CorD Magazine, July issue no. 201

MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA

H.E. JEAN-LOUIS FALCONI

ECONOMY MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO SERBIA

We’ll Encourage The Modernisation Of Production Processes

www.cordmagazine.com

Friendship On A Strong Pillar

ANĐELKA ATANASKOVIĆ

Very Dynamic Relations

JULY 2021/ ISSUE NO. 201

H.E. CARLOS FÉLIX CORONA

interviews opinions news comments events COMMENT

Summer & Neuroses FOCUS

Can Political Changes In The Region Have An Impact On The Political Scene In Serbia?

Exclusive

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Reliable Partner On Migration

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EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR HOME AFFAIRS

ISSN1451-7833

YLVA JOHANSSON

CONTENTS

06 SUMMER & NEUROSES

BY ZORAN PANOVIĆ Comment

APPROACHES

FRANCINE PICKUP UNDP Resident Representative in Serbia

55 MY LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN A MISTAKE WITHOUT FILM RADOSLAV RALE ZELENOVIĆ legendary director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque Film Archives

08 RELIABLE PARTNER ON MIGRATION

YLVA JOHANSSON European Commissioner for Home Affairs

26 HOW GREAT POWERS SHOULD COMPETE Feature

12 FRIENDSHIP ON A STRONG PILLAR

H.E. CARLOS FÉLIX CORONA Mexican Ambassador to Serbia

27 BUSINESS DIALOGUE 40 HOW

AN EX-SEMIPRO POKER PLAYER BET BIG AND WON THE $4.3 TRILLION MORTGAGE MARKET

56 CHILL OUT 58 SUMMER STYLE Fashion

60 CULTURE CALENDAR

NIMA GHAMSARI Enterpreneur

43 BRINGING LIGHT TO AFRICA’S DARK HEART 16 GLOBAL DIARY

SARA PETROVSKI Senior Analyst, Danish Refugee Council / Dansk Flygtningehjælp

62 FACES & PLACES

18 WHAT HAPPENED IN ZAGREB WON’T JUST HAPPEN IN BELGRADE! @CORD_MAGAZINE

@CORDMAGAZINE

CORD MAGAZINE

CORDMAGAZINE

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Neda Lukić n.lukic@aim.rs DESIGN: Branislav Ninković b.ninkovic@aim.rs CONTRIBUTORS: Rob Dugdale, Maja Vukadinović,

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CAN POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE REGION HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL SCENE IN SERBIA? Focus

24 TOUGH PROBLEMS REQUIRE FRESH

44 THE 6 MOST ICONIC WORKS BY BANKSY Street Art

“CorD does not criticise or critique. We are a place where people can inspire and be inspired by others” Mirjana Jovanović, Miša Brkić, Ljubica Gojgić Radmila Stanković, Steve MacKenzie, Zorica Todorović Mirković, Sonja Ćirić, Miloš Belčević PHOTOS: Zoran Petrović COPY EDITOR: Mark Pullen TRANSLATION & EDITING MRP EDITORIAL

SALES MANAGERS: Biljana Dević, b.devic@aim.rs Vesna Vukajlović, v.vukajlovic@aim.rs Mihailo Čučković m.cuckovic@aim.rs OFFICE MANAGER: Svetlana Petrović s.petrovic@aim.rs

FINANCE: Dragana Skrobonja finance@aim.rs GENERAL MANAGER: Maja Vidaković m.vidakovic@aim.rs PUBLISHER: Ivan Novčić i.novcic@aim.rs DIRECTOR: Ana Novčić

a.novcic@aim.rs a.novcic@cordmagazine.com PRINTING: Rotografika d.o.o.

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E-mail: office@aim.rs office@cordmagazine.com www.cordmagazine.com www.aim.rs ISSN no: 1451-7833 All rights reserved alliance international media 2021

The views expressed in this publication are those of the presenter; they do not necessary reflect the view of publications published by alliance international media

Comment

Summer & Neuroses

BY ZORAN PANOVIĆ

Y

ou could easily compile a collection of Biden’s “anti-Serb” statements from press clippings, but it seems that, at least in the first months, his administration hasn’t been as ultimatumminded regarding Serbian interests as one might have assumed. Admittedly, Serbia already has the default settings in place for one level of pressure. We shouldn’t forget August 2016, when Biden reiterated in Priština that Kosovo independence is a done deal (“there is no going back”), but also advocated in favour of the formation of the famous Community of Serb Municipalities. Biden stressed in talks with then Kosovo President Thaçi that Priština would lose Washington’s support if he didn’t take the responsibility to fulfil that agreement.

It would be politically rational to expect Prime Minister Albin Kurti to have just such a “responsibility” today.

Summer has arrived - in parallel with the summer holidays and the marking of ‘Srebrenica’ and ‘Operation Storm’. Here we are, three decades since Yugoslavia’s disintegration, and the narratives and identities of the ‘90s remain the decisive factor in relations in this region – a region that’s nowhere near ready to build an even remotely functional internal mechanism for quelling conflict

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Despite his great international standing, Tito lacked the might to stage a Russian-American summit in Yugoslavia. Firstly, Vučić’s invitation to Trump to visit Belgrade, then recent speculation among Serbian tabloids that Biden and Putin would meet in Serbia, represent a continuation of the Serbian statesmen’s wet dream of emulating the Slovenian ideal of June 2001 - when Slovene President Milan Kučan and PM Janez Drnovšek hosted George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin at the Brdo estate near Kranj. The recent Biden-Putin summit ended up being held in Geneva, despite the wishes of Serbian tabloids. without external mediation.

Let’s play a little game: Imagine for a moment that Yugoslavia survived and the current top political players are around. Would the main coalitions in hypothetical federal elections be: 1.) Milo Đukanović-Andrej Plenković-Ramuš Haradinaj, 2.) Aleksandar Vučić-Janez Janša-Milorad Dodik-Nikola Gruevski, 3.) Zoran Milanović-Dragan Đilas-Zoran Zaev-Tanja Fajon, 4.) Albin Kurti-Bakir Izetbegović-Miroslav Škoro?

And Zdravko Krivokapić? Well, maybe a non-party federal prime minister?

The fact that there’s no Yugoslavia doesn’t necessarily mean the crisis doesn’t have a Yugoslav character. Croatia hands out lessons and places conditions on what Serbia must fulfil to gain EU membership, while I hear cynical, consolatory rationalisations from important political circles in Belgrade suggesting that it would be tough for Serbia to ever reach the position of being ready to join, and if it somehow does, they suspect Croatia would have the decisive final word on that.

For now, there can be nothing of the ‘Scandinavization’ of the region. Vučić, mirroring the ‘Belorusian model’, gave a rather rational speech about Kosovo in the Serbian Assembly (which is a marked deviation from Milošević’s policy of three

decades ago), but the question is how much the MPs, who applauded him for so long, even understood him. Unlike the right-wing opposition or the useful idiots from the right in his ‘catch-all’ net, Vučić never talks about full sovereignty of Serbia in Kosovo, rather about compromise and Serbian interests in Kosovo.

Certain historical parallels also impose themselves: the Treaty of Trianon was signed on 4 th June 1920, in the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles, between the Allies of World War I and the Kingdom of Hungary.

Due to the loss of two-thirds of their territory, the Hungarians suffer from “Trianon neurosis”, while the Serbs had “Kosovo neurosis” even before 1999 and the NATO attacks. This “Kosovo neurosis” is just one example of the collective psychological and political pathologies (neurosis) in this region. One such condition is the neurosis of “Greater Serbian hegemony”. In Zagreb, Sarajevo, Podgorica and Priština, “hegemony” is perceived as the natural state of Serbian politics, thus enabling them to excuse their nationalisms as “defensive” or, even worse, “democratic” - pro-European.

Serbian nostalgia for the ‘90s, and a relapse to those policies, help perpetuate such stereotypes.

Interview Exclusive

YIVA JOHANSSON EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR HOME AFFAIRS

Photo credit EU Delagation

Serbia and the EU have well advanced cooperation when it comes to migration management and asylum. Right now, it is important that Serbia further aligns with the EU’s visa policy.

In addition, there is a need for accelerated reforms in the fight against corruption and organised crime, counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering.

RELIABLE PARTNER

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During the upcoming Slovenian Presidency, we want to encourage the Western Balkan countries to continue working on strengthening their migration management and asylum systems.

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umane and effective migration management along the Western Balkan route is our joint responsibility – this message was a leitmotif of the visit to the region of European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. During her first two-day visit to Serbia, Commissioner Johansson, together with Serbian President Aleksander Vučić, attended the signing of the contract with which the EU allocated €2.5 million to support reception capacity, protection services and access to education for migrants in Serbia.

With Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin, she also witnessed the launch of the first Frontex joint operation at the Serbian border with Bulgaria, where Frontex officers from 14 EU member states will work side-byside with Serbian police officers to conduct surveillance and protect the border, and to combat smuggling and organised crime. Finally, she visited the Migrant Reception Centre in Obrenovac, which was recently renovated using EU financial support, to talk with several users of this centre.

In this interview for CorD, she summarises her visit and addresses further steps to be taken in strengthening cooperation with Serbia – on border control, smuggling prevention, migration management and other areas of the rule of law.

The EU has been supporting migration management in Serbia since 2015, by providing humanitarian assistance and protection to migrants through reception and care at centres for reception and asylum, including the provision of food, health and education, and by providing assistance to the local communities where migrants reside in an effort to strengthen social cohesion. The EU has to date contributed a total of €158 million to Serbia for these purposes. How does the New Pact on Migration and Asylum translate into cooperation

COOPERATION

The joint operation of Frontex officers and Serbian border guards at the border with Bulgaria is an important step forward in paving the way for similar operations at other borders. with the Western Balkan countries, and Serbia in particular?

The Pact presented in September last year included a significant focus on cooperation with partner countries outside the EU. There are special ties with the Western Balkans, and of course Serbia, as a future EU member.

Migration is by definition cross-border; it is natural and will always exist. So, we

SUPPORT

The European Commission, together with EU member states and Frontex, are supporting Serbia in efforts to counter and prevent terrorism and violent extremism.

sions with both President Vučić and Interior Minister Vulin when I visited Serbia last week. Combating smuggling is one of the priorities of migration cooperation between the EU and the Western Balkans. How would you assess Serbia’s efforts in this regard and what next steps are needed?

Cooperation between Europol and the Serbian

VLADIMIR CUCIC, SERBIAN COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES AND MIGRATION, COMMISSIONER YIVA JOHANOSSON AND AMBASSADOR SEM FABRIZI, HEAD OF THE EUROPEAN UNION DELEGATION TO SERBIA

need to work together, with Serbia and other countries situated along migration routes.

The EU is there to support and strengthen cooperation when it comes to asylum and the reception of migrants, border management, stepping up returns of those migrants who don’t have the right to stay and combating migrant smuggling.

Serbia is a reliable partner when it comes to migration. I had open and good discus-

police is already well advanced and positive, but organised crime is more cross-border, more violent and better organised than ever before.

I had the pleasure of taking part in the launch of the joint operation with Frontex and Serbian border guards at the border between Serbia and Bulgaria on my visit. I met officers of the Serbian border police and the European Border and Coast Guard who will work together in the common interest

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Photo credit EU Delagation

MIGRATION

Interview Exclusive

Photo credit EU Delagation

A sound and humane return policy and procedures should ensure the respect of the fundamental rights of individuals, notably in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights. In particular, return must always respect the principle of non-refoulement.

Return procedures should be carried out through a fair and transparent procedure. Decisions taken should be adopted on a case-by-case basis, based on objective criteria, and legal aid should be made available to those who lack sufficient resources.

When implementing return procedures, special attention should be paid to the needs of vulnerable persons. For example, unaccompanied minors, disabled people, pregnant women, persons who have been subjected to torture, rape or other serious forms of violence. In these cases, in particular, it is important to provide as much support as possible for voluntary return and reintegration into the country of origin.

Specifically for victims of human trafficking, structures should be in place to swiftly identify and address vulnerabilities. The Commission, together with EU member states and Frontex, are supporting Serbia in this regard. of Serbia and the EU. This operation is a very concrete part of our common work to protect borders and fight organised crime and smuggling.

It is also an important step forward in paving the way for similar operations at other borders. In this regard, what are the major objectives that you intend to achieve during your visits to the Western Balkan countries, and Serbia in particular?

First of all, this was my first visit to Serbia, following my visit to other countries (BosniaHerzegovina and Albania) in the region in February. I was pleased to meet the president and ministers of the interior and EU integration, and to discuss migration and security-related matters, also in relation to the enlargement process.

When it comes to migration management and asylum, our cooperation is well advanced.

However, in order to manage migration effectively, it is important for Serbia to further align itself with the EU’s visa policy. In addition, accelerated reforms in the fight against corruption and organised crime, counter-terrorism

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Serbia and Europol can further step up their cooperation in addressing terrorist content online, right wing violent extremism and Serbia’s inclusion in Europol operational activities and anti-money laundering are needed, as well as tangible and sustained progress on the rule of law. What do you see as the major tasks of the Serbian authorities and nongovernmental organisations that are included in the process of voluntarily returning victims to their home countries?

How does the European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (“EMPACT”) concern the countries of our region?

The Western Balkan countries are key partners in EMPACT’s operations, as we have seen in multiple EMPACT joint actions against organised crime and drug trafficking. At the annual EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs, the EU highlighted the importance of enhancing the participation of the Western Balkans in EMPACT’s operational actions. How would you assess Serbia’s involvement in Europol’s ongoing counter-terrorism cooperation in the region?

Cooperation between Serbia and Europol is positive. For instance, Serbia proactively updates Europol on their foreign terrorist fighters’ list, as well as on terrorism related incidents. Serbia also contributed to the recently published Europol Terrorism Situation and Trend report 2021.

There are still areas where we could further step up that cooperation, such as terrorist content

online, right wing violent extremism and Serbia’s inclusion in Europol operational activities. What do you perceive as the major threats related to terrorism and violent extremism? To what extent has the Joint Action Plan on Counter-terrorism for the Western Balkans proved successful?

The EU has its new Action Plan on firearms trafficking and the Action Plan on drugs. How do you see the current situation in the region, considering that the armed conflicts of the recent past led to the huge proliferation of illegal firearms?

Southeast Europe is one of the most strategically important areas for the fight against firearms trafficking. We now have a unified continental action plan, underlining the joint challenges and solutions between the EU and Southeast Europe, for instance on the smuggling of alarm and signal weapons that can be illicitly converted to lethal firearms.

The Western Balkan partners are exerting huge efforts to modernise their laws and their law-enforcement structures to better combat the trafficking of weapons. There is a lot that remains to be achieved, notably to properly incriminate firearms trafficking, because today smugglers are often only prosecuted for mere illicit possession. All this is essential, and we

Photo credit EU Delagation

Terrorism and violent extremism are threats to all of us, as reported by the Europol Terrorism Situation and Trend report. A number of individuals left the region bound for Syria and Iraq, and they are now coming back and have to be managed properly.

The Joint Action Plan on Counter Terrorism for the Western Balkans created a framework of cooperation to make progress on all aspects related to countering and preventing terrorism and violent extremism. Examples of this cooperation include the regular exchange of information with Europol on foreign terrorist fighters.

The EU is supporting the Western Balkans in this sensitive area, including through the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), and commitment in addressing terrorism and violent extremism in line with the EU policy is essential.

Southeast Europe is one of the most strategically important areas for the fight against firearms trafficking, and we will ensure that Serbia and all Western Balkan partners are fully equipped with EU-compliant legislation in this field will support Serbia in the accession process to ensure that Serbia and all Western Balkan partners are fully equipped with EU-compliant legislation in this field (e.g., appropriate controls on the non-convertibility of alarm and signal weapons, proper security measures for the storage of weapons etc).

In light of Slovenia’s Presidency of the Council of the EU for the second half of 2021, which topics related to the Western Balkans do you see as being the most relevant?

I am pleased that the Slovenian Presidency has indicated that the Western Balkans will be their priority. During the upcoming Presidency, we want to encourage the Western Balkan countries to continue working on strengthening their migration management and asylum systems.

We will continue supporting the setting up of systems for the identification and registration of migrants and exchanges of information among Western Balkan partners and the EU. We intend to continue supporting initiatives to counter migrant smuggling and will establish a network of experts from the EU and the Western Balkans to prevent internet-facilitated sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

A Western Balkans Summit on the wider relations is expected to be organised on 6th October.

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Interview Exclusive

H.E. CARLOS FÉLIX CORONA MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA

FRIENDSHIP ON A

STRONG PILLAR Mexico’s position regarding full respect for the sovereign territorial integrity of Serbia is based on our foreign policy principles, our strong and lasting friendship with the people of Serbia, international law and in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1244. We will not change that stance ~ Carlos Félix Corona

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By Ljubica Gojgić

ANNIVERSARY

On 24th May, Mexico and Serbia celebrated 75 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relations

S

ince the Embassy of Mexico in Belgrade first opened, it has worked in continuity for 75 years, notes Mexican Ambassador Carlos Félix Corona in this interview for CorD Magazine. Reminding us that his country stood behind Serbia during the turbulent times of Yugoslavia’s disintegration, the ambassador says that today Mexico, as a country that has not recognised the independence of Kosovo and that has been selected as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for the 2021-2022 biennium, has expressed to the Serbian government the full disposition to eventually help in the process of conducting the dialogue on the normalisation of relations with Priština. Your Excellency, given the recent commemorating of the 75th anniversary of the establishing of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Serbia, what would you say about current relations between the two countries?

