Manila shopping centre in celebration of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and World Animal Day. Pet owners raised their furry friends as a priest sprinkled holy water on the menagerie. More than 100 pets were brought in for this year’s religious and blessing ceremony, while World Animal Day is celebrated annually on 4th October, the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, as a day of action recognised worldwide for animal rights and welfare.

LUXEMBOURG

Prince Guillaume Becomes New Scout Chief Luxembourg’s crown prince has took on the role of national scout leader, taking over the baton from his late grandfather, Grand Duke Jean, who served as the country’s chief scout for 74 years. Crown Prince Guillaume made his promise at a gathering of over 3,000 scouts in Luxembourg City. The tiny country boasts two scout organisations: the LGS and FNEL, with 85 local groups affiliated to them, working with around 7,500 young people.

ITALY

Space Watching Game Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano was cheering on his team from space when they take on South Africa in their pivotal Rugby World Cup clash.

Parmitano was watching the F Pool B match from the International Space Station as it orbits some 400 km above the earth.

Parmitano, who has been in space since July, had a message for the Italian team, and this isn’t the first time that Parmitano has broken new ground in space – in August he became the first person to DJ in space, when he played a set from the International Space Station for a club in Ibiza.

JAPAN

World’s Most Expensive Grape Hundreds of grape varieties are cultivated in Japan, but only one is so coveted that it can sell for several hundred dollars per grape (that’s individual grape, not bunch). The Ruby Roman was developed in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture and is considered one of the world’s most expensive fruits.

The Ruby Roman grape variety made international headlines after a 700-gram bunch sold for 10,000 yen ($910), or $26 per grape. It was already touted as the world’s most expensive grape variety, and that reputation was cemented eight years later, when a 26-grape bunch sold for a whopping $11,000, or roughly $370 per grape.

Ruby Roman grapes are hard to come buy, with most bunches only being available through auctions, but Premium Ruby Rose are extremely difficult to find.

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IRAQ

Kung Fu Imam According to Hallo Mohammed Rasheed, the art of kung fu is all about discipline, and when he’s not teaching kung fu, he’s leading prayers as the imam of a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, and as far as he’s concerned there’s no contradiction.

“This sport requires full commitment to the training and exact timing. Religion encourages us to be committed. The Prophet Muhammad says: ‘Allah loves for those who do a job to do it with perfection’. This perfection comes only with full commitment, with timing and training.”

Dilshad Kamal says that he’s won heaps of awards with the help of God – and the sheikh.

CHINA

Cotton Grown On The Moon China’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander performed a successful soft landing on the far side of the Moon earlier this year, representing the first time such a feat had been accomplished, and Chinese scientists have since been exploring the area around the landing site with the Yutu rover that also made the trip. Now, in a timely update to the mission’s progress, China is providing additional details regarding its successful attempt to grow plants on the Moon. A new 3D recreation of the plant was just released by China’s Chongqing University, and it’s based on “image processing and data analysis” to provide a better look at the first plant ever seen on the Moon.

If humans ever set up a permanent presence on the Moon, growing food there would seem like a high priority.

RUSSIA

First Ever Diamond Within A Diamond A diamond containing another, freemoving gem inside – unearthed from a mine in Siberia – is the first stone of its kind in recorded history, according to Russian state mining company Alrosa PJSC. According to an Alrosa statement, the diamond may be more than 800 million years old.

DENMARK

Søndervig Sand Sculpture Festival 2019 At the Søndervig Sand Sculpture Festival (15th May - 27th October), more than 148,000 visitors had the opportunity to watch around 12,000 tonnes of sand turned into sea creatures, mythical heroes or wild African animals. Some 38 of the world’s most talented sand sculptors were tasked with portraying fairy tale or real characters in single sand sculptures and on a giant sculpture wall.

The great sculpture wall of the Søndervig Sand Sculpture Festival, which is 200m long and 7m high, can easily hold your attention for hours. Taking kids is a good idea, as there are activities for the whole family. So next year awaken your inner child and try your hand at making sand sculptures or castles.

Dubbed the Matryoshka Diamond, in reference to the Russian nesting dolls, the stone weighs 0.62 carats, while the internal gem weighs 0.02 carats, Efe news reported.

The diamond came out of the Nyurba mine in the Siberian region of Yakutia, but it was sorters at the Yakutsk Diamond Trade Enterprise who discovered the nature of the stone and passed it on to the Research and Development Geological Enterprise for analysis.

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Winter

Heroes MISS

Striped c ONI ro turtlenec chet-knit k ponc €365 ho

These winter heroes are easily paired with any style of outfit – from the rigid constraints of formal wear, to the freeness and ease of casual looks.

Jumpers and cardigans, with differing knitting styles, lengths, patterns and colours, offer an endless array of style options, and no wardrobe is complete without a few. Given that formal wear comes with a list of rules as long as your arm, getting the right jumper can be tricky. However, historic brands offer slim fit, quality knits that are perfect to slip over a crisp shirt, adding a bit of warmth to a smart look.

If you’re seeking a more relaxed look, try out a thick cable knit jumper or cardigan. The chunky material is great at keeping you warm during the winter and gives your outfit a subtle boost. With so many styles to choose from, and with jumpers and cardigans suitable for both summer and winter weather, you're bound to find some quality knitwear that suits you.

JACQUEMUS

Button-detailed striped knitted sweater €283.99

ROKSANDA

Auric belted ribbed merino wool sweater €730

LOVESHA CKF Gigi cro ANCY

pompom pped mohair-b -embellished lend ca €443.62 rdigan

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OSCAR JACOBSON

Kristopher roll-neck wool-blend jumper €475

KENZO h-neck lock hig igan b rColou nd card wool-ble 405 €

GUCC

Jacquard I knitted ju wool mper €900

DRIES VAN NOTEN Turtleneck wool jumper €645

JIL SA

NDE Co moha lour-block R ed ir-ble nd €990 jumper

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Culture

calendar

Disney on Ice

1-3 – Stark Arena Enter a world of adventure featuring daring tales from across the kingdom in Disney On Ice presents Magical Ice Festival. Join fearless wayfinder Moana and the greatest demigod that ever lived, Maui, on an action-packed voyage to return the stolen heart of Te Fiti.