On 24th May, Mexico and Serbia celebrated 75 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relations. Mexico has been close to the Serbian people during the historic events in the Balkan region, which evolved towards the consolidation of Serbia as the successor nation of the former Yugoslavia. Since Mexico opened its embassy in Belgrade it has never closed its doors, and at no time has it suspended official and social links with the people of Serbia. During the Yugoslavia era, we sustained a high political dialogue with six reciprocal state visits, and all kinds of ministerial encounters. At the same time, the cultural and academic exchanges multiplied, weaving a solid connection between the Mexican and Serbian people that constitutes a strong pillar of our current links.

This positive assessment is the foundation to advance towards a deeper relationship. In the framework of celebrations commemorating the 75th anniversary, the ministers of foreign affairs of Mexico and Serbia, Marcelo Ebrard and Nikola Selaković, held a videoconference on 31st May. Both Ministers recognised the solid friendship that exists between the two nations and reaffirmed the willingness to compromise in order to expand bilateral cooperation in other areas, with special interest in trade and investment, while at the same time deepening our social links by considering the relevance to cultivate our human capital as the engine to promote this mutual friendship and cooperation. On 7th June, we held a face-to-face session of the Political Consultation

MULTILATERALISM

Mexico firmly believes that multilateralism based in International Law is an essential factor in preventing, addressing, alleviating and resolving the various conflicts around the world

Mechanism in Belgrade, where we defined the route map to focus our work (in the pandemic recovery scenario) to confront the challenges and seize the opportunities to consolidate our links during the following years. You stated in another recent interview that Mexico stood with Serbia in “historical and political processes” in the Balkans. You emphasised Mexico’s support for Serbia’s territorial integrity and adherence to UNSC Resolution 1244, which also relates to Kosovo. Will your country continue to stay the course when it comes to the policy of not recognising the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo?

We have invited a high political delegation, along with artistic and military representatives, to celebrations in Mexico commemorating the 200th anniversary of our Independence this September Mexico’s position regarding full respect for the sovereign territorial integrity of Serbia is based on our foreign policy principles, our strong and lasting friendship with the people of Serbia, international law and in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1244. We will not change that stance. We don’t have any contacts with the self-proclaimed Kosovo authorities. We have closely monitored the process of identifying a pacifying and negotiated solution to the Kosovo conflict through the mediation of the European Union and have even expressed to the Serbian government the full disposition of Mexico to eventually help in this process. We understand and recognise the necessity of reaching a negotiated solution that satisfies Serbian interests, to ensure the stability and wellbeing of the whole Balkan region.

UN

The success or failure of the UN is the responsibility of its members and their real commitment to work towards multilateral solutions

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our two countries, Serbia invited Mexico’s minister of foreign affairs to visit Belgrade. Are you planning to realise this visit; or visits of any other Mexican officials?

As I mentioned, the minsters of foreign affairs of Mexico and Serbia, Messrs Marcelo Ebrard and Nikola Selaković, held a videoconference on 31st May. We also had the 5th session of the Mechanism for Political Consultation, face-to-face, in Belgrade on 7th June, headed by Assistant Secretary for Europe at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Bernardo Agullar, Serbian Assistant Minister for Bilateral Cooperation, Ambassador Vladimir Marić, and myself. During the discussion, we agreed to promote the continuation of the high-level political dialogue, considering in-person meetings of our foreign ministers and the possibility of a meeting between our respective presidents, Andres Manuel López Obrador and Aleksandar Vučić.

We have invited a high political delegation, along with artistic and military representatives, to celebrations in Mexico commemorating the 200th anniversary of our Independence this September. We hope pandemic restrictions will ease and permit the realisation of these high-level meetings to continue our high political dialogue. Mexico has been elected to serve as a member of the UN Security Council for the 2021-2022 biennium, which you consider as an opportunity to contribute to reducing tensions in the Balkans. How do you view this region?

The election of Mexico as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for 20212022 is international recognition for my country’s active and responsible foreign policy, which has been unfolding for many years, as well as its ability to contribute to international peace and security.

Mexico firmly believes that multilateralism based in International Law is an essential factor in preventing, addressing, alleviating and resolving the various conflicts around the world. With that conviction, Mexico conducts its works in the UNSC agenda, including the situation in the Balkans. We will make every contribution needed to identify a negotiated and peaceful solution for the political stability of this region, with full respect for human rights that will boost sustainable economic and social development to all nations in the Western Balkans.

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Interview Exclusive And what kind of vision do you have for the United Nations and the Security Council. Many would claim that this organisation is outdated and increasingly circumvented when it comes to addressing key geopolitical challenges?

Mexico is convinced and committed to work for multilateral solutions to all issues on the global agenda, in which the United Nations system plays a vital role. Let us not forget that the UN was created, by the will of all its members, to seek a mechanism to prevent and resolve international conflicts that threaten international peace and security. In that sense, all UN member states have the responsibility to work not only to maintain the functioning of that key multilateral forum, but to work towards its improvement and better outcomes. The success or failure of the UN is the responsibility of its members and their real commitment to work for multilateral

As a member of UNESCO, and according to its principles and goals, we consider it an imperative to preserve the historic sites and cultural heritage of our peoples, and this responsibility should not be conditioned, partially addressed or subject to any political consideration solutions. The case of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a clear example of the need to look for global solutions instead of unilateral, partial or even regional isolated actions to confront the consequences of a global emergency successfully.

The effects of the pandemic have emphasised the crucial necessity for a multilateral response and the urgent need to reinforce multilateral action to address the “pre pandemic” agenda 2030. In this complex international scenario, Mexico believes that all members of the United Security Council -whether permanent or non-permanent - should work together with genuine commitment to maintain and preserve international peace and security. Being part of the UNSC is not a privilege, but rather a serious responsibility that must be grasped fully. Mexico voted against Kosovo being granted membership in UNESCO. The issue of the cultural, historical and religious

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heritage in Kosovo is once again topical.

How do you view calls from Pristina to remove the Visoki Dečani Monastery complex from the list of cultural monuments requiring protection?

As a member of UNESCO, and according to its principles and goals, we consider it an imperative to preserve the historic sites and cultural heritage of our peoples, and this responsibility should not be conditioned, partially addressed or subject to any political consideration. Is it possible to improve economic relations between Mexico and Serbia, which are lagging far behind the excellent quality of political relations, and, if so, how?

Mexico has the world’s 15th largest economy. We have one of the most open and export-orientated economies in the world, with a network of free trade agreements that gives us privileged access to 1.6 billion consumers around the world. Our main free trade tools give us ample opportunity to be part of global value chains in all geographical regions: USMCA (previously NAFTA) makes us part of the most dynamic market on the planet in the North American region; the Economic Association Agreement with the EU; the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Transpacific Partnership (CPTPP), with the inclusion of important economies in Asia and Oceania, and the Pacific Alliance, comprising the most export-orientated economies of Latin America.

We are convinced that all this economic potential that Mexico has represents a real opportunity for the Serbian economy to engage actively in global value chains and diversify its markets. With this in mind, Mexico and Serbia need to work together to define a specific trade and investment strategy, targeting sectors of mutual interest, with real potential such as those of the automotive, electric and electronic, agriculture, mining, energy, telecommunications and tourism sectors. The Embassy of Mexico will prioritise this task and I will soon meet with Serbian stakeholders to work with them on furthering this endeavour. How satisfied are you with our bilateral cooperation in the academic and scientific domains, and in the field of culture?

We are glad that, during past years, both countries have developed strong cultural and academic links that are at the core of our bilateral relations. Mexico granted numerous scholarships to Yugoslav citizens, the majority of them Serbs, to pursue their studies in Mexican higher educational institutions. Many of them maintained connections with their Mexican colleagues once they completed their studies in our country. The creation and multiplication of these networks have consolidated strong human capital in both countries, resulting in mutual understanding

Mexico and Serbia need to work together to define a specific trade and investment strategy, targeting sectors of mutual interest with real potential, such as those of the automotive, electric and electronic, agriculture, mining, energy, telecommunications and tourism sectors and deep knowledge of our culture and societies.

Mexico has contributed significantly to promoting the Spanish language in the Balkans. There is strong interest in Mexican culture in Serbia. During past years, more than 20 literary works of renowned Mexican writers, such as Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes, among many others, have been translated into Serbian. I have met with many academics and researchers of institutions in Serbia that wish to deepen collaboration with their counterparts in Mexico. We will expand the network of Mexican and Serbian creators to be self-sufficient and continue progressing in the coming years. We are planning to resume exchanges of students and researchers once pandemic conditions allow. I am convinced of the mutual benefit of deepening our cultural,

academic and scientific links as a way to cultivate our human capital, as the most import asset of our two countries. How is Mexico combating the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit your country just as it has hit the rest of the world? Are you satisfied with the way the vaccination process is progressing?

At the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Mexico – like all countries – had to confront numerous challenges. No country was prepared to deal with the pandemic and we had to make fast decisions to address the population that had been impacted and to procure essential medical equipment; planning special medical attention centres, as well as the necessary human healthcare resources. In a country of 126 million people with two million square-kilometres of territory, this has been a huge task.

In the second stage, the Government of Mexico accelerated vaccination procurement with different providers and brands, consolidating a diverse portfolio of vaccines. We are still in the process of procuring the necessary number of vaccines. We have so far reached a total of more than 50 million doses, which allows us to advance the vaccination process covering the segments of our population aged over 60, then those aged over 50, before continuing with the rest of our population. The target is to cover all our people this summer. Just a few days ago, we started donating vaccines to different countries in Latin America, in order to help them confront the COVID-19 Pandemic. We have urged the international community to take all measures to guarantee that all countries have access to the vaccines they need. We must remember that no one will be safe until everyone is safe.

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GLOBAL DIARY

“The enlargement must be quicker ... It would be great if more or less all the countries of the region could enter the EU together” – BORUT PAHOR, PRESIDENT OF SLOVENIA

JOE BIDEN VISITS EUROPE ON FIRST OVERSEAS TRIP AS US PRESIDENT US President Joe Biden embarks on his first overseas trip where he met European partners and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

His eight-day visit to Europe - which has included a G7 leaders’ meeting in the UK, an audience with the Queen and his first NATO summit as president - concludes by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

G7 leaders seeking to rival China have adopted a plan to support lower- and middle-income countries in building better infrastructure.

President Biden said he wanted the US-backed Build Back Better World (B3W) plan to be a higher-quality alternative to a similar Chinese programme.

SERBIAN SCIENTIST GORDANA VUNJAK WON EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 2021 Serbian-American biomedical engineer and university professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic won the Award’s Popular Prize, having received the most votes from the public in an online poll. Vunjak-Novakovic, who had been nominated in the “Lifetime achievement” category, opened new horizons in regenerative medicine by developing a way of growing new tissue ex vivo (outside the body) using the patient’s own cells.

COLOMBIA OFFERS REWARD AFTER PRESIDENTIAL HELICOPTER SHOOTING Colombia has offered a reward of three billion pesos ($796,000; £573,000) for information about an attack on the president’s helicopter.

Iván Duque was nearing Cúcuta airport near the border with Venezuela when his aircraft was hit by gunfire on 25 June. Photos released later showed bullet holes in the rotor and tail of the helicopter. Nobody on board was injured. The UN, EU and US have all condemned the attack.

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“It’s about building the country’s talent, but also access to the world” – ANA BRNABIĆ, PRIME MINISTER OF SERBIA

SERBIAN SPORT DELIVERS HISTORIC RESULTS Recent results have confirmed that Serbia continues to shine and dominate the worlds of basketball and tennis.

The country’s national women’s basketball team defeated France 63:54 in the Women’s EuroBasket final in Valencia, Spain, while the squad’s top player, Sonja Vasić, received a personal award to add to the title of European champion when she was declared EuroBasket MVP. Meanwhile, tennis’s World No. 1, Novak Đoković, completed a huge turnaround in the French Open’s Roland Garros final, coming back from two sets down to overcome Stefanos Tsitsipas and lift his second Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy.

Apart from earning his 19th Grand Slam title, the victory also sealed an historic first for Đoković, who has become the only player in the history of the Open Era to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments at least twice.

Returning to basketball, this time the men’s game, Serbia earned two major individual honours and recorded a world first when the titles of MVP of the world’s two strongest basketball leagues went to players from the same country for the first time. Nikola Jokić was declared MVP of America’s NBA, while his compatriot and Anadolu Efes ace, Vasilije Micić, was declared MVP of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

UAE BAN ON ENTRY FROM INDIA STILL ON A United Arab Emirates ban on entry from India, South Africa and Nigeria remains in place, the federal aviation authority said, after Dubai had announced it would ease entry restrictions from those countries. Dubai, a business and tourism hub, is the most populous of the UAE’s seven emirates. Throughout the pandemic, the UAE’s seven emirates have set some of their own COVID-19 policies. In a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) on Sunday, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) referenced a 21 June GCAA document stating entry from 13 countries, including Pakistan, was banned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

TRUDEAU SAYS POPE FRANCIS SHOULD APOLOGIZE ON CANADIAN SOIL Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had urged Pope Francis to come to Canada to apologize for church-run boarding schools where hundreds of unmarked graves have been found, and he said Canadians are “horrified and ashamed” by their government’s longtime policy of forcing Indigenous children to attend such schools. “I have spoken personally directly with His Holiness, Pope Francis, to impress upon him how important it is not just that he makes an apology but that he makes an apology to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil”, Trudeau said.

“I know that the Catholic church leadership is looking and very actively engaged in what next steps can be taken.”

DAVID KAWAI/BLOOMBERG

July

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Focus

Can political changes in the region have an impact on the political scene in Serbia?

What Happened In Zagreb Won’t Just

Happen In Belgrade!

The election victories of opposition parties in the region’s capital cities suggest that the path to political change at the top of the country could lead through the largest urban centres, but that isn’t “contagious” and tells us nothing about possible outcomes for local Belgrade elections. These political changes don’t seem to be pro-democratic and left-leaning, either globally or locally, but we can never rule out a miracle.

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erbia’s opposition circles watched with great enthusiasm as the results of local elections in Croatia brought victory to new, left-wing forces in Zagreb and Split, and with hope that something similar could happen in Belgrade. A similar debate accompanied election results in Montenegro and North Macedonia. Some people are also drawing parallels between events

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in Serbia and Hungary, where speculation is rife that the opposition could win more seats in parliament after many years of Viktor Orban’s inviolable rule, with Budapest having become an opposition stronghold. We asked our interlocutors whether there are politically “merged courts” in the region and whether these examples tell us anything about possible changes on the Serbian political scene.

DUŠKO RADOSAVLJEVIĆ Ph.D., POLITICAL SCIENTIST

HARD WORK STANDS BEHIND ELECTION VICTORIES THE ELECTION RESULTS IN BUDAPEST, ZAGREB, NORTH MACEDONIA AND MONTENEGRO ARE NOT UNAMBIGUOUS, NOR ARE THEY ALL OBJECTIVELY PROGRESSIVE. POSITIVE EXAMPLES TELL US THAT THESE ELECTION VICTORIES CAME AFTER GREAT ORGANISATIONAL WORK AND PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN TRADITIONAL PARTIES, CIVIL SOCIETY, MEDIA OUTLETS, INDEPENDENT INTELLECTUALS AND GROUPS, AS WELL AS CITIZENS GATHERED SPONTANEOUSLY.

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nfluences and ideas in the region of the former Yugoslavia certainly spill over the borders of our political creations, regardless of the will of holders of political power to ensure that the situation is not too stimulating for cooperation, especially among certain opposition groups with civic characteristics. When it comes to certain shifts, we see them as the fruit of many years of dedicated work to change the regime (North Macedonia), as the building of networks of trust through cooperation with many opposition actors, but also with civil society organisations (Budapest, Zagreb), and the establishing of a regressive political concept with the significant participation of the church (Montenegro).

So, these events are not unambiguous, nor are they all objectively progressive. This inevitably prompts the question: which of these could be applicable in Serbia?

In the long run, this could certainly be the case for the experiences of Budapest, Zagreb and North Macedonia! The experience of Montenegro, on the other hand, should be studied carefully, as a warning against allowing the church to arbitrate in matters of “this world”, which can be extremely dangerous.

What are we told by the positive experiences? This is great organisational work, which takes quite a long time to realise and requires the significant engagement of activists and THE EXPERIENCE OF MONTENEGRO SHOULD BE partnerships between traditional parties, civil society, media STUDIED CAREFULLY, AS A WARNING AGAINST outlets, independent intellectuals and groups, as well as citizens gathered spontaneously, meaning that it requires a respectALLOWING THE CHURCH TO ARBITRATE IN able consensus on intentions, goals etc. So, painstaking and, MATTERS OF “THIS WORLD”, WHICH CAN BE figuratively speaking, “bloody” work, which awakens a considerEXTREMELY DANGEROUS. able sense of caution in us, and even disbelief that this would be feasible here... However, one must still try, because good examples exist, in the vicinity, and one only needs to roll up the sleeves and get to work.

When it comes to the notion that a new leftist party could emerge in Serbia, that is possible, in so much as miracles are generally possible, but is highly unlikely! That’s because, over the course of thirty years, almost everything in Serbia has been politically concentrated in the centre and towards the far right. Quite simply, in order to form a leftist party, apart from a programme, which is easily penned, it must offer an entire array of answers to questions of how to rein in the provincial performance of the neoliberal concept of the economy, with all corrupt and other elements. It must then create policies on education, social and health security, a policy for the return of children to Serbia, breaking with the harmful national policy etc., etc. So, the left would have to work much harder if it wanted to really change Serbia. To beat the drum on national chests, while at the same time plundering the citizenry, is a policy that pays off for individuals, but it leaves behind a scorched earth, a destroyed society and a ruined state. Preventing that is the first task for the left.

July

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Focus

Can political changes in the region have an impact on the political scene in Serbia?