Journey alongside royal sisters Anna and Elsa, the hilarious snowman Olaf, rugged mountain-man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer Sven from Disney’s Frozen. Dive “Under The Sea” with a show-stopping performance by Sebastian in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

Get tangled up with the sassy and spirited Rapunzel from Disney’s Tangled, and get swept away by the enchantment of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

It will be a magical mix of royalty when Disney On Ice brings this winsome wonderland to a city near you!

Bryan Adams

10 – Stark Arena – 20.00

Canada’s most famous rocker, Bryan Adams, will perform in the Serbian capital Belgrade after 13 years! Concert will take place at the Stark Arena on 10 November.

Known for great music and incredible energy, Adams has included Belgrade on his ‘’ Shine A Light ‘’ tour, named after the eponymous new album that recently went on sale.

Radio listeners have already heard the first single - a cover of the famous song ‘’Whiskey In The Jar’’ which has garnered great reviews. Still, most fans are eagerly awaiting the hits that celebrated Bryan Adams - ‘’Summer Of ‘69”,”Everything I Do, I Do It For You”, “Please Forgive Me”, “Run To You” and “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman”.

UNICEF Charity Concert 13 – Sava Center – 20.00

UNICEF Charity Concert will be held on 13 November at the Sava Center to mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The concert features the Hummingbird Choir and special guests Nemanja Radulovic and Stefan Milenkovic, with accompanying musicians.

All proceeds from ticket sales will be diverted to advance pre-school education in Serbia.

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The Afro-Cuban All Stars & Juan De Marcos Gonzales

2 – Sava Center – 20.30 Juan de Marcos Gonzalez is the architect of the Buenavista Social Club.

After gaining international fame for reviving the classic sound of Cuban son, tres master turned the Afro-Cuban All Stars into a sensational showcase for Cuba’s most prodigious young musicians.

While long revered in Latin America and Europe as a founding member of Cuba’s great son revival band Sierra Maestra, de Marcos first gained notice in the US as creator, founder and musical director of the Buena Vista Social Club. It was de Marcos who assembled Ibrahim Ferrer, Pio Leiva, Manuel Licea “Puntillita”, Omara Portuondo, Ruben Gonzalez and the rest of the crew for World Circuit after he and Nick Gold agreed to produce a couple of albums in Havana featuring illustrious old timers and tributing the golden period of the Cuban Popular Music. But de Marcos is just as interested in promoting Cuba’s brilliant young musicians as in highlighting Cuba’s senior talent.

The Afro-Cuban All Stars not only features a multi-generational cast, the group draws on both classic Cuban styles like son and danzón and contemporary dance rhythms like timba. Afro-Cuban All Stars is the band you can watch on stage in films such as Wenders´s Buenavista Social Club and Knox´s Afro-Cuban All Stars at the Salon of Dreams.

RECOMMENDS

Ólafur Arnalds

20 – Sava Center – 20.30 Ólafur Arnalds, maestral musician from Iceland will have a concert in Belgrade’s Sava Center on Wednesday, 20 November. He will promote one of the best albums of the 21st century “Re:member”.

In recent years, the 33-year-old pianist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Ólafur Arnalds has been constantly discovering himself and the music that inspires and provokes him. Muse has taken him to completely different sides: from the role of drummer in the hardcore band and playing Chopin with Alice Sarah Ot, through collaboration with numerous local (Icelandic) artists as part of the Mercury Classics project (Island Songs) and composing music for the cult TV series “Broadcurch” to a collaboration with Janus Rasmussen on their vision of electronic / techno / club music through Kiasmos.

If you imagine a group of musicians for a moment, a few key names for 20th century popular music - such as Jean Michel Jarre, Pink Floyd, Erik Sati and Aphex Twin - are sitting together to create the music that the next space probe will carry to the first planet discovered with intelligent life forms, what they would make could very easily resemble what Olafur Arnalds creates.

THE TESTAMENTS

Margaret Atwood 2999rsd

The wait is over And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.

When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her – freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story 15 years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

‘Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.’ Margaret Atwood ‘The literary event of the year’ Guardian.

St Petersburg Ballet

22, 23 – Sava Center – 20.00

THIEF OF ALWAYS Clive Barker

We are pleased to inform you that 2 days of ballet excellence will be held at the Sava Center. Russian ballet has always been, and remains, one of the symbols of the greatness of the Russian state and its culture, which is recognizable all over the world primarily because of the superior reach of artists from Russia. Undoubtedly, gala concerts of ballet stars from Russia win the hearts of fans of the true of lasting values, as it is quite certain that the ballet stars of St. Petersburg will win the hearts of our public, because ballet masters from Russia unite with their performances a true emotionality, a wide array of expressiveness of dance, a soul of acting expression in ballet attire.

1644rsd

Mr. Hood’s Holiday House has stood for a thousand years, welcoming countless children into its embrace. It is a place of miracles, a blissful round of treats and seasons, where every childhood whim may be satisfied... for a price! A graphic adaptation of Clive Barker’s hit novel, featuring full color art by Gabriel Hernandez.

Perpetuum Jazzile

30 – Sava Center – 20.00 After last year’s highly acclaimed concert, Perpetuum Jazzile, one of the most spectacular and largest vocal groups in the world, is coming back to Belgrade on November 30th to Sava Center due to high demand. The Belgrade audience will once again enjoy the powerful rhythms, rich harmonies, positive energy that excellent vocals from Slovenia reproduce only with human voice. And this time they are preparing a rich repertoire of different genres of music, from pop, rock, jazz, disco, bossa nova, gospel ... They will perform in their unique arrangement famous musical hits by Abba, Michael Jackson, Queen, David Guetta, Lady Gage, Eart , Wind and Fire, Bee Gees, Toto...

Founded in 1983, Perpetuum Jazzile has been performing around the world for years, delivering a powerful sound that many people don’t expect from a human voice. The group has clearly developed its stage appearance and expression, and is practically positioned alongside world-class vocal groups.

SEE MORE: WWW.CORDMAGAZINE.COM

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN James Joyce 303rsd

A masterpiece of modern fiction, James Joyce’s semiautobiographical first novel follows Stephen Dedalus, a sensitive and creative youth who rebels against his family, his education, and his country by committing himself to the artist’s life. “I will not serve,” vows Dedalus, “that in which I no longer believe...and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can.” Likening himself to God, Dedalus notes that the artist “remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.” Joyce’s rendering of the impressions of childhood broke ground in the use of language.

“He took on the almost infinite English language,” Jorge Luis Borges said once. “He wrote in a language invented by himself....Joyce brought a new music to English.” A bold literary experiment, this classic has had a huge and lasting influence on the contemporary novel. With an Introduction by Langdon Hammer.