Professor NEBOJŠA VLADISAVLJEVIĆ, FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

NOT QUITE THERE YET THE DEMOCRATIC PUSH IS SIMILAR ACROSS THE REGION, BUT POLITICAL CONTEXTS DIFFER. IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN WHETHER DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION PARTIES, MOVEMENTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS IN SERBIA CAN JOIN FORCES AND HOLD THEIR NERVE IN THE DIFFICULT AND RISKY POLITICAL FINALE THAT AWAITS US IN THE COMING YEARS.

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olitical change is often a regional phenomenon. In the early 1990s, a partial democratisation of communist authoritarianism in our region left behind hybrid regimes. In the early 2000s, most of these regimes became democracies, with the exceptions of Montenegro and Albania. In the following decade, the demise of democracy in North Macedonia and Serbia represented only the most visible outcomes of the global democratic recession; authoritarian practises abound across the region, such as major violations of media freedoms and minority rights.

The latest shift of the regional political pendulum has fostered democracy. Democratic forces toppled Gruevski in North Macedonia and decisively undermined Đukanović in Montenegro; new governments represent major but unsteady steps towards democracy. More recently, insurgent social movements won election victories in major Croatian cities, by fighting for ‘green’ causes, but also against corruption and widespread authoritarian practises. The question is whether the latest regional swing will influence Serbian politics, and if so how.

To an extent, political change is already underway. After several years lost in the wilderness, democratic forces are on the rise again. A large wave of weekly protests against authoritarian THE OBSTACLES CONFRONTING DEMOCRATIC rule unfolded across the country in 2018-2019. These events emFORCES IN SERBIA SEEM TO BE GREATER THAN boldened the democratic opposition to boycott unfair elections, THOSE IN NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. THE which left the legitimacy of the national assembly in tatters.

QUESTION IS WHETHER THE LATEST REGIONAL Various local movements and coalitions have fought, with some success, against shady business deals between government and SWING WILL INFLUENCE SERBIAN POLITICS, its cronies, which damaged the environment and fostered corrupAND IF SO HOW tion at a major cost to the public purse.

And yet, the obstacles confronting democratic forces in Serbia seem to be greater than those in neighbouring countries.

The push for democracy is similar across the region, but political contexts remain different. Opposition parties in North Macedonia and Montenegro took several years to organise and confront their authoritarian rulers successfully; our opposition parties have only just started rebuilding their organisation beyond large cities. Green and other movements in Croatia exploited a considerably more open political context and conflicts between, and public discontent with, the two largest parties.

Serbia’s authoritarianism has become progressively more closed and repressive, characterised by a personalist and arbitrary rule that undermines all public institutions. It remains to be seen whether democratic opposition parties, movements and civil society groups can join forces and hold their nerve in the difficult and risky political finale that awaits us in the coming years.

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OBRAD KESIĆ, POLITICAL ANALYST

TRANSITION TO AN UNKNOWN DESTINATION AROUND THE WORLD, EVEN IN THE MOST DEVELOPED SOCIETIES, WE ARE SEEING GROWING TENDENCIES TOWARDS THE INTRODUCTION OF AUTOCRACY, WHILE IN CONTRAST DEMOCRACY IS EXPERIENCING GROWING DISTRUST, NOT ONLY AMONG THE ELITES, BUT ALSO AMONG THE BROADER MASSES. WE ARE MOVING TOWARDS CHANGES, BUT WE CAN’T ANTICIPATE THE POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF THOSE CHANGES.

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transition is currently happening, not only in Serbia, but rather across the entire world, and we don’t know which political system will prove dominant, firstly in the West, and then in other areas and regions.

Autocratic systems have shown that they have some advantages during the coronavirus pandemic, and they have survived and handled themselves better than democracies. This is firstly because it was necessary to build a political consensus, and we see that this has not been achieved in the U.S. and many European countries, especially when it comes to consensus between the government and a certain section of society, where we see protests held against emergency measures, the shutting down of economies etc. So, that is much more difficult to achieve in democracies, because both political and social consensus must be built. Meanwhile, semi-autocratic and autocratic regimes don’t have to worry about that. They have other problems, but they’re at an advantage when a crisis like this occurs, as we have seen.

Another thing we’ve seen is that the EU would be better prepared to respond to any crisis if it were integrated better, and more, and politically. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. It turned out that solidarity doesn’t exist in the EU during crisis THE WEST IS EXPERIENCING A SERIOUS CRISIS, situations. Virtually every country fights to secure its own citiPERHAPS THE MOST SERIOUS IN THE LAST 100 zens and its own interests. And that’s another weakness that’s YEARS, AND THAT IS MANIFESTING IN DISTRUST been shown by democracies and represents one of the bigger TOWARDS ITS OWN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC challenges confronting us as we advance towards a new political organisation and a new system that needs to be formed.

SYSTEMS, WHICH HAS REPERCUSSIONS FOR We also see, if we observe the trends, that Western countries EVERYONE ELSE are trending towards becoming greater autocracies and the political elites having greater control over the masses. As such, in America we see a debate about shifting the entire electoral system to the level of the federal government, where the Democrats would have the upper hand. In some way, this would enable them to create rules of the game that suit them, and would guarantee that they will preserve their power and maintain it over a longer period. Republicans are struggling to move towards decentralisation, where the authority of each state resides.

They are also currently adopting new election laws that, when implemented, would guarantee their political and electoral interests. So, in the West there are also increasing tendencies in which we see some measures restricting freedom of speech, and during the coronavirus crisis we’ve also seen the implementing of measures that restrict the right to political assembly.

There are no guarantees, as there are in the U.S. Constitution, that if the state decides more than 10 people are not allowed to gather, that can also be used in a political context.

Thus, we’ve passed through a phase that leads us to a period of transition. We don’t know what awaits us at the end of the road, but we do know that freedom of speech is currently also under threat in the West, that the freedom to express political views is being stifled, that censorship is being introduced, particularly through the medium of social networks, even to the extent that the American president himself can find himself censored. The tendencies around the world are very bad, as these tendencies are towards autocracy, while democracy is experiencing growing distrust, not only among the elites, but also among the broader masses.

July

21

Focus

Can political changes in the region have an impact on the political scene in Serbia?

ROBERT BAJRUŠI,

JOURNALIST AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AT ZAGREB DAILY JUTARNI LIST

SERBIA LACKS A SERIOUS RESISTANCE MOVEMENT AGAINST VUČIĆ’S GOVERNMENT THE LEFT-GREEN PLATFORM “MOŽEMO!”, HEADED BY THE NEW MAYOR OF ZAGREB, WHO RECORDED AN ALMOST LANDSLIDE VICTORY IN THE MAYORAL RACE, COULD HAVE A SERIOUS CHANCE IN THE NEXT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS. ALTHOUGH I DON’T SEE SIMILAR PROCESSES HAPPENING IN SERBIA, THAT DOESN’T MEAN THEY’RE NOT POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY IN URBAN CENTRES, PRIMARILY BELGRADE.

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iewed from the perspective of Zagreb, there are still no political changes in the region, and I honestly don’t see the possibility of that happening any time soon. And there are at least two reasons for that. Firstly, there is no serious political resistance movement against Vučić’s government in Serbia, which is also confirmed by research showing that his SNS party wins several times as many votes as the opposition. Secondly, Croatia, Hungary, North Macedonia and Montenegro differ from one another greatly, and they don’t offer any common recipe for political change. It is true that the opposition won elections in Budapest and Zagreb, although HDZ [the Croatian Democratic Union] hasn’t held power in Zagreb since the year 2000. The May elections resulted in a convincing victory for the left-green “Možemo!” [We Can!] platform, headed by new mayor Tomislav Tomašević, who recorded an almost landslide victory in the mayoral race. If Tomašević succeeds in getting Zagreb out of debt, the “Možemo!” platform could have a serious chance in the next parliamentary elections.

As I stated initially, I don’t see similar processes happening in Serbia, but that doesn’t mean they’re not possible, especially in urban centres, primarily Belgrade. However, one thing is QUITE SIMPLY, I DON’T BELIEVE THAT 5, 7 OR 10 for certain: this can’t be done by the politicians who’ve been PER CENT OF VOTERS IN YOUR COUNTRY DON’T “revolving” in public for years, but rather requires some new, WANT A POLITICAL OPTION THAT ISN’T CORRUPT, uncompromised figures.

THAT DOESN’T HAVE THE PAST AND WARS AS ITS Can the recipes for success implemented by opposition forces in our neighbourhood be applied in Serbia or not, and MAIN THEMES, BUT RATHER PROPOSES WAYS TO why? Tomislav Tomašević is friends with some people from IMPROVE DAILY LIFE the political movement Ne Davimo Beograd [Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own], and as far as I know some Zagreb activists even participated in Belgrade protests a couple of years ago. There is one recipe: in order for political change to occur, there must be something that differs from everything that’s been offered to date. Likewise, success here didn’t come overnight, because Tomašević’s “Zagreb is ours!” platform was founded in 2017 and has been active through the Zagreb City Assembly for a full four years. There were four councillors, but they work excellently and exposed the corruption of Mayor Milan Bandić, as well as his alliance with the HDZ. What I want to say is that this is not an instantaneous success, but rather the result of a lot of serious work. And they are now awaited by an even tougher job.

I don’t know if the possibility exists for a new left to appear on the opposition scene in Serbia, but I certainly know that this would be good for Serbia. Pluralism is good. Quite simply, I don’t believe that 5, 7 or 10 per cent of voters in your country don’t want a political option that isn’t corrupt, that doesn’t have the past and wars as its main themes, but rather proposes ways to improve daily life, depoliticise the judiciary or, at the local level, build housing for young people, install cycle paths and reduce pollution. If such a team unites and is ready to move among voters, going door to door, nothing can be ruled out.

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ZDRAVKO VELJANOV Ph.D. Candidate, DOCTORAL SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, PUBLIC POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY

SERBIA NEEDS A CHALLENGER A UNITED OPPOSITION, WITH SIGNIFICANT EXTERNAL SUPPORT AND AN INCREASED TURNOUT, APPEARS TO BE THE RECIPE THAT NEEDS TO BE TESTED IN SERBIA. THE FIRST STEP IN THAT WOULD BE A SUITABLE CHALLENGER ABLE TO UNIFY THESE THREE ELEMENTS.

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t’s been five years since power shifted in North Macedonia. The concerted efforts of the opposition parties, with strong support of external actors like the EU and the U.S., helped to thwart the increasingly authoritarian regime of Gruevski. A few years later, several countries in the region have followed suit. In Montenegro, the longstanding rule of PM/President Đukanović came to an end following more organised efforts (compared to 2016) among the opposition parties. The latest local elections in neighbouring Hungary showed that a strong opposition that also enjoys the support of Western democratic actors can mount a serious challenge. But Serbia is a country that (so far) seems immune to opposition challenges.

However, the most recent elections, which were organised during the pandemic and without the participation of the opposition and with a clearly skewed playing field, have left a dent in the incumbent’s regime. It was a process without a winner, where all parties lost, including the ruling ones, despite recording a landslide victory. A new parliamentary composition without tangible opposition representatives will lack legitimacy, both domestically and externally. In fact, the situation is very much reminiscent of the one that followed the landslide victory A UNITED OPPOSITION SEEMS TO BE THE of the North Macedonian counterpart to SNS, VMRO-DPMNE, NECESSARY CONDITION TO STAND A CHANCE in 2014, where the opposition refused to accept its mandates.

AGAINST A DOMINANT INCUMBENT, BUT IT IS The lack of a credible opposition, coupled with united opposition and strong support from foreign actors, seemed to be the NOT SUFFICIENT ON ITS OWN. AS THE RECIPE IN recipe for that country in 2016.

BUDAPEST SHOWS, IT IS ALSO NECESSARY TO A united opposition seems to be the necessary condition to stand a chance against a dominant incumbent, but it is not suf- STRIKE A COMPROMISE ON IMPORTANT POLICIES ficient on its own. It is also necessary to strike a compromise AMONG MAJOR OPPOSITION PARTIES among the major opposition parties on important policies, as was achieved by the wide-ranging coalition in Budapest’s 2019 mayoral elections. Although the opposition in North Macedonia and Croatia was led by traditional social democratic parties, the cases of Budapest and Montenegro showed that newcomers can also attract significant domestic and external support. The opposition was able to gather sufficient external legitimacy to pose a threat to the incumbent regime. The last ingredient is an increased turnout. Elections in North Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as the local elections in Hungary, particularly in Budapest, saw increased turnouts.

The combination of these three, with a united opposition that has significant external support and an increased turnout, appears to be the recipe that needs to be tested in Serbia. And the first step in that would be a suitable challenger able to unify these three elements.

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UNDP

Tough Problems Require Fresh Approaches FRANCINE PICKUP

UNDP RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE IN SERBIA

These are exciting times, when we have new opportunities to change for the better and find innovative ways for responding to key development challenges like health crises, environmental issues or depopulation. Digital tools can make a big difference and help all of us to do more. Here we are provided with some examples of this from UNDP. face of adversity, regardless of their GDP or geographic location.

Serbia is a good example. It did well to respond to the pandemic by quickly procuring equipment and vaccines from different producers, becoming a regional vaccination hub.

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Calamities often bring out the best in people, and produce unlikely heroes and fresh ideas. We asked Francine Pickup, UNDP Resident Representative in Serbia, to reflect on the issues Serbia is facing and the work of UNDP over the past two years, which has provided innovative answers to some of the old and new problems confronting Serbian society, such as depopulation, ecological issues and the digital divide.

Ms Pickup, in times of disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, what do countries need to do to find the best solutions?

The COVID crisis has shown that it’s not the labels ‘developed’ or ‘developing’, ‘high’ or ‘low income’ that matter so much, rather it’s the way countries react, adapt and evolve in the

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We’ve also seen brave individuals in Serbia like those who responded to the health crisis by volunteering. How can these examples of social cohesion be sustained in our society, which is often burdened by a lack of trust?

Building trust is important, as it helps countries unlock development potential. Digital investments can accelerate this trust and social engagement when they are responsive to citizens’ interests.

During COVID in Serbia, digital platforms like ‘Be a Volunteer’ or ‘Digital solidarity’ scaled up the outreach of volunteers and businesses to those in need, strengthening social cohesion, which is greatly needed for the development and resilience of every society.

We also saw how people across the entire region, despite past conflicts, can unite in standing up to shared challenges, like gender-based violence. A couple of young women from Serbia who went public about

their experiences started a wave of similar reactions across the Western Balkans.

During Covid we witnessed a surge in the use of e-services in Serbia, assisting almost all aspects of our life. How can we continue to benefit from these achievements beyond the crisis and in a more inclusive way?

The pandemic has accelerated digitalisation, making a reliable internet connection and digital tools our lifeline. We worked, educated our children, bought and sold products and kept in touch with our loved ones online.

While many benefited from digital tools, the COVID crisis exposed the differences in access to digital technology and levels of digital literacy. It became clear where the gaps are, and what should be done to tackle this inequality.

We must ensure that everyone is included and assisted to equally benefit from the digital transformation. For example, e-services should be designed with vulnerable groups in mind, such as the elderly or Roma, from the onset.

Statistics in Serbia also show that women use e-services more than men, so government should take their perspective into account when it designs these services.

The EU Green Agenda is on the table of the Serbian government. In parallel, we also see citizens protesting due to air pollution and the environment. How can this awareness be used for good?

We need joint efforts at all levels, and that includes citizens as well, to reduce the effects of climate change and safeguard the environment.

In the past few months, an environmental uprising in Serbia is articulating people’s concerns about the environment and air pollution. These movements bring the possibility of a deeper, more inclusive transformation.

In order for this to happen, the Government needs to recognise their potential, build bridges to them, and follow this energy to steer change in the right direction.

For example, the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) encourages citizen engagement to map illegal dumpsites. The mobile app ‘Remove the illegal dumpsite’, developed by SEPA and UNDP, enables citizens to report illegal dumps easily and anonymously.

There are now over 2,300 locations marked for clean-up on the SEPA map.

We also see that the private sector in Serbia is willing to go green, but that it faces numerous barriers. The UNDP and EU’s Green Recovery Study found that the scaling up of green transformation requires that businesses have access to finance and regulations that incentivise green investments and additional education and training.

UNDP showed that an organisation needs to adapt the way it works constantly in order to remain relevant, most prominently by launching a network of Accelerator Labs. What’s cooking in the Serbian Lab? The AccLab network is a massive commitment to innovation by UNDP, as a way of adapting to a fast-changing world. The greatest challenges that we face today are multi-layered and complex.

In order to tackle them, we need to experiment and bring together diverse groups of people.

The AccLab in Serbia is doing exactly that to solve the depopulation puzzle, for example.

Most recently, our Depopulation Data Challenge winners presented their results.

The winning teams combined traditional and alternative data sets with tools based on modern technologies to understand this

process better and closer to real time. Their insights will help us better understand incountry migrations, economic migrations, out-migration and scientific diaspora, as well as the spatial aspects of depopulation. In this way, more effective demographic, social and economic policies can be formulated.

Additionally, we launched the website ‘BelgradeGets.digital’ to attract more digital nomads to live and work here, by giving them,

The Serbian Government has shown courage in expressing its readiness to address depopulation and to work with UNDP on addressing this challenge. New initiatives, such as the Returning point and BelgradeGets.digital website, are taking the lead in showing how this can be done

in one place, the most important information necessary to make such a decision. We believe that remote work can be important for both

Serbia and the region, because it can influence the direction and intensity of economic migration after the pandemic.

Based on data gathered by UNDP, how can we turn around the depopulation trend?