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AFTER WORK 01 EXHIBITION “BELGRADE - HELSINKI, OCT 90 YEARS OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS” The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Finland, Ivica Dacic and Pekka Haavisto, open an exhibition at the Archives of Yugoslavia commemorating 90 years of diplomatic relations between Belgrade and Helsinki.

Diplomatic relations between the then independent Finland and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were established on 7 August 1929.

“Relations between our two countries have always been characterised by mutual respect. I am pleased to say that our relations are excellent today,” said Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. “When it comes to the present and future, the most significant project our countries are working on is the EU enlargement process. EU enlargement is an important instrument for promoting stability, peace and prosperity in Europe.”

HOST AMBASSADOR TOMÁŠ KUCHTA (RIGHT)

02 CZECH EMBASSY HOST OCT EXHIBITION 30 YEARS OF FREEDOM The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Belgrade hosted an exhibition “30 Years of Freedom”, at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

The exhibition was held on the occasion of the official Belgrade visit of Radek Vondráček, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic.

Czech Ambassador to Serbia Tomáš Kuchta recalled that the Czech Republic marks the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on 17 November of this year.

The event was attended by Maja Gojkovic, President of the National Assembly of Serbia as well as many members of the diplomatic community.

IVICA DACIC, KIMMO LAHDEVIRTA, PEKKA HAAVISTO

08 OCT CHINA CEEC CONFERENCE HELD Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said today at the opening of the 4th China CEEC Conference that China sees Serbia as one of the key development partners based on innovation and technological change.

Conference of the People’s Republic of China and 17 Central and Eastern European countries covered cooperation in the field of innovation.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic underlined that Serbia wants to support wider cooperation in the region and throughout Central and Eastern Europe when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence, robotics and digitalisation.

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PRIME MINISTER ANA BRNABIC

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08 AMBASSADOR GILLES BESCHOOR PLUG HOSTS OCT DUTCH BUSINESS COMMUNITY IN SERBIA

Ambassador of the Netherlands to Serbia, H.E. Gilles Beschoor Plug, hosted a reception for the Dutch Business Community in Serbia and other economic partners from Serbian institutions, academics and partner embassies.

In his speech, Ambassador Beschoor Plug underlined that he was looking forward to his time in Serbia and is enthusiastic about working toward further strengthening the bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Serbia in the coming period.

He highlighted that the economic relationship between Serbia and the Netherlands lies at the core of the bilateral relations between the AMBASSADOR GILLES BESCHOOR ADDRESSED THE GUESTS two countries.

10 CANSEE WOMEN’S OCT EMPOWERMENT BREAKFAST CANSEE Canadian Serbian Business Association, the Embassy of Canada to Serbia and the Association of Business Women in Serbia have gathered 40 ladies that are professionals in their areas of business.

Mirjana Doncic-Beaton, CANSEE Managing Director welcomed all the guests and thanked them for recognising the importance of this event and the importance of sharing the stories of women’s empowerment through different areas.

H.E. Kati Csaba, Ambassador of Canada to Serbia shared her experience as a Canadian diplomat and the challenges that women in diplomacy in Canada meet with.

ALEKSANDRA PETKOVIC TKV, MILAN MANIC, JANA ADAMOVIC (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT)

MIRJANA DONCIC-BEATON, CANSEE MANAGING DIRECTOR AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE JEAN-LOUIS FALCONI

09 FRENCH DECORATIONS OCT FOR SERBIAN ARTISTS Ambassador of France to Serbia, H.E. Jean-Louis Falconi on behalf of the French Minister of Culture awarded the Order of Arts and Literature in the rank of the knight to Jana Adamovic, comic book author, Milan Manic, contemporary circus artist and Aleksandra Petkovic TKV, street artists.

The three young artists French Embassy honoured this year have confirmed their talent in the new Serbian art scene, in the wake of French-Serbian friendship and cooperation.

AMBASSADOR KATI CSABA

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AFTER WORK 11 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S CLUB OCT GATHERING AT THE SWEDISH RESIDENCE The International Women’s Club (IWC) October Coffee Morning took place at the Swedish residence. President Milica Lundin, the wife of the Swedish Ambassador, opened her doors to the IWC on Friday, 11th October.

After Ms Lundin’s president speech, two new sections (activity categories of special interest to members) were announced: (vegan) cooking classes and the walking group. The IWC also had the pleasure of having Oriflame, a Swedish company, as their guest.

14 EBRD AND EU BOOST OCT COMPETITIVENESS OF SERBIAN FIRMS The EBRD SME Competitiveness Programme is providing a €40 million credit line that two local partner banks, UniCredit and Banca Intesa, will offer to local SMEs. Zsuzsanna Hargitai, EBRD Regional Director, Western Balkans, said: “One of the main challenges to joining the EU is to improve the competitiveness of the local economy so that it can compete with EU countries. This programme does exactly that; it helps Serbian firms to get closer in terms of quality and standards to their EU counterparts.”

MILICA LUNDIN, IWC PRESIDENT

11 OCT AHK OKTOBERFEST HELD German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (AHK Serbia) hosted the ninth edition of Oktoberfest.

The event traditionally started with the opening of a beer barrel by AHK Managing Director Martin Knapp, who later awarded plaques to AHK closest partner companies, including alliance international media – aim, the publisher of the CorD Magazine. The award was handed to the aim representative, General Manager of the company, Maja Vidakovic.

ZSUZSANNA HARGITAI, EBRD DIRECTOR WESTERN BALKANS

OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE OKTOBERFEST

AHK AWARDED ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA, ACCEPTED BY COMPANY’S GENERAL MANAGER MAJA VIDAKOVIC

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17 BELGRADE OCT SECURITY FORUM This year’s Belgrade Security Forum, entitled “In Search of Justice in a Divided World”, was marked mostly by the EU’s decision not to open negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania, which has raised concerns for the future of the Western Balkans for many panellists. Forum participants also called for EU to increase engagement in the region and warned that its credibility could be compromised if it does not deliver on its promises.

Regional security, the sustainability of the concept of military neutrality, the situation in the European Union and the Western Balkans for 15 years since the enlargement, as well as the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations, were some of the topics discussed at the 9th Belgrade Security Forum (BBF).