There are no easy answers to this question – the solution doesn’t lie in reversing fertility trends or repopulating rural areas. Yet there are signs of positive deviations that offer a

different way to think about the future: digital nomads choosing to move to the region and emigrants returning home during COVID, while working remotely for foreign companies.

The Serbian Government has shown courage in expressing its readiness to address depopulation and to work with UNDP to address this challenge.

New initiatives, such as the Returning point, challenge dominant narratives that see leaving as betrayal or returning as failure, with an alternative one - recognising the value of circular migration. The Balkan region could benefit from a new focus on living abroad while remaining connected with the home community and appreciating the rich quality of life, social and economic opportunities that Serbia and other countries of origin have to offer.

Countries can change the narrative of being powerless in the face of their shrinking populations by making a deliberate effort to untap existing human potential and adapt their policies to changing demographics.

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Feature

By Michael Spence / Project Syndicate

How Great Powers Should Compete Both China and the West espouse some version of multilateralism. But unfettered strategic competition, together with relentlessly negative rhetoric, precludes effective multilateralism, not least by disrupting trade and technology transfer – a crucial driver of development.

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t the recent G7 and NATO gatherings, China was singled out as a strategic competitor, a calculating trading partner, a technological and national-security threat, a human-rights violator, and a champion of authoritarianism globally. China denounced these characterizations, which its embassy in the United Kingdom called “lies, rumors, and baseless accusations.”The risks that such rhetoric poses should not be underestimated.

West disapprove of China’s single-party governance structure, just as vocal elements in China disparage Western liberal democracy, which they argue is in terminal decline.The real danger, however, is that officials on both sides seem to have embraced a zero-sum framework, according to which the two sides cannot simply co-exist; one side must “win.”

By this logic, both sides must always be trying to crush the competition. So, for China, the West – especially the United States – must be seeking to reverse its rise (which, in reality, was facilitated

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in no small part by the US). And, for the West, China is determined to leverage its economic might, including its huge internal market, to reshape the global system in its image and to its benefit.

The more often leaders repeat these narratives, the more likely ordinary citizens are to become convinced that they are true. Rising fear and resentment on both sides increases the risk that the narratives will become self-fulfilling prophecies.

In the meantime, the focus on bilateral competition obscures the needs and interests of people in emerging markets and developing economies.

Yes, China and the West espouse some version of multilateralism. But unfettered strategic competition precludes effective multilateralism, not least by disrupting trade and technology transfer – a crucial driver of development.

China and the West urgently need a new framework for understanding the state of the world and their place in it. Such a framework must recognize, first and foremost, that properly regulated economic

competition is not a zero-sum game.

In static terms, normal economic competition bolsters price efficiency and helps to align supply and demand. In dynamic terms, it leads to what Joseph Schumpeter dubbed “creative destruction” – a powerful mechanism for translating knowledge, ideas, and experiments into new products, services, and cost-reducing processes. In other words, it leads to advances in human well-being.

There is no reason to think that cross-border competition cannot produce the same benefits. On the contrary, experience shows that it can, so long as supporting legal and regulatory structures are in place and the playing field is level. Admittedly, delivering these conditions – especially a level playing field – is difficult on an international scale, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Strategic competition is a different story. After all, there are powerful dual-use technologies – often emerging from non-defense sectors – that advance both economic and national-security objectives.

Leaders should not pretend this is not the case.

But that, too, does not mean countries are condemned to play a zero-sum game, focused on making (or keeping) others weak. Instead, China and the West should agree to achieve and preserve a degree of economic, technological, and defense parity. This means abandoning efforts to block the diffusion of knowledge and technology – an enterprise that is rarely effective in the long run.

Such an approach would avoid greater fragmentation of the global economic system,which is particularly damaging to third parties. And it would deter offensive use of military or technological capabilities – vital in an environment where neither side trusts the other.

When we assume that our own preferred system is objectively superior, and demonize alternatives, we end up mis-framing the terms and likely outcomes of economic and strategic competition. Worse, competition over governance distracts from more productive dimensions of interdependence.

Leaders’

MEETING POINT

JOHN PEARSON, CEO of DHL Express

NIKOS ZOIS, Managing Director, HEINEKEN Srbija

SERBIAN EXPORTS & TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

How The Pandemic Brought The Best Out Of DHL Express

Safety Comes First!

Clear & Unequivocal Change For The Better

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JOHN PEARSON, CEO OF DHL EXPRESS

How The Pandemic Brought The Best Out Of DHL Express For many years now, DHL has invested in defining and communicating our ‘purpose’ as a company. It was some 10 years ago that we coined our own mantra: Connecting people, improving lives. It’s simple and upbeat, but most of all it underscores our collective belief that logistics and global trade improve the prosperity of nations and improve the lives of blue-collar workers in those countries.

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t is said that “no plan survives contact with the enemy”. Our plan and our purpose met a formidable challenge with the arrival of the pandemic. On paper, we faced a serious threat to our business

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and our ability to serve our customers.

Global supply chains were interrupted, air traffic came to a standstill in many countries; border controls sprung up around the world; lockdowns confined people to their homes. No one knew what was around each corner.

I have often adhered to the principle that a quick decision is often a bad decision, and one should not be pressured by fictional deadlines. This situation was different, and from talking and thinking as a team it quickly became clear that it was necessary to change work routines and processes almost overnight. Communication became critical and we had to tailor and translate messages to our employees in 220 countries and territories. We had to ensure protection against the virus and deal with the prospect of downsizing. We resolved to introduce a radically changed environment.

We somehow squeezed four years of technological advancement into four months. Departments like HR and IT had previously often been known as ‘support’

functions. We had to move 9,000 laptops into homes as employees made the transition to their new workplace. Under these circumstances, my suspicion that there is no such thing as support functions was confirmed: we’re all on the frontline and we never missed a moment when we weren’t fully connected to our customers, or in fact more connected than ever before.

At one moment we were delivering PPE to China from around the world and then, within a matter of weeks, the direction shifted and it was to move PPE from China to the world. We helped to safeguard the existence of brands that had to suddenly close their physical stores and shift their business online. How tough would life have been if people had stopped receiving packages? There would have been no DIY, no gardening, no books, no sports gear, not to mention vaccines, medical supplies or spare parts for vehicles.

It became apparent within weeks that our business remained very strong and that our customers needed us more than ever. We found that we were able to fulfil

those needs, because our employees were willing to adapt in a crisis. Connecting people, improving lives - never before had this been more relevant than during the pandemic: never before has it been more recognised internally and externally. This simple, memorable idea cut through and became a much more commonly known and widely used part of our own lexicon.

Our strategy was able to evolve with the changing circumstances, as we came up with a way to think about the company and a way to talk about the company that our teams could apply to make their own decisions. During the darkest days, our investment in communicating and clarifying our purpose over many years paid off.

Thankfully, we were not an executive board of ten advocating what to do, rather we had 110,000 advocates for what we needed to do. Our purpose gave us the momentum we needed to adapt. The concept of “influence a thousand” came to mind.

The pandemic proved our resilience.

We operate across 220 countries and territories. With operations on a global scale, there will always be natural or political disruptions of some kind going on somewhere every week. We have to deal with that. As a company, we have to be optimistic about a swift recovery from the pandemic – in the same way as we got through the Icelandic ash cloud of 2010 and the great Recession of 2008.

This would pass in the same way.

Like so many other frontline and essential services, we helped secure livelihoods, delivered health and joy, enabled growth and kept supply chains running.

It wasn’t difficult for our employees to see the impact they were having. For our people, this was a source of tremendous pride and meaning. This was reflected in our annual Employee Opinion Survey, conducted among all employees. It shows that employee engagement jumped from 77% in 2019 to 82% in 2020.

The benefits of maintaining global connections have become even more tangible than ever before. Vaccine development itself is a great example of globalisation at its best. It wouldn’t have been possible

without the global division of labour and global exchanges of knowledge.

Now that vaccine production is ramping up, the distribution of vaccines depends crucially on global logistics. We have to date distributed more than 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 120 countries. This is an excellent example of our purpose (and globalisation) in action.

The distribution of vaccines is not just essential to our customers and the world.

We know that trade can soothe tensions between nations and create bonds of fellowship. If companies like ours succeed in engaging and empowering our employees, that will provide a template for governments and society as a whole It’s also motivating for our employees: they feel part of something, their families show pride in them, and they are thrilled when they see our planes arrive and the distribution process start.

But our purpose is not just a feature of work life. We want our employees to be active citizens in helping the towns, villages and communities where they live.

Our ‘Go’ programmes support the efforts of our employees to make a contribution to wider society.

Whether that means making it easier to trade across borders, (GoTrade), giving young people the opportunity to learn

new skills (GoTeach), preparing for the logistical challenges of natural disasters (GoHelp) or ensuring business success is compatible with environmental protection (GoGreen), we have initiatives to get employees involved in causes that drive them. We’ve also launched DHL’s Got Heart – a way that colleagues can draw attention to the charities they support or set up ways to back good causes through their own initiative.

International collaboration can counter the forces of nationalism and protectionism that threaten the flow of trade. Alibaba’s Jack Ma puts it succinctly, ‘If trade stops, war starts’. Corporate work cultures can offer a model for societies, showing how commerce can transcend religious and cultural differences and be inclusive of many nationalities and languages.

We know that trade can soothe tensions between nations and create bonds of fellowship. If companies like ours succeed in engaging and empowering our employees, that will provide a template for governments and society as a whole.

It’s sometimes hard to find the words to say what we mean when we talk about purpose. But I found that you don’t always need to. Remember the song Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel?

During the pandemic, we used this song and the lyrics to complement some of our communications. It was memorable. It caught the mood. And it conveyed a message. It said everything we needed to say about how we needed to maximise our collective effort to overcome setbacks during those difficult days. We’re proud that we did what we could to calm the troubled waters.

Final thoughts: the purpose of any company and organisation should be aligned with what it is they do, where they operate, what industry they are in, what assets they have and where their employees live. What matters is how you “connect” locally and, at the end of the day, your own example is the best example and your employees will be proud, and justifiably so, given that it is them carrying the torch.

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LOCAL NEWS

“After three years at the head of the Managing Board, I am proud of the results achieved and the fact that we have fulfilled 98% of the goals from NALED’s strategic development plan” – VLADIMIR NOVAKOVIĆ, OUTGOING PRESIDENT OF THE NALED BOARD

SERBIA ATTRACTED $3.4 BILLION FDI IN 2020 In Serbia FDI inflow reached $3.4 billion, in the previous year and it placed the country at third position regarding attracted FDI among economies in transition, right behind the Russian Federation ($9,7 billion) and Kazakhstan ($3,4 billion), according to the newly published UNCTAD “World Investment Report 2021”.

The Report states that South-East Europe had around $6 billion FDI in total, which indicates that more than half of the FDI of the region in 2020 came to Serbia.

NALED MEMBERS ELECT NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND REFORM PRIORITIES UNTIL 2025 The new Board of Directors of NALED in the next four years will be led by Stanka Pejanović (Hisense), Igor Vukašinović (Apatin Brewery), Svetislav Atanasov (Coca-Cola), Goran Kovačević (Gomex) and Vladislav Cvetković (PwC) in front of members from the economy. Representatives of local self-governments will be Nikola Dašić (Kragujevac), Goran Cvetanović (Leskovac) and Nikola Vučen (Smederevska Palanka), and the civil sector Tijana Gajić (Pexim Foundation), decided the members of NALED at the 15th annual and 8th election assembly of the organization, whose formal session was held at the Hyatt Hotel.

USAID AND ICT HUB PARTNER TO SPUR INNOVATION IN SERBIA As published in the analysis, SouthEast Europe has faced decrees in FDI inflow by 14% compared to the previous year, although to a far lesser extent than in the CIS and Georgia (-64 percent, to $18 billion).

ICT Hub and the U.S. Agency for International development (USAID) officially launched the “Serbia Innovates” project, its partners Public policy research centre and WMEP, to representatives of SMEs, start-upe and academia, investors, the government and non-governmental sector, in order to encourage them to work together in designing an innovation friendly environment in Serbia that will accelerate economic development in the most promising industries. The first phase of the project showcases massive research that identifies the most promising domains for innovations in Serbia.

EUROBANK AND MANCHESTER UNITED CONTINUE THEIR LONG-STANDING COOPERATION The football club and the bank continue their partnership for the seventh year in a row. Eurobank signed a new agreement on cooperation with Manchester United, a globally renowned football club, and thus continued the successful partnership established in 2014.

Thanks to this collaboration, Eurobank clients can become owners of co-branded debit, credit and prepaid payment cards with the Manchester United logo. In addition to standard functionalities, such as contact-free transactions and online payments, owners of these cards also have the option of participating in numerous promo campaigns with valuable prizes, including a visit to the Old Trafford Stadium.

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“The Serbian economy is based on Corridor X, and we must go beyond that. By reaching 99 local self-governments, we have fulfilled one of the goals of European integration” – SEM FABRIZI, HEAD OF THE DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN SERBIA

VLADIMIR BOŠKOVIĆ, NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF SBERBANK SERBIA

Placements postings

&

appointments@aim.rs

Vladimir Bošković, a seasoned senior executive and current executive board member in charge of corporate banking and global markets, will be appointed new Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank Serbia as of 1st August 2021. Bošković will succeed Marijana Vasilescu, who is taking on a new business challenge within the Sberbank Europe Group and will take on the position of Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank Czech Republic, with the same effective date. Bošković joined Sberbank Serbia in 2014, as director of the sector for small and medium-sized enterprises. He was appointed executive board member in charge of corporate banking and global markets in 2018, taking on the responsibility to substantially improve the quality of the bank’s corporate loan portfolio while building one of the largest cross-border loan portfolios on the Serbian market. Bošković is able to call on his 15 years of experience in the banking sector, having previously held various leading functions at Raiffeisenbank and Credit Agricole in Serbia.

COUNCIL OF CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES WITH A FAVOURABLE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IS ESTABLISHED The mayors and presidents of 25 local governments from Serbia signed a solemn charter on the establishment of the Council of Municipalities and Cities with a Favourable Business Environment (BFC Club) and ccepted the obligation to work together to improve conditions or local businesses. These are local governments, which, by successfully passing the Certification of Municipalities with Favourable Business Environment in Southeast Europe (BFC SEE) programme, have gained confirmation that they provide services according to the highest international standards. The BFC club also includes cities and municipalities that are currently in the process of certification, and seven more have decided to enter the process and join the new, seventh working body of NALED.

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NIKOS ZOIS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HEINEKEN SRBIJA

Safety Comes First!

HEINEKEN Srbija actively operates at two breweries in the country. Its brewery in Zaječar is proud of its longstanding tradition and brewing expertise that dates back to 1895, while its Novi Sad brewery is one of the region’s most technologically advanced breweries tradition and brewing expertise that dates back to 1895, the Novi Sad brewery is one of the most technologically advanced breweries in the region.

All the policies and standards that exist within HEINEKEN have been introduced and implemented in our local company, and these policies and standards are indeed

We are committed to the environment, social sustainability and responsible consumption, on a path to a net zero, fairer and healthier world

H

EINEKEN Srbija strives to contribute to the community in which it operates with the highest quality standards, respect for human rights and protection of the environment with every move and project. And that will certainly continue to be its path in the future HEINEKEN has two breweries in Serbia. Do they apply all the procedures and standards of the parent company, which are often stricter than those prescribed by European regulations?

HEINEKEN Srbija is a brewer in Serbia that actively operates at two breweries, one in Novi Sad and the other in Zaječar. While the brewery in Zaječar is proud of its longstanding

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often even stricter than those specified by European regulations. Our Novi Sad and Zaječar breweries have both obtained the most prestigious international certificates for quality, business operations, production, organisation and environmental protection, such as ISO 9001, food safety policy FSSC 22000, environmental protection policy ISO 14001 and health and safety policy ISO45001.

In everything that we do, we always place our health and safety, as well as that of our families, consumers and partners, above everything else. Each and all of us do everything that we can, both personally and professionally, to take the best care of ourselves and all the people with whom we cooperate. Our goal is clear: safety comes first!

It seems that caring for the community in which you operate and the environment is not seen as a legal obligation, but as a company mission. Does the impression deceive us?

Transparency in daily work and communication, respect for the individual, local community and society, passion for quality and social responsibility represent the core values of our company.

As an integral part of the communities in which we operate, we establish, develop and maintain strong relationships not only with the towns where our breweries are located, but also with all other towns and cities, with the goal of maintaining traditional values and benefiting the quality and standard of life for all citizens and our employees.

We take care and nurture our local product and can proudly say that our Zajecarsko is bearer of the trademark Čuvarkuća, designed and supported by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, as a product made of raw materials of local origin.

Over the last ten years, HEINEKEN Srbija has invested around 200 million euros in this beautiful country, including investments in our breweries, processes and the improving of standards, but also many corporate social responsibility projects. Just to mention some of the latest contributions we did.

When the COVID outbreak started, at the very beginning, we donated 100,000 euros for the procurement of additional respirators for people affected all around Serbia, while through our Zaječarsko brand, together with our consumers, we provided 100,000 free meals for vulnerable Serbian citizens, in cooperation with the country’s Food Bank.

All our employees joined the campaign and

personally donated additional food for people in need in Zaječar, Novi Sad and Belgrade.

The “Brew a Better World” programme, which is multi-layered and multidimensional, has entered the second decade of its existence. What messages does it carry?

Over the past decade, ‘Brew a Better World’ has had a profound impact on our business. In close alignment with our stakeholders, we have developed a strategy that is that is so simple, that it fits on a coaster but concise, including all the relevant priorities and challenging but achievable goals. ‘Brew a Better World’ remains our foundation and the task we set for ourselves and in working with others.