Former EU High Representative Catherine Ashton’s participation in the “Sustainable Solutions for the Western Balkans” panel drew special media attention this year. Her arrival reminded all participants that a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina in 2012, whose epilogue was the Brussels Agreement, began under her auspices.

20 OCT UAE EMBASSY STARTS ONE YEAR COUNTDOWN TO THE EXPO 2020 DUBAI Within the project of the one-year countdown to the official opening of the Expo 2020 Dubai, the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Belgrade has installed a countdown timer in the courtyard of the Embassy to count down to 20 October 2020.

The ceremony of the starting the countdown timer, arranged by H.E. Mubarak Saeed Al Dhaheri, UAE Ambassador in Belgrade, was attended by H.E. Amal Al Qubaisi, President of the Federal National Council and a parliamentary delegation from the UAE during the participation in the 141st Session of the Interparliamentary Union.

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AFTER WORK

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23 AMBASSADOR OF INDIA OCT HOST DIWALI CELEBRATION A Reception Dinner was hosted by Ambassador of India to Serbia H.E. Subrata Bhattacharjee to celebrate ‘‘Diwali - Festival of Lights”.

Speaking on the significance of Diwali, Ambassador Bhattacharjee highlighted the similarities between the culture of India and Serbia.

The event, held at the Ambassadorial Residence, was attended by senior officials of Serbian Government, friends of India, members of the diplomatic community, prominent representatives from business, media and other fields.

25 OCT SSCC DUAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE Over 6.100 students and approx. 900 companies are involved in the dual education system in Serbia, not only in Belgrade and Novi Sad, but in over 50 cities in Serbia, said Majo Mićović, President of the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, in his opening speech of the Conference “Dual Education Serbia 2019: the role of the private sector”.

The event provided a platform for the public-private discussion about the role of the private sector companies in developing and implementing the dual education system.

AMBASSADOR BHATTACHARJEE AND HIS WIFE

25 SWEDISH EMBASSY HOSTS OCT EVENT FOOD FOR TOMORROW The Cookathon Culinary Marathon was held as the closing event of the three-year Food for Tomorrow project of the Swedish Institute and the Embassy of Sweden in Serbi in cooperation with the Metro HoReCa Center in Belgrade.

The project explains the goals of sustainable development through food, all important and close. The task was to prepare, from seasonal and local foods, two dishes that outline some of the goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

“Our intention was to point out, through the project Food of Tomorrow, the importance of sustainable food, both for the health of each individual and for the preservation of the planet. For three years, the Embassy collaborated with the Swedish Institute to spread the in Serbia and the region,” said Deputy Ambassador of Sweden Juachim Waern.

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SPK PRESIDENT DANIJELA FISAKOV (SECOND FROM RIGHT)

25 OCT MARTINOVANJE 2019

JOACHIM WAERN, DEPUTY AMBASSADOR OF SWEDEN

Slovenian Business Club traditionaly celebrated the annual young wine event in Belgrade, Martinovanje. This year’s hosts were also the Tourist Organization of Portorož and the City of Piran.

The event aims to promote Slovenia as a tourist destination, with the presentation of wines and products from different regions and cities.

“The Slovenian Business Club mutually supports the cooperation of the Slovenian and Serbian economies,” said Slovenian Business Club President Danijela Fisakov.

Real Estate I N

2019

S E R B I A

Sector On The Rise MILIĆ ĐOKOVIĆ, MEMBER OF THE ADVISORY BOARD OF THE REAL ESTATE BROKERS GROUP AT THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY OF SERBIA ○ ĐORĐE ANDRIĆ, HEAD OF THE CENTRE FOR THE SUPPORT OF INVESTMENT AND PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP ○ DANILO S. FURUNDŽIĆ, PHD ARCH. ○ BRANKO PEJČIĆ, MANAGING DIRECTOR, OFFICEME ○ MIA ZEČEVIĆ, DIRECTOR, NOVASTON ○ AĆIM LEON PANTELIĆ, DIRECTOR, WE SHARE SPACE

In the first half of this year, the value of the real estate market in Serbia was 1.8 billion euros.

The total value of real estate sold is 12 per cent higher than in the same period last year, when the market value was 1.6 billion euros.

The trend shows that the price of real estate has increased. In regional terms, 27 per cent of total real estate sales took place in Belgrade and 36 per cent in Vojvodina.

Real Estate Market In Serbia Constantly Growing

REAL ESTATE TURNOVER IN SERBIA

Sector On The Rise

ĐORĐE ANDRIĆ, HEAD OF THE CENTRE FOR THE SUPPORT OF INVESTMENT AND PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

MILIĆ ĐOKOVIĆ, MEMBER OF THE ADVISORY BOARD OF THE REAL ESTATE BROKERS GROUP AT THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY OF SERBIA

Real estate turnover in Serbia is constantly on the rise and, with the construction of a full network, locations alongside the highways are also becoming interesting to investors

A

ccording to official data that can be accessed via the website of the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ), the value of Serbia’s real estate market in the first half of this year stood at 1.8 billion euros, with about 47,000 properties being acquired by new owners in the same period. The value of the Serbian real estate market is constantly increasing. Belgrade holds a convincing first place in terms of growth, followed in second place by Novi Sad, then Niš, Subotica, Kopaonik, Zlatibor etc.

“More than half of the money is spent on real estate in Belgrade, and that totals €995 million, which is a significant increase

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compared to €830 million in the first half of 2018, and next comes Novi Sad, where the market value stands at €194 million, which represents an increase of nine million euros compared to the same period of last year,” says Master of real estate management Milić Đoković, a member of the Advisory Board of the Real Estate Brokers Group at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia. “Viewed in regional terms, 27 per cent of total trade in real estate place in Belgrade and 36 per cent in Vojvodina.”

The total value of real estate traded under sales contracts processed by the Republic Geodetic Authority is 12 per cent higher than in the same period last year,

when the market had a value of €1.6 billion.

“It is an interesting fact that growth of sales in new buildings increased by 13 per cent and that the difference in the price of new and old buildings is increasing,” says our interlocutor.

The most sought after and most interesting sub-segment of the market by far is residential real estate, primarily apartments. On the basis of structure, the most sought-after in Serbia are apartments (47%), which is up 14 per cent compared to the same period of last year, while the value in the apartment trade turned over 850 million, which is an increase of 75 million euros. Houses account for 13 per cent of the

real estate market, while agricultural land accounts for 20 per cent of total real estate trade. The monetary value of the market in agricultural land stands at around €87.6 million, with the highest prices reached in the Vojvodina district of Bačka.