‘Raise the Bar 2030’ reflects the increased ambition of our new action plan.

HEINEKEN Srbija follows and respects the global sustainability agenda, but is always observing through the lens of the local context, as well as identifying the greatest needs of the local communities where we operate.

We are committed to the environment, social sustainability and responsible consumption on a path to a net zero, fairer and healthier world.

We are committed to achieving carbon neutrality in production by 2030 and in our full value chain by 2040, with zero wasteto-landfill by 2025.

When it comes to our people, we will maintain equal pay and fair wages for all our employees and are committed to achieving 30% female leaders in senior management by 2025 and 40% by 2030, on the path to gender balance.

In order to provide choice and moderation, in Serbia we offer all our consumers three zero-alcohol options through Heineken 0.0, Laško 0.0 and Laško Malt Mix 0.0, while we establish strong partnerships on responsible consumption and further improve them every year, thus reaching as many consumers as possible with messages of responsible consumption.

How does your company, which has been investing huge funds to improve wastewater treatment and control systems for a long time, view this issue?

Water is crucial to beer production. It is the main ingredient of the finished product, but it is also used during the entire supply chain, including in the growth and cultivation of crops. Through our sustainability programme and different initiatives, we are focused on the protection of water resources. A comprehensive programme called “Every drop counts” is built on three

principles of water conservation: efficient use of water (using as little water as possible); application of the circular economy principle in water use (water purification and reuse); and responsible water manage-

HEINEKEN Srbija has reduced water consumption within its processes by 75% over the last decade

ment (basin maintenance to absorb more atmospheric water).

Heineken Srbija has reduced water consumption within its processes by 75% over the last decade and strives to maintain this trend year on year.

The water used for the entire process of our beer production is ultimately released into nature, but in a strictly controlled way, through a wastewater treatment plant - a special plant for industrial water treatment that has the function of purifying water

and rendering it safe for the environment before its final release into nature.

What is meant by the term “inclusion & diversity”, which you often use? What message are you sending with this term?

As a global company with operations in over 70 markets, we are multicultural and have integrated I&D into our people plans, talent management strategies, employee engagement and everyday operations.

Although beer might be seen as mostly a man’s drink and job, we are very proud of all our strong and dedicated female colleagues, who comprise close to 40% of our leadership team and we will continue to expand it!

Inclusion and diversity must be combined and it is all about the fact that everyone feels that they can express themselves, their thoughts and concerns without any doubt or fear. We are all equal at our job and we nurture the environment with strong bonds among us, all aiming at achieving fairness and respecting everybody’s integrity.

As of 2020, you have more than 130 nonalcoholic product variants in your portfolio.

Will you continue to invest in this area; do you think this is the direction to go in the future?

Changes in drinking behaviour, healthier lifestyles and the simple desire for more choice and variety have all contributed to the rise of the low- and no-alcohol drinks.

This drives our companies to innovate continuously in the area of low- and noalcohol (LONO) drinks, in order to provide a growing variety of LONO brands.

Heineken 0.0 is a non-alcoholic beer made according to a unique recipe that’s recognisable for its balanced taste of barley malt and fruit notes, and is aimed at responsible consumption even on occasions such as lunch during working hours, when participating sports or fitness, or before driving. Heineken 0.0 was selected as the product of the year 2021 in the category of non-alcoholic beer, based on Serbian consumer experience.

We are genuinely inspired by our consumers and very excited that we can offer them a choice in every situation and at every moment.

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“We shouldn’t have the G7 dictating what tax rate we have in our country” – TADEUSZ KOSCINSKI, MINISTER OF FINANCE OF POLAND

REGIONAL NEWS

EIB INVESTS IN SAFER AIR TRAFFIC ON KEY AIR CORRIDORS OVER THE WESTERN BALKANS The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend €10.3 million to Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services SMATSA Llc (SMATSA), which manages air traffic over the two countries. The corridors controlled by SMATSA are key regional, European and global air routes used by tens of millions of passengers and cargo operators from across the globe.

The EIB funds will enable SMATSA to upgrade the reliability and interoperability of its air traffic control services and align them with the Single European Sky (SES) regulations, an EU-level policy introduced to better connect Europe by offering a single regulatory framework for air transport.

The investment will improve connectivity across Europe and increase the quality of core air transport infrastructure and services, contributing to more efficient regional travel. This will support further integration of the Western Balkans with the European Union.

BANOVINA MOTORWAY DELAYED AGAIN DUE TO PUBLIC TENDER APPEALS The Banovina motorway, often referred to as the Banovina ‘’rescue’’ motorway has seen progress delayed once again following appeals launched. As Novac/Vedran Marjanovic writes, Croatian Motorways has just announced the receipt of an appeal against the public procurement tender for the selection of a contractor for the construction of a 300 million kuna section of the Zagreb-Sisak motorway, known as the Banovina motorway. ‘’The appeal filed against the change of procurement documentation prevents the continuation of public procurement,’’ HAC said on the occasion of a new appeal being launched against the tender for the completion of the Zagreb-Sisak highway, more specifically for the section of the A11 highway from Lekenik to Sisak.

OVER 400,000 PERSONS UNEMPLOYED IN BIH In April 2021, the number of persons in paid employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina was 813,454, out of which there were 349, 803 women. As compared to March 2021, the number of persons in paid employment increased by 0,3% and the number of employed women decreased by 0,4%, according to the press release issued by BiH Agency for Statistics in June.

In April 2021, the number of registered unemployed in BiH amounted to 402,146, out of which there were 230, 348 women.

As compared to March 2021, the number of registered unemployed decreased by 1,1% (number of men decreased by 1,5% and women by 0,8%). As compared to April 2020, the number of registered unemployed decreased by 4,2% (number of men decreased by 4,3% and women by 4,1%).

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“We should be given the right to make our own sovereign decisions on the taxation of substantial economic activities performed on our territory.

Therefore, a tax increase is not supported by the government in the case of companies with substantial economic activity” – MIHÁLY VARGA, MINISTER OF FINANCE OF HUNGARY

BANK OF ALBANIA UNVEILS NEW LEK 10,000 BANKNOTE The portrait of renowned poet and at the same time author of the national anthem of Albania, Aleksander Stavre Drenova, known by his pen name Asdreni, will be featured on the new Lek 10,000 banknotes, which will enter into circulation, on June 30th, the Bank of Albania (BoA) announced Tuesday.

The new Lek 10,000 is the highest value Albanian banknote. Some of the design elements of the new denomination were made public before

by BoA, but the complete design was unveiled for the public along with the improved Lek 1,000 denomination. The new 10,000 note has the portrait of Asdreni in the obverse and its color is red. The dimension of the note is 160 mm x 72 mm. The reverse design includes the national flag and a verse of the national anthem.

MONTENEGRO GETTING EUROPEAN HELP TO REFINANCE ITS MASSIVE CHINA DEBT The Montenegrin government is financing a highway with a €1 billion loan from a state-run Chinese bank. Now it’s facing problems trying to repay the first installment due in July.

A European financial institution is prepared to help refinance Montenegro’s $1 billion debt to China, which the Balkan country incurred over a controversial highway project.

Montenegrin Finance Minister Milojko Spajic said the low-interest credit from the financial institution will allow the cash-strapped government make savings and cut interest rates. He also told a session of the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee on 17 June that a nondisclosure agreement prevented him from revealing the lender, but that talks were “in the final phase.” According to RFE/RL, European Union source said that an agreement on providing credit is in the process of being finalized and, once finished, will be signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

STANDARD & POOR’S CONFIRMED CREDIT RATING OUTLOOK OF BULGARIA AS STABLE The American Credit Rating Agency S&P Global Ratings has confirmed the long-term and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Bulgaria at ‘BBB/A-2’, the country‘s rating remains stable, the Finance Ministry reported. According to the rating agency, the contraction of Bulgaria’s economy has so far been relatively insignificant, mainly due to sustainable domestic demand. The slow pace of vaccination and the potential surge of the COVID-19 pandemic could trigger a slower-thanexpected recovery in external demand, which would negatively affect the expected recovery in 2022.

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SERBIAN EXPORTS & TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

Clear & Unequivocal Change For The Better Serbian exports of high and medium technological complexity products are growing at an above-average rate. This is particularly true for high-tech products, with the value of exports having grown almost 15fold over the course of 15 years. The accelerated process of closing the gap with other countries of the region suggests that Serbia, as a country that used to be home to industries with low value-added activities, will be able to reposition itself.

I

van Nikolić, editor of the journal Macroeconomic Analyses and Trends, recently published analysis showing that the technological intensiveness of Serbian exports is changing in the desired direction, and that the pace of technological convergence has been very favourable over past years.

The methodological framework of this analysis relies on the method of compar-

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ing classified exports with the commodity groups of the Standard International Trade Classification - SITC, rev. 4, as well as the degree of technological complexity applied

by UN foreign trade statistics. For EU countries, the values of exports in the observed years were taken from the database of EUROSTAT, while for Serbian exports this analysis used the database of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.

The major findings are as follows: • Serbia’s chronically unfavourable export structure, following the rapid deterioration of the 1990s, as well as the stagnation and modest progress achieved after the year 2000, finally improved considerably over the course of the past year.

The improved quality of industrial output ensures exports of commodities that are more competitive, technologically more advanced and increasingly valuable.

• Serbia’s commodity exports at year’s end 2020 were worth 17,051.9 million euros, which is 13,443.6 million euros higher, or 4.73 times more, than in 2005.

No other country encompassed by this survey was more successful (Table 1) in this regard. For example, Poland registered 3.3-fold growth of exports and Bulgaria 3.03-fold. Bulgaria experienced a ‘rebirth’ in the same period, increasing its exports by 2.8 times.

• In Serbia, exports of products of high and medium technological complexity are growing at an above-average rate. Within this group, this refers in particular to exports of high-tech products, where the value of exports grew almost 15-fold in fifteen years (from a value of 77.4 million euros in 2005, exports of these products reached a value of 1,159.5 million euros last year).

• The accelerated process of closing the gap with other countries of the region is, in this sense, clear and unequivocal (Table 2). The extent of this process is such that it even enables a light projection of Serbia’s repositioning in the near future, with our country having even surpassed some others in terms of the value of commodity exports. For example, Serbia today exports around 15% more products of a high and medium technological value than Croatia, while this neighbouring country’s exports of these products were five times higher just fifteen years ago.

The authors of this analysis emphasise that convergence is the primary goal of the EU’s cohesive policy, which is achieved through an accelerated process of catching up with the economies of the least developed countries and regions, as well as the improving of conditions for growth and employment.

• The aforementioned dynamics are reflected directly in the technological restructuring of Serbian exports. Exports of high and medium technological complexity products today accounts for exactly a third of Serbia’s total exports.

Just fifteen years ago, these exports accounted for a mere 13.5%, with which Serbia could not match any European economy. It should be noted that the most successful countries in transition (Hungary, Slovenia, Czechia, Poland) already had a very favourable technological structure of exports at the turn of the millennium, with that structure having continued to exist over the subsequent two decades.

• Serbia has a high degree of production concentration in exports of the hightech group, while it could be said that concentration in exports of products of medium technological complexity is close to the average in the observed countries.

Three out of the 18 products that form the high-tech group generate 72.2% of this group’s exports. These products have generated as much as three quarters of the growth of this group’s total value since 2005.

Table 1. Multiplication of the value of merchandise exports in the period 2005-2020 (the value of exports expressed in EUR) Total exports

Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

Export of HighTech products

SERBIA

4,73

11,71

14,97

BULGARIA

3,03

4,69

4,75

CZECH REPUBLIC

2,67

3,11

3,98

GERMANY

1,55

1,53

1,63

CROATIA

2,12

1,96

2,42

HUNGARY

2,08

2,22

1,87

POLAND

3,29

3,36

6,83

ROMANIA

2,78

5,39

5,43

SLOVENIA

2,53

2,42

3,17

Table 2. Speed of catching up on the absolute value of merchandise exports ie. how many times was the value of their exports higher than in Serbia, in the observed years?

2005

2010

2015

2019

2020

BULGARIA

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

2,56

2,10

1,90

1,70

1,64

3,59

2,18

1,37

1,47

1,44

CZECH REPUBLIC

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

17,40

13,57

11,83

10,14

9,83

68,46

39,14

20,39

18,99

18,19

GERMANY

Total merchandise exports 216,29 128,44 99,33 75,87 70,82 Export of High-Tech and Me918,30 371,57 171,84 132,99 119,73 dium-Tech products

CROATIA

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

1,96

1,20

0,97

0,88

0,88

5,08

2,35

0,91

0,88

0,85

HUNGARY

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

14,02

9,74

7,38

6,31

6,17

58,22

28,50

13,17

11,42

11,05

POLAND

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

19,92

16,30

14,91

13,58

13,89

61,12

35,04

18,60

17,33

17,54

ROMANIA

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

6,17

5,06

4,54

3,92

3,62

12,37

11,31

6,11

6,08

5,69

SLOVENIA

Total merchandise exports Export of High-Tech and Medium-Tech products

4,29

2,98

2,39

2,29

2,30

14,21

6,92

3,18

3,08

2,94

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“There will be other rivals to what we’re doing, and they’ll be doing things slightly differently than we’re doing it, and we’ll be doing it slightly differently to them” – SIR RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER OF THE VIRGIN GROUP AND VIRGIN GALACTIC

WORLD NEWS

TESLA TO ‘RECALL’ NEARLY 300,000 CHINA-MADE MODEL 3 AND MODEL Y VEHICLES Chinese regulators said Tesla would ‘recall’ nearly 300,000 China-made and imported Model 3 and Model Y cars for an online software update related to assisted driving, with owners not required to return their vehicles.

The State Administration for Market Regulation said on its website that the move is linked to an assisted driving function in the electric cars, which can currently be activated by drivers accidentally, causing sudden acceleration.

IBM UNVEILS FIRST QUANTUM COMPUTER IN GERMANY It is Germany’s first quantum computer, and it is capable of bending the laws of physics and computing in order to work. IBM hopes to have a quantum computer that is 37 times faster in two years.

IBM unveiled one of Europe’s most powerful quantum computers during an event at its German headquarters.

IBM said the Q System One was “Europe’s most powerful quantum computer in the industrial context.”

The quantum computer is to be housed in Ehningen, which is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Stuttgart. It will be operated by Germany’s Fraunhofer research institute. It is the company’s first quantum computer in use outside of the US.

CHINA’S FIRST SELFOPERATED 1,500M DEEPWATER GAS FIELD STARTS PRODUCTION Deep Sea No1, China’s first self-operated 1,500-meter deep-water gas field, started production on Friday, according to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The operation of the gas field, 150 km off the city of Sanya in South China’s island province of Hainan, marks the country’s capability of ultra deep-water drilling for oil and gas, compared with the 300-meter depth previously, said the CNOOC. Production at the gas field, detected in 2014, is of great significance to ensuring national energy security, optimizing the country’s energy structure and promoting regional economic development, said the CNOOC.

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“The difference between people who achieve their dreams and those who don’t is simple. It’s about action. It’s not about having a ton of brains, a ton of money or a ton of experience” – SARA BLAKELY, SPANX FOUNDER AND CEO

EU ENDORSES SPAIN’S RECOVERY PLANS More details have been released about the Next Generation EU funding for Spain of 69.5 billion euros that was announced. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed details about the support, which is based on Spain’s recovery and resilience plan, outlining its response to the pandemic.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) will disburse the funding over the period 2021–2026. A total of 672.5 billion euros will support investments and reforms across the EU, with Spain receiving the second largest amount of funding, behind Italy.

The country is actually set to receive 140 billion euros over the period 2021-2026 – half in direct payments, half in loans, after the entire EU’s economy buckled under lockdown restrictions, job losses and reduced consumer spending.

J&J CONFIRMS OPIOID BUSINESS HAS ENDED IN $230 MIL SETTLEMENT WITH NEW YORK Johnson & Johnson has agreed to a $230 million settlement with New York state that bars the company from promoting opioids and confirmed it has ended distribution of such products within the United States.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office in a statement said the agreement bans J&J from promoting opioids through any means and prohibits lobbying about such products at the federal, state or local levels.

Johnson & Johnson has not marketed opioids in the U.S. since 2015 and fully discontinued the business in 2020. As part of the settlement, the company will resolve opioids-related claims and allocate payments over nine years.

GAZPROM BEHIND LARGEST INDUSTRIAL METHANE LEAK SINCE 2019 Gazprom has admitted responsibility for the world’s largest methane pipeline leak in almosttwo years, Bloomberg reported.

Russia’s largest gas company said 2.7 million cubic meters of methane were emitted during emergency repairs to a gas pipeline in Russia’s central Tatarstan republic.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas which scientists say results in a much more immediate and short-term impact on global temperatures than carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. While CO2 emissions can stay in the atmosphere for centuries, the Scientific American science journal has described methane as “warming the planet on steroids for a decade or two” — during which time it can be up to 86 times more harmful than CO2.

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Enterpreneur

How An Ex-Semipro Poker Player Bet Big And Won The

$4.3 Trillion Mortgage Market

NIMA GHAMSARI Nima Ghamsari and his Blend Labs weaned the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders off of paper—and just in time to prevent a pandemic meltdown.

A

mong the big surprises of the pandemic economy was the housing boom. As fleeing city dwellers and cramped workfrom-home families bid up the price of spacious suburban homes, rock-bottom interest rates enticed existing homeowners to refinance in record numbers. By the end of last year, 13.6 million mortgages worth $4.3 trillion had been closed, shattering the previous all-time record of $3.7 trillion in 2003. It was a miraculous feat, considering that most of that lending was done while in-person meetings were taboo and overworked loan officers operated from ad hoc home offices as their dogs barked and children fidgeted through remote classes.