“Tourism has great potential on our market and this sector of trade is very lively and good for development, as is the development of communal infrastructure and the creation of various shopping chains and shopping centres alongside roads,” says Đoković.

Alongside Belgrade, additional investments in the coming period are expected in the largest tourism centres, as well as in other major cities in Serbia.

“Among foreign investors, it is primarily investors from the UAE and Israel that are investing in large residential-business complexes and shopping centres in Belgrade. And investments by local investors are also significant,” says Đorđe Andrić, Head of the Centre for the Support of Investment and Public-Private Partnership.

“Certainly the most attractive destination

new investors in the manufacturing sector in smaller Serbian towns, which leads to reduced unemployment and higher wages.

In this way, through a higher standard of living for citizens in the interior, the opportunity is created for investments in the real estate sector in these towns in Serbia.

The position of Serbia, and the micro-location itself, is very good for the development of the real estate sector, and this is evident in the turnover, the realisation of sales and demand for real estate

in Serbia when it comes to investing in real estate is Belgrade. Belgrade’s population is growing year on year, which creates opportunities for growth. In the last few years, nearly two million square-metres of building permits have been issued on an annual basis, according to data from the Secretariat for Urbanism and Construction Works, and on the basis of municipal and national permits, on the territory of the City of Belgrade.”

Our interlocutor adds that the development of road infrastructure is certainly having a positive effect on investments in the country’s interior. The road network has created the possibility for the arrival of

Simultaneously, centres of tourism (such as Zlatibor, Vrnjačka Banja etc.) are more accessible to tourists when there is a good road network, thus leading to tourists deciding to visit these places more often and automatically impacting positively on the development of real estate.

“The position of Serbia, and the microlocation itself, is very good for the development of the real estate sector, and this is evident in the turnover, the realisation of sales and demand for real estate. Here I’m primarily referring to Belgrade as the regional hub of business for the Balkans and this part of Europe, which – with good development of transport, road and

aviation networks – justifies its potential and its position. There is a great deal of interest in purchases and leases among foreign companies and their employees, as well as in purchases of land on which business facilities can be constructed. It is characterised by a dramatic increase in

the quality of construction, equipment and complete accompanying contents of these facilities, which lack nothing compared to the same types of facilities elsewhere in Europe,” says Đoković.

There is currently a positive investment climate in Serbia, with statistics showing that a lot is being built and traded, and the construction and real estate sectors are very lively, adds Đoković. What needs to be improved, according to our interlocutor, is the simplicity of procedures and reducing of administration in the issuance of approvals for construction and all other supporting documents, eliminating the so-called duplication of documents and content, and increasing the efficiency of the work of administrations. It is necessary to work in parallel to complete all ‘Master Plans’, and to reduce this to usable Detailed Plans and Detailed Regulation Plans. In short, it is necessary to complete the General Urban Plan, Detailed Urban Plan, General Regulatory Plan and Detailed Regulatory Plan. ■ NOVEMBER

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BUSINESS

DANILO S. FURUNDŽIĆ, PHD ARCH.

Investments Must Be Visionary Future city development must ensure human wellbeing and social prosperity

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s an assistant professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Architecture and chairman of the Management board of the Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia, Danilo S. Furundžić designs future cities in Serbia, and as a CEO of the Public Company for Utility and Infrastructure Services of Kikinda manages daily problems of it’s citizen’s.

“Through new development and reconstruction, one can improve the physical space.

By increasing the standard of living, manifested through the “vibrancy” of public spaces, one can improve the social fabric of the city. But without spiritual values, our society materializes only desolate built forms, because it can produce space only according to its own soulless nature.” says Mr. Furundžić.

• As an architect, is your dominant “trait” artistic or based on engineering?

- Within each of us live homo faber and homo ludens. As a rule, these two forms of man are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary. I played the violin and attended the Mathematical Grammer School, studied “artistically” at the Faculty of Architecture, then “engineeringly” at the École Centrale in Paris, designed with architect Jean-Marie Charpentier and led investments at the Euro Gulf Group. In my opinion one can never decide.

• What is the biggest problem facing urban planning in Belgrade?

- Informed on contemporary trends and best practises from the West, domestic urban plan6 |

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ning succeeds in comprehensively overviewing the potential of urbanisation that lies ahead of us, but is unable to control Belgrade’s rapid transformation on the ground. There is no existing assessment practise of calculating financial gains or losses of urban planning implementation. Some approved urban plans are not in accordance with real-estate market demands. As decisions are based more on the assumption of successful implementation than on precise argumentation, urban planes exist in paper, but are not implemented in practice.

values, our society materializes only desolate built forms, because it can produce space only according to its own soulless nature. Market value is an obligation of our vocation, but the challenge facing our profession is to produce space that ensures human prosperity.

• What are the challenges in managing utility infrastructure in Serbia?

- In Serbia it is necessary to introduce corporate management to the public utility sector, rationalize organisation, reduce work costs,

The challenge of managing infrastructure is reflected in the wellbeing of citizens

• What drives planners and architects today?

Is it to make more money for the investor, or to leave a legacy of admirable buildings and spaces?

- Development is not the one and only requirement of our profession. Richard Rogers’ statement - “A tree doesn’t make money, and shall never be planted” is surpassed. Yes, a tree does not bring money, but space surrounded with trees is worth more. According to Henry Lefebvre, a French philosopher and sociologist, a city is complete when its physical, social and spiritual space is complete. Through new development and reconstruction, one can improve the physical space. By increasing the standard of living, manifested through the “vibrancy” of public spaces, one can improve the social fabric of the city. But without spiritual

increase efficiency and raise the quality of customer services provided to the citizens. A valuable resource, such as infrastructure, must be used efficiently. One should enable continuous utility operation, secure resources for investments that must be implemented without delays and system disruptions. The challenge of managing infrastructure is reflected in the wellbeing of citizens. Infrastructure is a commitment of modern society. When created it ensures and defines future city development.

This is why all investments must be visionary.

We must not fear tackling technology and going one step further. I’m convinced that my son Đorđe will be suspicious when I tell him we used to drive cars ourselves, just as my students today do not believe that time without Internet existed. ■

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BUSINESS

BRANKO PEJČIĆ, MANAGING DIRECTOR, OFFICEME

Instant Offices Are The Future The co-working market has existed worldwide for 15 years, and in Serbia for nine years, while company OfficeMe will celebrate its third birthday in December.

More than 30 co-working spaces operate in our country today, but OfficeMe is unique as the first domestic company to profile itself for 'instant office' provision

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n the first quarter of next year, OfficeMe is set to open two new spaces in New Belgrade, with another 500 work units that have already generated interest among clients. The company’s plans are serious and long-term, as it intends to retain and further consolidate its leadership position.

• Tell us a bit more about the co-working space and instant office concepts. Who are they intended for and what are their main benefits?

- As someone who spent many years working for a large corporation, who managed a large number of people and took care of cost optimisation, I knew that the market needed exactly the kind of service that I now offer. It is more important for anyone involved in any business to be able to devote their energy and time to their operations, rather than repairing a printer, cleaning, securing parking and internet, and paying the large bills that accompany all of that. That’s why we exist, and we deal with facility management on behalf of our users.

A co-working space is primarily rented by so-called freelancers – be they lawyers, experts, appraisers, designers etc. These are people of various professions who need a business environment, but don’t have 8 |

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not plans to expand their businesses and increase staff numbers.

A co-working space is intended primarily for entrepreneurs, while the instant office is intended for SMEs intending to grow and expand their operations. Thanks to us, they will not have to spend huge sums of money on multi-year leases of office space that they may not even need, so they can invest those funds in development. Apart from that, at any time they can increase or decrease the number of work units they lease, and extend or shorten the lease period.

• OfficeMe isn’t the only co-working company in our country. How do you differ from the competition?

- Prior to the opening of our company in Serbia, only one foreign corporation, which operates worldwide, had the instant office concept, but they didn’t emphasise it in the way we do. With the launch of our company on the market, first as a co-working space,

the instant office revolution was launched.

OfficeMehas in the meantime withdrawn from the hub segment, and partly also from co-working, and is moving towards instant office, thus attracting a client base from the corporate sector or businesses that have multi-year plans to grow and increase staff numbers.

• You have spaces in three locations: Sava Business Centre, Belgrade Office Park and BoatMe. What makes them specific?

- The important difference between us and others lies in the fact that OfiiceMe operates exclusively in A-category buildings. These are facilities that are of the highest quality according to all standards, ranging from the materials they are built from to energy efficiency. And when it comes to the spaces themselves, the third one – BoatMe – is not a building but a floating facility that has retained the rustic contours of a ship, but is equipped according to all A-category stand-

After extensive market analysis, international real estate agency Colliers declared OfficeMe as the leader in both Serbia and the region

ards. Lighting, alarms, fire alarms, cameras, sensors, electricity, water, heating, cooling, toilets, work units, equipment, printers, professional kitchens, accompanying facility management etc.; everything is the same as in the most modern A-class buildings. This makes BoatMe a unique facility, not only in Serbia but across Europe.

It can be used for celebratory events or team building exercises, but also as a classic workspace, which is why there is a huge interest in it among companies from various sectors.

• Your offer is able to address the needs of most clients and tenants. Do they know exactly what they need and how to choose that?

- With us, every client can get exactly what they need at any given moment, whether that’s an office for two people or six, whether they need an open space, divisions into blocks etc., and, yes, when their needs change, they can request a larger or smaller space. We have a shared kitchen and shared toilets, and we have many of them, as well as shared meeting rooms, rest rooms and balcony-terraces, which is very important from both social and business aspects. Those are places where people socialise with coffee, share experi-

OfficeMe is also unique in the Balkans as one of the first to start operating in buildings that are LEED Gold certified ences, help each other, both privately and professionally. Here they meet and forge new friendships, acquire new associates and contacts, which are the most valuable in the business world.

• The building of the Sava Business Centre, which houses OfficeMe, is LEED Gold certified. Tell us more about that certification.

- This certificate is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council - USGBC, a Washington-based nonprofit organisation. The Gold Certificate testifies to the quality of installations, applied solutions related to energy efficiency, interior and exterior materials, the amount of fresh air provided at any time for every person in a particular room, filters that are installed, the way in dew and rainwater are collected from the facade and used... All of this ensures both employee safety and the best working conditions, particularly when it comes to air quality and lighting, which are important for both the productivity and health of users. Awareness of the importance of complying with all of

these strict standards has only recently emerged in our country, while OfficeMe has implemented them from the outset.

• When it was first established at the end of 2016, OfficeMe had an offer that encompassed 640 square metres of office space.

What are your plans for next year?

- We started in December 2016 with the first phase of 640 square metres, and then increased our capacities by 70 to 80 per cent each year. We currently possess around 3,000 square metres of office space, 500 square metres of conference rooms and around 500 square metres of professional storage space that adheres to EU standards, or about 500 working positions with an average occupancy rate of 90 to 95 per cent.

Ad when it come to future plans, we have already contracted the opening of new premises in two locations, with another 500 working units for which we already have interested clients. ■

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BUSINESS

MIA ZEČEVIĆ, DIRECTOR OF NOVASTON

We Will Cover The Entire Region Novaston is a unique, independent real estate, asset management and property platform operating through companies Novaston Asset Management, Novaston Project Management, Novaston Facility Management and Novaston Marketing Management, which have a combined total of more than 40 employees

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e are proud of the fact that investors beyond the borders of Serbia recognise the uniqueness, specificity and quality of the wide range of services that our platform provides, which opens up opportunities for us to make a significant contribution to the development of these markets, notes Mia Zečević.

• The end of another calendar year is approaching, the sixth since the founding of Novaston.

Are you satisfied with your position on the real estate market?

- Our platform has this year continued to realise its goal of consolidating its position as a leader on the Serbian market. Novaston has contributed significantly to the development of the retail segment by participating in the opening of the major shopping centres – Promenade in Novi Sad and Ada Mall in Belgrade – providing project management and leasing agent services.

We also positioned ourselves on the Croatian market at the beginning of this year, where we are a strategic partner in the expansion of Immofinaz, one of our most important clients.

This is the first step in realising our aspirations of regional coverage, as we plan to take over and 10 |

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develop more projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and on the territory of Kosovo.

• The retail market has been growing steadily for five years in Serbia. What led to that?

- This came as a result of the influx of FDI and large fund investments. Two large shopping centres have opened in the past two years: the Promenade in Novi Sad, covering 50,000 square metres, and GTC Ada Mall, 34,000 square meters; in 2020 we expect the opening of the Eagle Hills – Belgrade Waterfront project, covering an area of 93,000 square metres, and the MPC IPM Beo Shopping Centre covering 46,000 square metres. An IKEA retail park on 36,000 square metres is planned to be opened in 2021, which will include a strip mall concept (mostly outlets) with one larger, separate DIY facility and several smaller, separate outlets.