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Truth is, the mortgage market probably would have melted down were it not for a secret weapon: Nima Ghamsari, a 35-year-old Iranian immigrant who made hundreds of thousands of dollars playing poker online while at Stanford; joined secretive bigdata startup Palantir Technologies upon graduation; and then, at just 26, quit that dream job to start his own software company, Blend Labs, in 2012. “I have always felt like I wanted to bet on myself. I’m willing to take a lot of risk,” he says matter-of-factly.

Though invisible to ordinary borrowers and comparatively low-profile in its Silicon Valley home, Blend has had a staggering impact. It now provides digital infrastructure to 287 U.S. banks, including such big

mortgage lenders as Wells Fargo and First Republic Bank. In 2020, Blend software was used to process $1.4 trillion in mortgage and consumer loans, up nearly threefold from the prior year. Its staff grew to 750 from 425 before the pandemic. Blend’s revenue doubled last year to about $100 million, Forbes estimates.

Thanks in no small part to Blend, the mortgage application, underwriting and closing process—once a weeks- or months-long slog of paperwork, emails, faxes and phone calls—can now be done almost entirely digitally. Blend saves an average of 7.3 days and $520 in operational costs per loan and allows a typical banker to close 14 mortgages a month, consultancy MarketWise Advisors estimates. Blend seamlessly

integrates with CoreLogic for credit scores, Plaid to check on bank accounts and Google Maps for location data. This enables some banks to offer home hunters quick tentative mortgage approvals with a few mouse clicks—a huge plus in a white-hot housing market.

“We all got stressed last year with the crush of volume,” says Tom Wind, president of US Bank Home Mortgage, one of Blend’s largest customers.

“We were able to serve more customers last year because of efficiencies we have with Blend.” In 2020, US Bank saw a 136% increase in mortgage fee revenue without having to increase staff.

Ghamsari and Blend have produced results by bucking convention on Sand Hill Road. Instead of seeking to disrupt the banks (a common fintech goal), he decided to retrofit them, charging for the service.

His rationale: He wouldn’t have to waste time and money on consumer marketing and could potentially make financial services easier to access for 100 million consumers instead of maybe a million or two.

In January, fresh off its banner year, Blend raised $300 million from blue-chip investors including Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management at a $3.3 billion valuation,

doubling its worth in a span of five months. In April, Blend filed confidential documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a possible initial public offering, which (given that Blend has an incentive-laden compensation structure similar to Tesla’s) could launch Ghamsari on the road to billionaire status—if Blend performs well. There are whispers that SPACs have shown interest in merging with Blend at double its latest valuation, though Ghamsari won’t comment.

Blend is a standout on this year’s Forbes’Fintech 50, which celebrates private startups transforming financial services. Twenty of the Fintech 50 are new this year, reflecting the energy and record venture capital pouring into the sector, the impact of Covid-19 and the fact that seven of last year’s picks, including crypto exchange Coinbase and Opendoor Technologies, which buys homes quickly for cash, have since gone public. Counting Blend, at least four current members of the Fintech 50 are considering listing on the public markets.

Yet few have had so much impact on ordinary folks’ lives. Since the end of World War II, owning a home has been at the center of the American

Dream—as it was for Ghamsari’s own family. He moved to the U.S. from Iran in 1987 when he was a year old, as his parents pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan and then settled down in Cincinnati, where his dad taught math at the University of Cincinnati and his mother taught chemistry at Xavier University. After years of renting, Ghamsari’s parents were finally approved in 1998 for a low-down-payment mortgage and purchased a no-frills two-story home in Cincinnati for about $100,000. It was the rock their family prospered upon. They later became franchisees of a tutoring company, employing their brainy teenage son to grade and tutor students.

That wasn’t the only way the ambitious Ghamsari kept busy before graduating from high school first in his class. He worked at McDonald’s, Starbucks and Circuit City, rebuilt Dell computers and taught himself to code. At Stanford, a need-based scholarship helped cover tuition, but Ghamsari tried his hand at online poker to help pay for living expenses. Soon, when he wasn’t studying, he was playing day and night, with his winnings extending well into the six figures. “It was my first taste of something where, if I really put a

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Enterpreneur

lot of energy and effort into getting better, how good the outcomes could be over a very long run,” he says.

To make more time for poker, Ghamsari bought a gas-powered golf cart to get around Stanford’s sprawling 8,000-acre campus faster.“I really optimize my time around doing the things that I want to do.

I try to make everything that I don’t want to do be as efficient—ideally nonexistent—as possible,’’ he explains. (Stealing a page from Steve Jobs’ playbook, he has 30 black T-shirts, he says, because “I don’t like spending time thinking about what I’m going to wear.”)

With little regard for the brilliant undergraduate’s precious time, campus police impounded Ghamsari’s forbidden golf cart. “It was totally obnoxious for me to have, in retrospect,’’ he concedes. No matter.

By the time he graduated with a computer science degree in 2008, he had bought an Aston Martin and been recruited by the ultra-secretive big-data startup Palantir Technologies, originally funded by the CIA’s venture arm. He was assigned to Palantir’s push to deploy its software inside America’s thenteetering big banks, whose patchwork, decades-old technology infrastructure gave them a poor grasp of their problematic mortgage exposures. Ghamsari saw up close the massive opportunity to disrupt banks—or to transform them.

“The insight Palantir had was that there was this immense growth in the amount of data being captured by organizations, but there was no way to harness that data for operational things,” he says.

“You had to literally read pieces of paper, because all the data in the mortgage industry at the time was done in an analog way.”

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“Venture capitalists doubted us. I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard them say, ‘This will never work,’ or ‘[banks] won’t actually use it,’ ” Ghamsari recalls Like other employees, Ghamsari had stock options and could have cashed in when Palantir eventually went public in 2020. Instead, in 2012, he and two other young colleagues (former quant trader Rosco Hill and engineer Eugene Marinelli) founded Blend together with Erin Collard, the head trader of billionaire Peter Thiel’s hedge fund,Clarium Capital,to bring new cloud-based technology to the earthbound banks. They gained early backing from Thiel and Max Levchin, now worth $1.4 billion thanks to his newly public fintech, Affirm, which allows people to pay for items in installments. The four founders first worked out of Ghamsari’s cramped San Francisco apartment, until his roommates complained. So they rented a Mission Bay apartment, which they used as offices, hauling sleeping bags into closets for naps during round-the-clock coding sessions.

At first, venture capitalists, focused on fast, disruptive growth, were skeptical of Blend’s approach. Winning business from stodgy banks was uncertain, they warned, and there were only so

many banks to sell to. “Venture capitalists doubted us. I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard them say, ‘This will never work,’ or ‘[banks] won’t actually use it,’ ” Ghamsari recalls.

But changes in the mortgage market eventually played into Ghamsari’s hands. In an effort to cut risk after the 2008 financial crisis, large lenders like Bank of America and Wells Fargo started offloading hundreds of billions in mortgages to third-party servicers. Those servicers needed help managing their massive new portfolios and were more open to getting it from young tech wizards than banks might have been. Early Blend customers included Nationstar Mortgage (now Mr. Cooper), the country’s third-largest mortgage servicer.

Blend’s big break, however, came courtesy of a competitor. In 2015, Dan Gilbert, the Quicken Loans billionaire, launched Rocket Mortgage, which cut mortgage closing times from over 40 days to just a month—similar to what Blend was offering. “Every bank’s board woke up and said,‘Oh, my God, we need to find a solution to compete with this, because if we don’t, we’re going to lose volume to Rocket.’ Blend was one of those answers,” recalls Jeffrey Reitman, a partner at Blend investor Canapi Ventures.

Through the first half of 2017, Blend received just $67 million in outside funding. But after VCs saw it had won Wells Fargo, US Bank and mortgage originator Movement Mortgage as customers, they started calling. In August 2017, Blend raised $100 million at a half-billion-dollar valuation in a round led by Greylock with Emergence Capital, 8VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nyca Partners.

With that cash, Ghamsari was able to add hundreds of smaller banks as customers. He also expanded functionality, giving borrowers the ability to upload documents and banks the ability to manage more of the closing process, as well as the applications process, digitally. In 2019, Blend raised a further $130 million and hired Tim Mayopoulos, the now 62-year-old former CEO of Fannie Mae, as its president, giving it instant credibility with banks and governmentbacked mortgage finance agencies, known in the trade as GSEs. Ghamsari “came and visited me in my office, and he was this scruffy guy in a black T-shirt,’’ Mayopoulos recalls. “But it was clear that he had the same vision about how the system ought to work that I did: It should all be driven by reliable data that gets shared with all the key participants in the process, from the consumer to the lender to the ultimate holder of the credit risk [the GSEs].”

Source: Forbes

PROFILE

Bringing Light to Africa’s Dark Heart My name is Sara, while my Somali colleagues call me Dur-Dur, which means a spring; a source of clean, fast, strong water. Water is precious in Somalia and I’m flattered that my colleagues there saw me as energetic and precious, and as someone who has pure, good intentions.

SARA PETROVSKI, SENIOR ANALYST

I

do a job that’s a combination of scientific research, analysis, investigation, humanitarian work and expert consulting. My expertise is related to the countries of the Horn of Africa, primarily Somalia, and the countries of the African Great Lakes region (Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda), mostly the Congo, as well as the countries that have a strong political, military, financial and geostrategic impact on them. The large and intertwined topics that I deal with include armed groups, conflicts, (in)stability and security structures, refugees, resource exploitation, terrorism, interstate relations, ethnicities and clans.

In Somalia I was tasked with researching the potential of local state and parastate military structures in the fight against the Al-Shabaab Islamist terrorist organisation. Prior to that, I’d spent two years in Eastern Congo, which is one of

the world’s most unstable regions, where armed conflicts, civilian massacres, kidnappings, robberies, murders and mass rapes have been daily occurrences for three decades already. As a country that is extremely fertile and rich in gold, diamonds, copper, uranium or the much sought-after coltan – a component of all electronic devices and mobile phones – but also water, wood, gas and rubber, it is battered the most, apart from by poverty and disease, by the conflicting interests of many regional, international and local actors who realise their interests through more than 150 different armed groups.

Under the framework of the five-member intelligence team of the UN peacekeeping mission, my job in Congo was to map and classify these paramilitary groups, investigate their motivations, sources of funding, accomplices, personnel, weapons and warfare methods, with the aim of protecting civilians, but also international military forces and our people.

The data and knowledge collected from the field are cross-checked, directed through a thorough methodological ‘cleansing’ and contextualised, in order to plausibly predict future developments and provide recommendations. They serve decision-makers (governments, agencies, the EU) in creating and implementing more meaningful and effective policies aimed at empowering societies and individuals, better distributing aid and supporting peace initiatives or the

struggle against terrorism.

I’m currently working on capacity building for the countries of the African Great Lakes region to be able to permanently and sustainably address refugee issues in their countries. I coordinate a platform that brings together ten major international humanitarian organisations and I hope that - thanks to a detailed analysis of the situation, problems and obstacles, the mapping of capacities and examples of good practice in all five countries, as well as intensive diplomatic efforts – we will succeed in guiding their policies and directly easing the lives of millions of refugees around the region.

I also had a local nickname while I was in the Congo: muzungu, which means white woman in Swahili, as children in remote places that could only be reached by helicopter used to call me, while following me through the village as if I’d come from Mars, as they’d never seen a woman with different coloured skin before. And when I was leaving my colleagues told me that I was, perhaps, a muzungu, but that my heart was most certainly - Congolese.

And, indeed, how can someone understand what’s happening somewhere if they don’t love that country and don’t love and understand its people? In my work, I rely immensely on my local teams, on local researchers and investigators whose knowledge, experience and resilience are both my greatest inspiration and support.

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Art

Street art

APPLAUSE, 2006

Banksy is an anonymous street artist (real name unknown, obviously) whose work has primarily cropped up across the UK since the early 1990s.

He came up as a member of Bristol’s DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), working as a freehand graffiti artist before switching to his signature, stencilled style.

The 6 Most Iconic Works

by Banksy 44

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B

anksy is less of an artist than a global phenomenon. He’s an anonymous graffiti superhero whose identity is endlessly debated by armchair conspiracy theorists; a political gadfly, weighing in on everything from the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Brexit; and pure art-market gold, with recent work selling at auction for upwards of $1 million.

“He speaks for a generation,” said Maeve Doyle, artistic director of London’s Maddox Gallery. She’s fascinated by the way Banksy—once a sort of creative outlaw—has now been fully embraced by the straightlaced establishment. “As with everything in the art world, counterculture eventually becomes mainstream,” she said. But such populism isn’t always a bad thing. “If you go to Mexico, mechanics will know Banksy,” Doyle continued. “It’s wonderful.”

Banksy’s career has been marked by experimentation, risk, and a daring playfulness. His stencil-heavy motifs—of rats, cops, and kids with balloons—have simply become part of a shared cultural vocabulary, reproduced (and ripped off ) with abandon. While it’s exceedingly difficult to narrow down a handful of works that define his aesthetic, we present below a selection of six projects that capture the artist’s hugely influential practice.

NAPALM (2004) One of Banksy’s most harrowing motifs is an image of Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald happily skipping along while flanking a naked, crying young girl. The figure here is a familiar one—even if many viewers might not immediately place her as the subject of a 1972 photograph from the Vietnam War. Napalm is Banksy at his most unforgiving and in-your-face; the co-optation of the icons of cultural fantasy and modern capitalism place this work firmly alongside the agitprop aesthetic of Adbusters magazine. Artists have long conscripted pop icons to make subversive or satirical points, and this mash-up between apparent innocence and utter horror is what gives Napalm its charge.

It’s also what sets Banksy apart from an artist like KAWS, who also incorporates kid-friendly figures like Elmo or Spongebob Squarepants in his work. An older generation of collectors, said Doyle, buy KAWS to “look cool to their kids.

But it’s still Sesame Street—they don’t really

get it. Whereas Banksy’s an interventionist. It’s political, it looks like political campaigning.”

THE $60 POP-UP SALE IN NEW YORK CITY (2013) Despite the often-seriousness of his messaging, Banksy has a healthy sense of humor. (The devoutly anonymous artist’s webpage, for instance, includes a photo of someone—purportedly Banksy—being sketched by an outdoor portrait artist, while wearing a ski mask.)

A 2013 pop-up in New York City found Banksy offering $60 original stencil paintings near Central Park. As Gizmodo noted at the time, it wasn’t surprising that most people walked right on by, since Manhattan’s sidewalks are “littered with people selling Banksy ripoffs.” It’s helpful to consider this gonzo sale as a self-contained performance artwork in its own right, and a commentary on value, celebrity, and site-specific context. Banksy reprised the concept, in a very

THE $60 POP-UP SALE IN NEW YORK CITY (2013)

NAPALM, 2004

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Street art

LOVE IS IN THE AIR (FLOWER THROWER) (2003)

different form, in Venice in 2019. There, he (or someone acting on his behalf ) set up a street stall to peddle a series of oil paintings depicting the sort of cruise ship that is helping to slowly sink the city.

DISMALAND (2015) “This is a theme park like no other,” intoned the cheekily slick promo spot for Banksy’s most notorious installation. That’s something of an understatement. Launched in 2015, Dismaland was a faux-family-friendly destination on the British seaside. Modeled, of course, on Disneyland, Banksy’s iteration was purposefully bleak, aggressive rather than escapist. One catalyst was the work of painter Jeff Gillette, who has long used ironic Disney imagery to highlight the bitter failings of the modern world.

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The theme park also gave Banksy a chance to play curator, inviting friends and peers—including Damien Hirst, and a former member of the notorious art collective The KLF—to install their own works on the site. A hulking riff on Cinderella’s Castle—nothing but a shallow façade, deceiving no one—dominated the site, and a remote-control boat game incorporated graphic imagery from the ongoing refugee crisis. “People brought their kids,” one helpful commentator reflected on Yelp. “Don’t take your kids, really.”

LOVE IS IN THE AIR (FLOWER THROWER) (2003) Banksy first executed this work in Jerusalem in 2003, painting it on the city’s West Bank barrier wall that separates Israel from its Occupied Territories.

The image—which has been endlessly replicated

By author

DISMALAND (2015)

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Art

Street art

BASQUIAT BEING “STOPPED-AND-FRISKED” OUTSIDE THE BARBICAN CENTRE (2017)

since—depicts a protestor, sometimes referred to as “the masked thug,” caught in the act of hurling…a bouquet of colorful flowers, not a Molotov cocktail.

(It could be considered a contemporary update on the classic 1967 photo Flower Power, in which protestors stuffed tiny flowers into soldiers’ gun barrels.) This is one of many artworks that Banksy has executed in favor of Palestinian rights, and his advocacy continues to stir controversy.

BASQUIAT BEING “STOPPED-AND-FRISKED” OUTSIDE THE BARBICAN CENTRE (2017) Banksy’s samplings from the art-historical canon are rare, but astute. For a 2018 piece in Paris, for

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instance, he pilfered a motif from Jacques-Louis David’s painting Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1800–01). And at the Barbican Centre in 2017, he threw up this biting mural, showing a man and his dog, borrowed from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 work Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump. The figure, its arms in the air, is being dispassionately frisked by two cops wearing bulletproof vests. In the original painting, the figure’s posture reads as a sort of anguished shrug.

Here, the composition becomes a commentary on police overreach—perhaps reflecting on how the authorities treat graffiti artists. What’s ironic about all this, Doyle suggested, is that

Banksy was able to get away with putting this work in such a public place, without any hassling from the police himself. “It’s impossible to think that the Barbican wasn’t part of it, and didn’t know,” she said. “Now the piece is protected.”

LOVE IS IN THE BIN (2019) Banksy has been recycling the motif of a Girl with Balloon regularly since the early 2000s.

The composition is dead simple—a young child gesturing toward a heart-shaped balloon floating away from her. It’s not clear whether the girl has released the balloon on purpose, or has let go of the string by accident. The most famous public

By author

and ornate frame, hammered at $1.3 million with fees—at which point it infamously “selfdestructed,” dropping into a shredding device that sliced up a good half of the canvas.

Critics had plenty of questions. Was Sotheby’s in on the prank? Was Banksy’s assertion that the shredder “malfunctioned” disingenuous?

Why is the destroyed piece—now retitled by

example was executed on London’s Waterloo Bridge in 2002. Over the ensuing years, it has become a beloved image, the British equivalent of American artist Robert Indiana’s omnipresent LOVE sculpture. Polls have shown that it’s actually the nation’s favorite artwork, period.

Compared to most of Banksy’s oeuvre, it’s non-confrontational and almost saccharine.

That might be why, when a 2006 version of Girl with Balloon came up for auction at Sotheby’s in 2018, Banksy decided to subvert the work with a live stunt that shocked audiences (and hijacked the art-world news cycle for the week).

The painting, installed in a suspiciously bulky

the artist as Love is in the Bin—more valuable than the original? How long did it take for McDonald’s to use the whole thing in an advertisement? While it’s true that serious art-world people were mostly bemused by the affair, Love is in the Bin simply proved what an unstoppable cultural force Banksy is.

Source: artsy.com

LOVE IS IN THE BIN (2019)

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My life Radoslav Rale Zelenović, legendary director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque Film Archives

MY LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN A MISTAKE WITHOUT FILM 50

July

By Radmila Stanković

He spent a full 24 years as the director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque and largely deserves the credit for it having long been one of the five most important cinematheques in the world. He spent fully 45 years married to Vesna, who had his back all those years, but he wasn’t able to save her from the coronavirus last year. He dedicated the gold seal that he received this year to her. He’s proud of everything he did at the Cinematheque, but his greatest sense of pride is linked to him having spared this institution from the influence of political and financial malfeasance.

I

t was one morning in early 1995 that the then director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque, Rale Zelenović, was preparing to head to work. Serbia was closed on all sides, by blockades and sanctions, and there was no one from the world of film who would come to Belgrade, but Rale was thinking about what he could come up with to invite someone to come to the capital. And alongside that, it was in 1995 that the world commemorated the 100th anniversary of the creation of moving pictures. He explains the idea that he then came up with: “To establish an award for a worthy world and domestic film artist, and for the name of the award to include the Yugoslav Cinematheque, and for it to be obligatory for the winner to come to Belgrade to receive their award. I thought it could be called the Golden Seal of the Yugoslav Cinematheque and that the first recipient would be Italian director Giuseppe De Santis. This famous representative of Italian neorealism wasn’t only the director of the film Bitter Rice, but also the film The Road a Year Long, which was created as an Italian-Yugoslav coproduction. Apart from that, he was also married to a woman from Belgrade, Yugoslav actress Tamara Miletić.They both came to Belgrade, and thus Giuseppe Pepe De Santis became the world’s first film artist to possess the Golden Seal. After touring the Cinematheque, he said enthusiastically: ‘Now I know that only two cinematheques around the world preserve all my films, the one in Brussels and the one in Belgrade.

The Italian National Cinematheque doesn’t even have all my films’.”

Thanks to this move and this first success, the country that nobody opened the door to subsequently welcomed Peter Bačo, Jiří Men-

zel, Liv Ullmann, Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrei Konchalovsky et al.

“Everyone who received the Golden Seal Heading through the depots during the 1990s helped us a lot around the world, because they fixed the image of Serbia of the Cinematheque, Luc in a certain way, with their stories about the Besson told someone on his Cinematheque. For example, Wim Wenders told mobile phone: I’m in movie reporters that he was very sorry that he wasn’t a paradise rich enough man to be able to invest 10 million dollars in the Yugoslav Cinematheque. Luc Besson came early one morning, and I listened to him speaking to someone on his mobile phone as we went from the new depot to the old one: ‘You can’t even imagine what’s happening to me here. I’m passing through tens of thousands of copies of films. This is a unique experience in my life. I’m in movie paradise’.”

Twenty-six years have elapsed since that first award, and the Golden Seal of the Yugoslav Cinematheque was this year awarded to the person who conceived it: Radoslav ‘Rale’ Zelenović (73), alongside Vladimir Pogačić, the longest-serving director of this film archive, who spent 24 years at the helm. Upon receiving the Seal on 6th June, the Day of the Cinematheque, in the Yugoslav Cinematheque’s Makavejev Hall, he gave a touching speech as he dedicated the award to his wife Vesna, who departed from this world a year ago: “Of the 50 years of my working life, only one person accompanied me for 45 years. As she is no longer among us, I dedicate this to her,” said Zelenović, referring to his wife who passed away at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I received the award with lots of mixed feelings. It’s a good thing that I didn’t receive it posthumously. I felt great excitement when I RALE WITH HIS SON ĐORĐE said that I was dedicating the award to Vesna,

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My life

Radoslav Rale Zelenović

RALE AND MIRA FURLAN

to whom I was married for 45 years. She had my back for all those years. And I didn’t manage to save her during those seven days, which is how long it took from her getting sick to her departure. Vesna lived her life with incredible ease, acting as if she would live forever. I still can’t believe she’s gone. There is our son, Đorđe, who cares and is there at any moment if I need him, but when I wake up in the morning, I still don’t believe that we won’t drink coffee together.”

Rale was really destined to dedicate half a century of his life to film. That’s because he was born in Kosovska Mitrovica, where he lived with his parents in two offices of a cinema in the town of Kosovo Polje. That’s where he spent the first 20 years of his life. He came to Belgrade in 1968 and immediately started working in the

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The most terrible thing that happened to me in this job was the rocket attack on the depot of the Cinematheque, where there were 31 million metres of original material, negative film strips. And 90 per cent of what was there belonged to those who bombed that bunker - NATO countries

amateur film club of Belgrade’s Dom Omladine Youth Centre. He graduated in Serbo-Croatian language and literature at the Belgrade Faculty of Philology in 1971. He served as the editor of the Dom Omladine film programme during its most glorious days, in the ‘70s, when this building’s cinema was recording 300,000 visitors annually. He spent the period from 1979 to 1992 at Television Belgrade, spending those 13 years as the editor of the TV Belgrade Film Programme.

His first job at that newsroom was to interview famous Swedish actor Erland Josephson, a favourite of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. The following day, he encountered sports journalism legend Dragan Nikitović in the hallway of Television Belgrade, who told him: “I know that you arrived recently and I know that no one told you. Don’t flail your hands around while you talk with your interlocutor. If you can’t control them, hold a fountain pen in your hand.”

He arrived at the Cinematheque on 1st June 1992, remaining in that position until 24th February 2016. No head of a national institution has done more for his house than Rale did as the director of the Yugoslav Cinematheque.

Testifying to that are verifiable statistics on this institution of culture that preserves more than 100,000 copies of films and is ranked among the world’s five most important institutions of this category. Diligent and cool, Rale never complained about how much he worked: “The most terrible thing that happened to me in this job was the rocket attack on the depot of the Cinematheque, where there were 31 million metres of original material, negative film strips.

And 90 per cent of what was there belonged to those who bombed that bunker - NATO countries. That attack destroyed 80,000 film storage boxes. And then the French Cinematheque sent a pile of boxes to help us. Its director, Michelle Aubert, visited us on two occasions, and we extracted from our archives a hand-painted French film from 1903 and gifted it to her. Every now and then, films are found in some film archive in Europe that are listed as ‘misplaced’ in their home country. And, as a rule, those films are only found in the Archives of the Yugoslav Cinematheque. And we gladly give them back. I didn’t see my job at the Cinematheque as a form of philately; to collect and possess and not give anyone else. However, even today, more than

twenty years after the bombing, I would really love to see that mind, that head, which at one point ordered – ‘go and target the depot of the Cinematheque!’ Some diplomats later tried to justify that by telling me that we were located in the circle of a military compound. It is true that we are in Bubanj Potok, but the military facility was almost destroyed on the second day of bombing, and it was almost the end by the time we were hit.”

The Yugoslav Cinematheque is a national and world film and historical archive, the pride of Serbian culture, said famous German director Wim Wenders when he came to Belgrade to receive his Golden Seal, shaping his description by saying: “Under the Belgrade sky, a giant shadow of the history of film”.

It is interesting that Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodóvar were the only ones who didn’t come to Belgrade to receive their seals, but Bertolucci, the director of The Last Emperor, did send a public appeal as soon as the bombing began in 1999, writing: “Stunned by the cacophony of war and in an effort to resist the waves of ignorance that are growing on both sides, I would like to remind strategists who plan the bombing on a daily basis of the importance of the Yugoslav Cinematheque.

This is one of the three most important film archives in the world, an important segment of the memory of this century. To destroy memory, like that’s done by those who destroy the baptism records of hundreds of thousands of people, means destroying historical identity, both the future and the past.”

It is because of this, but also because of everything he worked on and did over so many decades, that the cinematheque’s former director is still proud of what this archive represents around the world: “The Yugoslav Cinematheque is one of the five most important members of the European and World Federation of Film Archives. And during that 1995, without mentioning the way we were then living, the European Union informed us that the European Federation of Film Archives had been created and included 12 members of the European Community, as many as there were at the time, and that the Yugoslav Cinematheque had also been included by invitation. I was honestly surprised, especially given that, to this day, my country still isn’t a member

JEAN-MARC BARR AND RALE

Nothing similar exists or has been invented in human civilisation that can embody life and spare it from oblivion like moving pictures of the European Union. During the years of the worst sanctions, it never occurred to anyone to exclude us from the World Federation of Film Archives, where Vladimir Pogačić served as president for ten years.”

In this story about Rale’s life and work, it would impossible to overlook the credit he deserves for his work while he was editor of the Film Programme, when he broadcast a cycle entitled 50 Oscar-winning films, as well as the Missing Link cycle of the new European film, representing a hitherto unimaginable television film marathon lasting 36 hours. He was credited with showing Bertolucci’s controversial Last Tango in Paris on the small screen, at a time when it was banned from cinemas in many countries!

There is also an interesting story about the third winner of the Golden Seal, famous Czech

director Jiří Menzel. At the moment it was decided that he would receive the Seal, Menzel had made many nasty statements about Serbia and its politics, but he still came to receive his Golden Seal: “After many years, I somehow got sick and was hospitalised. I was told that Jiří Menzel was in Belgrade and wanted to see me. When we spoke on the phone, he stated that he’d unfortunately lost the Golden Seal he received from the Cinematheque while moving home and begged for us to give him another. A new Seal was made and we presented it to him when he came to Belgrade to direct at the National Theatre. We shook hands again, performed the ceremony, shot the same scene a second time.

He then said that he’d been left feeling shocked when he first came to our Archive. He saw the Czech film collection and said: ‘Well, you have all the most important Czech films. Where did you get them from? I don’t know all the ways we answered him, including the fact that we have close to 180 Czech films, but he then called our great friend, Vladimir Opela, the then director of the Czech Cinematheque, and told him what he had seen. And that wonderful man answered him: “I know, I sent that to them in 1968 [during the time of the USSR’s invasion of Czechoslovakia], estimating that this was

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My life

Radoslav Rale Zelenović

the safest place for those films to be preserved.”

If bringing prominent filmmakers was a real accomplishment during those times, it was sometimes an even greater success to bring a local politician and explain to him what the Cinematheque was.

“One minister, who was terribly honest, said to me as we drove from the depot to the city, in a completely stunned state, ‘I’m sorry, I thought it was two rooms with some tapes’.”

After the depot was bombed in 1999, Rale and his associates exerted enormous effort to ensure that the Yugoslav Cinematheque received

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During the years of the worst sanctions, it never occurred to anyone to exclude us from the World Federation of Film Archives, where Vladimir Pogačić served as president for ten years

a completely new depot that adheres to the most modern conditions for preserving film; the new Centre for the Digitisation of Archival Material was opened, which means that you place a cloth over a copy and get a new film. The Japanese Government donated an edit suite table to the Cinematheque, that nothing cannot pass through; the instruments received audio tone heads that can read every sound from the first tone head, from 1927, to the present day, and can memorise subtitles. And finally, the Yugoslav Cinematheque received a new building encompassing nearly 5,000 square metres:

“From an institution that was on the verge of collapse, we made an institution of European and world proportions. What we did represents the top realisation of the original principles of film archiving, as stated by Eva Orbanz, the then president of the international organisation of film archives. Everything that was collected over generations is available to our public and the world. Will someone who comes and sees that we preserve one of the few surviving cameras of the Lumière brothers think of us a little differently?

I’m sure they will. The Cinematheque is one huge album, and we are guardians of memories.

That’s what I was throughout all the years that I worked, and I’m proud that this house was protected from the influence of political and financial malfeasance.”

The good spirit guarding Rale’s office at the Cinematheque was the film Casablanca, starring the famous Humphrey Bogart. Two framed stills from that film hung on one wall, while in the central spot, behind the director’s back, hung a huge picture of brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière: “The first job I did when I arrived at the Cinematheque in 1992 was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the shooting of Casablanca.

We organised a party at the Sava Centre, it cost us an arm and a leg, but we sold seven thousand tickets. It was an unforgettable event. According to all polls, that film is still ranked as one of the ten best films in the history of cinematography.

Rale talks about film intimately. He likes to talk about it as a document in time, which is why he says that the last century was actually the century of documentary film: “What is the film Love and Fashion today, with the divine Beba Lončar, the inimitable song of Đuzo Stojiljković and other artists?”

This is a document about a Belgrade that does not exist, about the busiest street in a capital city without cars, with Beba Lončar on a Vespa, about petticoats... Nothing similar exists or has been invented in human civilisation that can embody life and spare it from oblivion like moving pictures. Where will you be able to watch The Great Dictator in Serbia today other than at the Cinematheque?”

Rale cites for us another detail from the time when he fought, together with people from the City Assembly and the Ministry of Culture, for the Cinematheque to gain a new building:

I received the award with lots of mixed feelings. It’s a good thing that I didn’t receive it posthumously. I felt great excitement when I said that I was dedicating the award to Vesna, to whom I was married for 45 years “The then director of the Federal Directorate for Property said, with undisguised disdain, ‘What is the Cinematheque? Every city in America has four larger cinematheques than ours’. It took me a while to figure out that he was talking about video rental clubs! And some other powerful people had already envisaged that building as being a centre for branded sports goods. They couldn’t imagine that so many square-metres would go to something they hadn’t heard of !”

When it comes to Rale’s biography, we mustn’t overlook the International Film Festival

in Palić. He participated in its founding back in 1992 and remains its director to this day.

He rounded off his career with the forming of the SANU Audiovisual Archive and Centre for Digitization, of which he was among the founders and the first administrator.

At the end of the story of this unusual man to whom Yugoslav and Serbian culture owe so much, Radoslav ‘Rale’ Zelenović reveals to us that he applied for the Faculty of Dramatic Arts four times... And he didn’t pass the entrance exam. And his son Đorđe also failed to pass this exam twice: “Fortunately, neither he nor I gave up.” Đorđe has been working at the Yugoslav Cinematheque for years, and his work preserves the memory of his father at this archive.

During the many decades of his working life, Rale received numerous awards, including the most important ones - the Sretenje Order, the Vuk Award, the French Order in the rank of Knight of Culture and Literature ... But he still can’t believe that the state of Serbia hasn’t awarded this cultural institution with some of the orders it grants every year, at least in 2019, when the 70th anniversary of the Yugoslav Cinematheque was commemorated.

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CHILL OUT 35 Years Since Maradona’s Goal Of The Century It was 35 years ago today that Diego Maradona taught England to play, and the date did not go unnoticed in Argentina, where his compatriots remembered his “goal of the century” with a nationwide celebration of cheers and applause.

Maradona scored twice against England in a 2-1 win in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, the second of which was a solo goal often classed as the greatest goal ever scored.

To remember the feat, Argentines took to their windows, balconies, and gardens to shout “Gooooooooool!” at precisely 16:09, the exact moment the ball hit the net at the Aztec Stadium on June 22, 1986.

Amazon’s Billionaire Founder Jeff Bezos To Fly To Space In July Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos said he and his brother Mark will fly on the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin.

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother,” Bezos, who is one of the richest people in the world, said in an Instagram post.

Bezos, who is due to step down as Amazon’s chief on 5 July, will join the winner of an auction for a seat on the first space flight from Blue Origin.

Carnage At The Tour de France A roadside spectator showing-off a banner to the TV cameras caused chaos on stage one of the Tour de France, stepping into the road and causing a shocking pile-up. Cycling’s showpiece rolled out of Brest on Saturday to begin three weeks of racing, but the race’s familiar first-week chaos reared its head with 45km to go.

As the peloton wound its way through the narrow Brittany back roads, the Jumbo-Visma team were organised together on the right-hand-side of the road.

The message on the reckless spectator’s banner read ‘allez opi omi’, which is a greeting to grandparents in French.

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Google Testing A Feature That Lets Users Know When It Doesn’t Have A Reliable Answer Google is finally admitting it isn’t all-knowing: the search-engine giant is testing a feature that will notify users if results are unreliable or ‘changing quickly.’ It’s part of Google’s ongoing efforts to battle misinformation and conspiracy theories, especially in the wake of the contentious 2020 US presidential election and COVID-19 pandemic.

The company has used the Google News Initiative to strengthen reliable outlets and ‘collaborate with journalists and entrepreneurs to help build the future of media.’