• What is the current situation on the business buildings market, primarily when it comes to office space?

- The initiators of the wave of foreign direct investment in business premises in Serbia were the Israeli investors who built Airport City, the first centre with a modern business concept in Belgrade. This wave has not ended, so the office space market is expected to

expand in the coming period, with the current supply not meeting demand.

The most recent addition to the current offer is the 16,000m2 Business Garden project

by Afi Europe investors and the Shikun & Binui Group in the city centre. Additionally, GTC has built the third of five buildings within the scope of its 46,000m2 Green Heart project, and ‘Napred’ has completed the expansion of the 10,700m2 N House project.

• We can’t fail to mention the industrial real estate market. It seems to us that it is also very lively. Are we mistaken?

- Following stagnation in 2018, the industrial real estate market has picked up significantly this year, thanks to the completion of several distribution and logistics centres. The demands are ever increasing and strengthening, because production companies are the most active on the market, especially those in the automotive sector.

Of the newly constructed facilities, the most significant are the Belgrade Industrial Park in Šimanovci and Nelt’s fifth Logistics Centre, a smaller facility at the Port of Belgrade and CTPark Belgrade West in Šimanovci, as well as several production facilities throughout Serbia. ■

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REAL ESTATE TRENDS

New & Upcoming Industry Shifts

With the global economic downturn a decade behind us, HLB, the Global Advisory and Accounting Network, takes a closer look at the current state of industry and shares insights into the trends impacting real estate and construction businesses today. Is the industry going to continue to thrive, or is a correction looming? HLB Real Estate's expert is cautiously optimistic. “Urban living areas and secondary markets are showing tremendous growth, but there are still areas that have not fully recovered, like suburban commercial office parks. There will always be market corrections; it is just a matter of how much time will elapse within the cycle.�

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TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN INNOVATION IS A GAME-CHANGER The impact of innovation through new technology that is driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0) is transforming sectors across the board. The real estate industry, which is traditionally considered more in-person transaction based, has been changed greatly by technological advances. “Successful developers and investors are listening to the needs and wants of the marketplaces they are in and adapting to changes in technology.”

While adjustments have been necessary in the way business is conducted and how properties are marketed, it is also driving what businesses and families are demanding from the spaces they occupy. Consumers are increasingly aware of their environmental footprint and insist on resource-efficient structures for both work and play. On top of that, smart building technology is becoming the norm, and consumers want the greater

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hanges in the legislative landscape will continue to have a great impact. The biggest potential area of concern and uncertainty is how various legislative decisions around the world will impact on the economy. Uncertainty around Brexit in the UK and among EU member states, and the government shutdown and Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA) in the U.S., are creating unpredictability in the market.

“The Brexit uncertainty has delayed commercial real estate projects and caused investors to delay making investments in the industry. This will potentially cause a reduced supply of new office space in the next few years,” say HLB. “It could also impact the cost and supply of raw materials, cause a recession and restrict demand for both residential and commercial properties.”

“The Brexit uncertainty has delayed commercial real estate projects and caused investors to delay making investments in the industry. This will potentially cause a reduced supply of new office space in the next few years”

In the U.S., the tax overhaul passed in 2018 made myriad changes, some of which are still not clear. “There may be a limitation on the business interest expense that a taxpayer can deduct.

Those who are substantially leveraged may have a negative tax impact as a result of the new tax law.”

This could serve to discourage those considering real estate as an investment and force some to reduce the size of their portfolios too.

productivity and reduced costs that this type of building promises. “The innovation of technology seems to be touching a multitude of points within the industry and will continue to do so.”

Add to this the preponderance of PropTech that’s having a huge impact on the industry. In fact, estimates show that venture capital investments in this sector likely topped $12 billion in 2017 (up from $186 million in 2011) and show no signs of slowing down. Now that a quarter of U.S. NOVEMBER

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Households own a smart speaker, like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, and the World Economic Forum predicting that there will be over a trillion sensors connected to the internet in less than four years, you can expect all sorts of technology to enter our lives, especially the spaces where we live and work. Those in the real estate space that stay up-to-date and embrace PropTech and other technology enabled trends should have one up on the competition.

ADAPT TO MEET CHANGES IN CONSUMER DEMAND Consumer demand for space is changing. It is going beyond simple demand for space and into how that space is organised and offered. Those who keep a finger on the pulse of changing trends and adapt to consumer behaviour will appeal to a greater audience and enjoy more success.

One growing trend is the increased

“Real estate developers and investors are heeding the wants of several generations who desire to live, work, shop and play in one place”

popularity of urban living. “Real estate developers and investors are heeding the wants of several generations who desire to live, work, shop and play in one place,” HLB concludes. A shift in consumer needs is clear when looking at the Millennial generation, who focus on convenience and are willing to compromise smaller living spaces for the opportunity of living in the city. Additionally, quite a few are foregoing a car for the flexibility and convenience of ride-sharing services, which is much more difficult beyond highly populated areas. And they aren’t the only ones embracing this 14 |

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urban living trend. With average lifespans extending and healthcare advancing all the time, the average person is spending more years in retirement and looking for ways to live healthier and more connected.

“Those who are entering retirement want to downsize and live in areas where much more is available closer to home,” noted HLB. NEW MARKET ENTRANTS TO WATCH The players in the real estate game are changing and competition is coming from areas that were less considered a factor

before. For example, tech giant Amazon effectively bought its way into the real estate space through its 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods. They realised that consumers still like to have some control over their groceries, purchased Whole Foods, breathing a bit of new life into the grocery-anchored retail building sector.

This bold step is forcing other groceries (and brick-and-mortar retailers) to become more flexible and modernise or face being left out in the cold. Also, look for co-working spaces to reach beyond solo and small businesses to much larger companies looking for the flexibility in shorter leases and greater options, as WeWork has done by launching HQ by WeWork. And we don’t expect it to stop there either. Analysts predict that the co-working concept will eventually also branch out into retail and education. ■ Source:hlb.global

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BUSINESS

AĆIM LEON PANTELIĆ, DIRECTOR, WE SHARE SPACE

Your Best Work Happens Here W Company We Share Space has established itself as one of the leaders of the market for co-working spaces, with its offices, conference rooms, open spaces, 24/7 access, parking and numerous other advantages that it offers at its Vračar and Dorćol facilities

ith changes to the labour market, the need for workspace is also changing. Co-working spaces create added value for many businesses, precisely due to reductions in capital expenses, their adaptability and flexibility, but also because they provide access to a wider network of start-ups and entrepreneurs, explains We Share Space Director Leon Pantelić.

• The basic purpose of a co-working space is to reduce costs, expand networks of people who can assist you and become your future clients, or for you to become their client. Has this been sufficiently recognised in our country?

- Networks of start-ups and entrepreneurs have been developing in Serbia over the last few years, and there is ever increasing talk of the importance of co-working spaces in that development.

Likewise, the large number of business collaborations between different users of such space testifies to this impact be-

ing real and important, especially if one considers that the users of co-working spaces are relatively young firms that are just breaking onto the market.

Due to the flexibility of working hours and the growing popularity of remote working, the need for long-term leases of office space has reduced, and many of the jobs that people make a living from today didn’t even exist 10 years ago.

Given the growing popularity of the nomadic lifestyle, these types of office space leasing options are increasingly in demand, both among foreigners coming to Serbia and among our local start-ups and entrepreneurs.

• Is one of the benefits of co-working spaces the ability to quickly and easily adapt to the needs of clients who cannot expect that in large office buildings?

Ample parking spaces and high-speed internet are implied, but what else do you offer?

- We Share offers its clients fully equipped offices, with a maintenance service for

Business space tenants today not only seek walls and furniture, but rather a whole array of additional services that will save them both time and money

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- Our most numerous clients are representative offices of foreign companies that are just launching operations in Serbia and local start-ups, but also international organisations and domestic companies that need additional or temporary workspace. Different sectors recognise the benefits of this type of leasing of space that allows them to do their work, and we are here as support for everything else.

At We Share we strive to provide our clients with maximum comfort to ensure their workday passes as easily as possible. First and foremost, the entire space is designed in an industrial style that gives it a modern business look. It is very important for our clients that they have tranquillity while working, so most of the those offices and the possibility to start working immediately if required. Our clients, particularly foreign ones, greatly appreciate our flexibility and the fact that we care about the technical details, because then all they have to do is to deal with their own business. This implies reception services, the ability to register a business, receive post and phone calls, as well as 24/7 office access.

All of our clients have the opportunity to enjoy quiet office when they need to focus on their work, but they can also feel comfortable and relaxed in more informal areas of the space, such as a terrace/balcony or kitchen, where a large number of them socialise during breaks. All that is needed it to find the right measure in everything.

• Location is one of the crucial factors when choosing a property. Does this rule also apply to co-working companies; are your locations among your biggest strengths?

- Location is certainly something that matters most in this business. A good location allows the users of the space to be well connected with other parts of the city, the possibility of having everything in one place – from banks and hotels to restaurants and cafes. In this way, our clients save time and are

The needs of our tenants vary, and we manage to provide everyone with precisely what they need. Both peace and isolation, and an environment for creative exchanges of ideas, and space for meetings between larger numbers of people space is converted into separate offices.

Each of them has windows that can be opened, plenty of daylight and a separate air conditioning system. Moreover, the entire space is equipped with ergonomic Steelcase office furniture, which provides ultimate comfort, and the entire story and atmosphere is rounded off by a spacious terrace/balcony and kitchen.

able to dedicate themselves to their business without interruption.

• Who are your tenants? Representatives of foreign companies, start-ups, freelancers, emerging IT and marketing companies? What does a good co-working space look like from their perspective?

• What do you currently offer clients and what are your plans for the period ahead? We are sure that you plan to expand your operations, given the growing needs of the market.

- We are currently located in the neighbourhoods of Vračar and Dorćol, at two locations that enable our clients to quickly reach state institutions, banks, restaurants etc. We are planning expansion to New Belgrade, as the central business district, with which we will be able to offer our clients a choice of all attractive locations in Belgrade. ■ NOVEMBER

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BUSINESS

ARAMONT

Danube Terraces – Your Dream By The River

The business-residential complex Dunavkse terase (Danube Terraces) is located just a few kilometres from the city's Terazije square. The complex is a new, complete and modern facility, located in a part of the city that's developing rapidly, with good transport links to important city amenities and all parts of the city, and with developed infrastructure. Giving the complex special value is its close proximity to the River Danube and the city's BIG FASHION shopping centre

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rom the beginning, investor Aramont set the highest standards in the construction of the Danube Terraces from the outset. The builder set the aim of this project in such a way that it would lead to high quality housing and hence a harmonious spatial structure, with high category materials and modern and high-quality elements in both apartments and building interiors. Among other things, all criteria from the guidelines on energy efficiency were applied.

Within thirteen commercial and residential units, encompassing a total net area exceeding 60,000m2, there are a total of 659 properties, including 576 residential units, 83 commercial units, a multifunctional space, a large garage for residents with space for 219 vehicles and a public garage.

All housing units have been carefully planned and constructed, ensuring that our offer included a large selection of apartments with different structures and sizes. Comfort18 |

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able and with plenty of light, the apartments are protected from the negative effects of cold, heat and noise, which has contributed to the fact that almost all of them have been sold and are now occupied, with the exception of a few luxury penthouses.

The commercial units and business premises within the complex are primarily intended for performing quiet operations and service activities, which contribute to improving the quality of life of residents of the complex and the wider surroundings.

By monitoring the needs of the market and considering the excellent position of the complex, the company has also launched a new concept of leasing office space that represents a combination of hubs and smaller co-working zones. These spaces are functionally equipped units that consist of smaller physically separated units that enable individual work with completely secured infrastructure (internet, video surveillance, equipment for scanning and

printing materials, a kitchen, physical and technical maintenance etc.).

Under the scope of this concept, activities have been launched by the DT hub, which includes separate boxes with one or two workplaces (office or duo box), or workplaces within an area with a large desk for six people (community box), as well as a separate conference room.

The space is adapted to businesspeople on the move, entrepreneurs who’ve previously worked from home, freelancers, start-up companies, smaller teams and anyone requiring a functional, affordable space to work under completely flexible conditions of use.

The company’s idea for the period ahead is to have a large, organised co-working zone within the scope of Danube Terraces complex, which will – in addition to a comfortable working environment - provide tenants of the DT hub with professional and business contacts in one place. ■