Now it’s working to give users additional context about breaking topics although, according to Engadget, the notice is only showing up in a small percentage of searches.

Newly-identified Ancient May Replace Neanderthals As Our Closest Relative Our understanding of human evolution could be ‘reshaped’ by the identification of a new ancient human that may replace Neanderthals as our closest relative. Experts led from China’s Hebei GEO University came to this conclusion after re-analysing the so-called ‘Harbin cranium’, which was unearthed back in the 1930s.

First thought from Homo heidelbergensis, the team now think the near-perfectly preserved skull instead represents an example of Homo longi — the ‘Dragon Man’.

Held in Hebei GEO’s geoscience museum, the skull — the largest of all Homo species — was found in the Songhua River, near Harbin, in China’s Heilongjiang province.

Norwegian Inventors’ Offshore Stacks Wind Turbines Taller Than The Eiffel Tower A Norwegian team has developed a massive offshore wind turbine that he claims can power a town of 80,000 homes.

The Windcatcher is as big in size as it is in innovation, though: for developer Asbjørn Nes’s design to work, the wind-power generator has to be longer than the 963 feet of the Queen Elizabeth 2 and taller than the Eiffel Tower, which is just about a thousand feet from base to tip.

The turbines familiar to most people are Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT), essentially massive poles with a vast rotating blade attached.

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Summer

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1. Umit Benan B - Eur 690 | 2. Dr Sebagh - Eur 44 | 3. Anderson & Sheppard- Eur 190 | 4. Canali - Eur 550 | 5. Orlebar Brown - Eur 205 | 6. Frescobol Carioca - Eur 290 | 7. Bottega Venta - Eur 1,490 | 8. Orlebar Brown (siva majca) - Eur 130 | 9. Orlebar Brown (pantalone) - Eur 330

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10. Eugenia Kim - Eur 280 | 11. Mizuki - Eur 1,514 | 12. YSL - Eur 1,436 | 13. Jimmy Choo - Eur 495 | 14. Camilla Embellished - Eur 711 | 15. Hunza G - Eur 190 | 16. Le Kasha - Eur 712 | 17. Aquazzura - Eur 690 | 18. Fendi - Eur 350 | 19. Augustinus Bader - Eur 45 | 20. Balmain - Eur 55 | 21. Loro Piana - Eur 1,500 | 22. Loretta Caponi - Eur 480 | 23. Missoni Home - Eur 330 | 24. Ahlem - Eur 450

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Culture

calendar Gala Concert Of Zubin Mehta And The Belgrade Philharmonic 10 July – Kolarac – 8 pm

Exhibition Of Student Drawings “Paris Seen Through My Eyes” As part of the month of Francophonie 2021, the Department of Romance Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad organized an art competition for primary school students on the topic “Paris seen through my eyes”. The jury consisted of Dr Predrag Lojanica, painter, and doc. Dr Vanja Manić Matić decided to award prizes for the best artwork to the following students: 1st place - Andjelina Ilic (Elementary School “Stevan Sindjelic”, Army) and Lena Kojadinovic (Elementary School “Dusan Jerkovic”, Uzice) 2nd place - Sara Bojić (Elementary School “Vuk Karadzic”, Smederevska Palanka) and Natasa Leto (Elementary School “Vladislav Ribnikar”, Belgrade) 3rd place - Maja Mukić (Elementary School “Miroslav Antić”, Palić) and Marko Špišak (Elementary School “Avram Mrazović”, Sombor) The French Institute in Novi Sad presents an exhibition of awarded works and other participants’ works in the competition.

The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra proudly announces a concert with Zubin Mehta, the most famous conductor in the world, to be held on 10 July, in the Great Hall of the Kolarac Endowment.

The event of the year, also the tenth meeting of the maestro and the Philharmonic Orchestra, has been planned and expected for a long time and will be dedicated to Beethoven and Brahms.

“I am extremely happy and proud to return to one of my favourite orchestras - the Belgrade Philharmonic, which I have known since 1958. We have a long-term friendship behind us, during which we created a shared history,” said the maestro.

58th October Salon - Belgrade Biennale 25 June – 22 August Various locations

The largest part of the exhibition of the 58th October Salon - Belgrade Biennale - which will include over 140 works of art, about 40 new productions and 20 artistic interventions in public space - will be presented at the Museum of the City of Belgrade in Resavska 40b, at the galleries,

the park of the Museum of Yugoslavia and numerous public locations in the city.

It is planned to include television and radio platforms in this year’s edition as exhibition spaces.

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Available again, the enduring, iconic volume showcasing the key earlycareer work and process of the godfather of modern graphic design Milton Glaser: Graphic Design, perhaps the most famous book of its kind, explores the early decades of America’s pre-eminent graphic artist. Glaser’s work ranges from the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster to book and record covers; from store and restaurant design to toy creations; and magazine formats including New York magazine and logotypes, all of which define the look of our time. Here Glaser undertakes not only a remarkably wide-ranging representation of his oeuvre from the incredibly fertile early years, but, in a new introduction, speaks of the influences on his work, the responsibilities of the artist, the hierarchies of the traditional art world, and the role of graphic design in the area of his creative growth. First published in 1973, Milton Glaser: Graphic Design is an extraordinary achievement and indisputably a classic in the field.

July

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&FACES PLACES 2/06/2021

National Day Of Italy Marked On the occasion of the National Day of Italy, the Ambassador of Italy to Serbia H.E. Carlo Lo Cascio hosted a concert by Duo Gazzana, held at Kolarac Concert Hall on 12th June.

The national day celebration was attended by Mrs. Aleksandar Vucic, Maja Gojković Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, and numerous members of the diplomatic core in Serbia.

Guests had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy the concert by the Italian classical violin and piano ensemble, formed by two sisters Natascia Gazzana and Raffaella Gazzana.

2/03/2021

IWC Belgrade Event At The U.S. Ambassador’s Residence The International Women’s Club of Belgrade (IWC) held its June Coffee Morning event at the residence of the American ambassador. The event was highlighted by a visit from guest of honor, Madame Vučić. Newly-elected IWC president Sonia Shehryar, wife of the Pakistani ambassador, spoke to a crowd of nearly 100 IWC members, guests, and other spouses of ambassadors. She presented gifts to Madame Vučić and to Anne Godfrey, wife of the American ambassador.

The event was also a craft fair that featured Etno Mreža, a group that represents 22 communities of crafters from throughout Serbia who are keeping alive the traditional Serbian motifs, patterns, and weaving styles that represent an important part of Serbian culture and heritage.

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17/06/2021

Embassy Of Portugal Hosts Piano Concert The concert of the pianist Vasco Dantas took place on the 17th of June, within the ArtLink Festival, with which the Portuguese Embassy in Belgrade marked the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of Europe.

As well as in his last 2 concerts in Belgrade, and despite the current epidemiological restrictions, which obliged to some empty seats in the audience, the concert was a success and the pieces played by the Portuguese pianist, resulted in a memorable show.

21/06/2021

Foreign Investors Council First Cocktail After More Than A Year Foreign Investors Club first cocktail after more than a year was held on 21 June. FIC Serbia member A1 Srbija d.o.o. sponsored the event and hosted with the FIC around 100 FIC Serbia members. Attendees had the opportunity to meet in person and have a good time together in an informal and pleasant atmosphere. The guests were addressed by CEO of A1 Serbia and A1 Slovenia Dejan Turk and FIC Executive Director Aleksandar Ljubic.

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&FACES PLACES 21/06/2021

The 70th Birthday Of The French Institute In Serbia Marked The 70th birthday of the French Institute in Serbia was marked in Knez Mihailova Street in Belgrade. In front of the institute building, Manuel Boir, director of the French Institute in Serbia, addressed the audience, saying: “This birthday celebration is important, and the health situation is finally improving and allows us to gather in larger numbers in a solemn way.”

Jean-Louis Falconi, Ambassador of France to Serbia, on the occasion of marking this jubilee said: “Even today, culture is a French trademark in Serbia, and the dynamism of the Serbian art and cultural scene allows us to continuously develop our always rich cooperation.

24/06/2021

NALED’s 15th Annual Assembly Held NALED members and partners gathered at the 15th annual and 8th election assembly of the organization held at the Hyatt Hotel.

At the event, members elected new Managing Board and reform priorities until 2025.

In addition to the new convocation of the Management Board, NALED members also elected the Supervisory Board.

US Ambassador Anthony Godfrey congratulated NALED on its 15th birthday and added that this year USAID is also celebrating 20 years of work in Serbia. He assessed that in the 2000s, economic development in Serbia was underestimated, which is why it was necessary to gather institutions, public and private sector to improve investments throughout the country.

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24/06/2021

Russian-Serbian Conference Of The “Valday” Club And The Russian House On June 24, the Russian-Serbian conference of the International Discussion Club “Valday” was held in Belgrade in cooperation with the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in the Republic of Serbia - the Russian House in Belgrade.

The topic of the conference was “Russia in the Balkans: a look into the future”. The experts discussed the prospects of cooperation between Russia and Serbia in the economic, humanitarian and cultural spheres.

Attending the conference were the Ambassador of Russia to Serbia H.E. Alexander Bocan Harchenko, President of the National Assembly Ivica Dačić, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Selaković, Minister of the Interior Aleksandar Vulin, among others.

24/06/2021

Nordic Business Alliance Hosted The Nordic Walking Event In cooperation with the Nordic Walking School of the Belgrade Running Club, this popular sport was tested by ambassadors and members of the Nordic Business Alliance.

The Nordic Business Alliance hosted an event at the Ada Ciganlija for its members and representatives of the diplomatic corps. The participants were greeted by the Ambassador of Finland H.E. Kimmo Lahdevirta and the Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić.

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&FACES PLACES 24/06/2021

The Serbian Association Of Managers Marked 15 Years Of Operations With the traditional June meeting the Serbian Association of Managers began marking 15 years of business.

In the year when it marks the 15th anniversary of its founding, the Serbian Association of Managers traditionally organized the June Meeting of Managers. It was also an opportunity to review the challenging year, in which the Serbian Association of Managers provided active support to members and the economy, continued to contribute to the improvement of the business environment and be a responsible partner to the state and business community in finding effective solutions for business and employees.

26/06/2021

Ambassadors Visit The First Colony Of Embroidery The techniques of embroidery, gold embroidery and white embroidery, which are traditionally represented on folk costumes, towels and handicrafts of the Srem region, were solemnly presented within the first weaving colony held in the municipality of Indjija, and embroiderers from eight cities and municipalities in Serbia got the opportunity to promote their skills.

The final event of the three-day weaving colony was marked by the visit of representatives of the international community - the embassies of the United States, the Kingdom of Belgium, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, which were welcomed in Krcedin by the mayor of Indjija, Vladimir Gak.

26-27/06/2021

Diplomatic Tennis Tournament For Children Held At The Novak Tennis Centre The first Diplomatic Tennis Tournament aimed at supporting early childhood development and pre-school education, took place at Novak Tennis Centre, from 26-27 June 2021. The tournament was held under the auspices of the Cyprus Embassy in Belgrade, in collaboration with the Novak Djokovic Foundation and the support of Procon Group.

The two-day event was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps in Belgrade and the business community, including sponsors of the tournament, manifesting a joint humanitarian response to early childhood development in Serbia. Likewise, the players represented the diplomatic corps and other institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ambassador of Cyprus to Serbia, Mr. Demetrios A. Theophylactou, underlined that the event was inspired both by philanthropy and care for children, as well as tennis tradition, in Serbia and globally, in light of ATP and WTA tournaments taking place in Belgrade.

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COMMENT

Same Friendship, Different Battles The narrative of good bilateral relations between France and Serbia was based on strong historical ties for a long time, with little progress achieved on political and economic cooperation.

Nowadays, however, things look very different, with lots of bilateral talks taking place at the highest level and addressing topics like regional peace and stability, the normalisation of relations with Pristina and the fight against organised crime and terrorism, economic cooperation, the green agenda, digitalisation and social welfare.

M

any media outlets throughout Europe, including the omnipresent Politico, are deliberating on the future of Europe after German chancellor Angela Merkel steps down in September. Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron were seen as the driving force behind EU policies, and France is particularly credited with having shaped EU responses related to some of the most pressing issues faced by the Union. They include the recovery fund that was conceived in the Elysée and represents a ground-breaking change in the way the EU responded to the crisis caused by COVID-19 compared to its response to the crisis of 2008.

As Politico put it, Paris’ intellectual framework for EU independence and geopolitical relevance, known as “strategic autonomy”, formed the essence of the bloc’s recent initiative with China.

Indeed, effective Franco-German cooperation is needed for the implementation of this and other important tasks, such as the reform of the EU’s fiscal rules, as well as in the Western Balkans.

Here we have witnessed France’s increasing interest in Serbia’s EU accession agenda, the continuation of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and economic progress.

French-Serbian bilateral relations have certainly been very dynamic over the course of the past two years, during which important political visits were made and business deals struck. Among the political visits, the first and most important include the official visit of President Macron to Serbia in July 2019, followed by two bilateral talks held in Paris in July 2020 and February 2021, but also telephone conversations.

If President Macron visits Serbia by the end of

We are witnessing France’s increasing interest in Serbia’s EU accession agenda and economic cooperation this year, this would provide another sign that France has placed Serbia high on its agenda.

Developments on the economic front have been equally dynamic. The largest French-Serbian investment projects -- the concession for Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport and the project to sanitise Belgrade’s Vinča landfill and construct a municipal waste processing plant – were implemented in 2018, followed by the accelerating of work on the project to construct the Belgrade metro rail system. Then, in 2019, the French Development Agency opened its regional office in Belgrade. During the COVID-19 pandemic,

French and Serbian delegations met in person several times, with those meetings crowned in November 2020 with the visit of Franck Riester, French Minister of Trade and Economic Attractiveness, and the signing of an important agreement on economic cooperation.

Elsewhere, fruitful cooperation was achieved in the domain of defence and security, resulting in the visit of General François Lecointre, Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces.

In summary, the historical background for good bilateral relations that were forged during World War I, when Frenchmen and Serbs fought side-by-side, is now receiving a modern sequel in which battles are being fought in some new areas, such as regional peace and stability, the normalisation of relations with Pristina, the fight against organised crime and terrorism, economic cooperation, the green agenda, digitalisation and social welfare.

July | France 2021

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INTERVIEW H.E. JEAN-LOUIS FALCONI, AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO SERBIA

Very Dynamic Relations

Serbia is a country that matters a lot to France, at both the regional and international levels. It is an EU candidate country, which we support actively, and a major player in the Balkans. We also have common challenges, such as regional peace and stability; the normalisation of relations with Pristina and the fight against organised crime and terrorism. At the end of the day, what impacts Serbia, either positively or negatively, impacts us, and vice versa ~ Jean-Louis Falconi

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uring the time of the global lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a noticeable intensifying of direct communication between the presidents of France and Serbia. Strengthening economic cooperation, supporting Serbia’s European integration process, and particularly resolving the “Kosovo knot”, were high on the agenda of President Emmanuel Macron. Despite the reinvigorating of relations with Serbia, France is not taking sides, says Ambassador Jean-Louis

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July | France 2021

Falconi in this CorD interview. He adds that Paris supports Miroslav Lajčak, as the EU envoy for the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and that, together with Germany, France is exerting diplomatic efforts to help advance the dialogue.

The ambassador notes that these efforts imply a constant dialogue with partners in Belgrade, but also talks with the authorities in Pristina.

Your Excellency, this is the second consecutive year in which you are commemorating Bastille

Day under changed conditions, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking into consideration the latest data, could it be said that France has got the virus “under control”?

It is too early to say that the virus is “under control”, as nobody knows the impact of new strains of the virus. What I can affirm, nonetheless, is that the number of new cases and fatalities fell very significantly since last winter. In November 2020, the weekly average number of cases peaked at about 54,000 per day (for a population of 67

DIALOGUE

KOSOVO

SOLUTIONS

France is dedicated to supporting the EU-led Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, but without any political bias or “alliance”

A solution to the “Kosovo knot” is high on the agenda of President Macron, who is personally committed as a dialogue facilitator, along with his diplomatic staff

France has no “red lines” and will not hinder any solution based on compromise, as long as it respects international law and is agreed upon by the parties themselves

of relations with Pristina and the fight against organised crime and terrorism. At the end of the day, what impacts Serbia, either positively or negatively, impacts us, and vice versa. Let me also add that our bilateral relations also have an historical background. Frenchmen and Serbs fought together during World War I, during and after which many Serbs, including youngsters and pupils, moved to France to live. This created human ties and friendships through generations, which I regularly see even today.

million). This figure fell, but then peaked again in April 2021, where the weekly average was about 35,000 cases per day.

Today, thanks to the vaccination campaign, the seven-day average for new cases is about 2,700.

This trend can also be noticed by comparing the percentage of positive COVID tests: it increased to 15% in April and now stands at slightly above 1%.

This being said, we should remain very cautious as long as new cases appear, so some measures have remained in force to limit the propagation of the virus. The vaccination campaign is now very effective, after a difficult start, and today more than 47% of French residents have received at least one dose.

Despite the COVID pandemic having hampered traditional diplomatic communications markedly, relations between France and Serbia have been extremely dynamic over the past two years. Presidents Macron and Vučić even met twice during that time, on the last occasion in February. How would you explain this situation?

French-Serbian bilateral relations have indeed been very dynamic during the past two years.

After President Emmanuel Macron came to Serbia for an official visit in July 2019, President Aleksandar Vučić visited France twice for bilateral talks, in July 2020 and February 2021. This shows how important meetings in person are for both leaders, although they also spoke on the phone several times.

After July 2020, French and Serbian delegations met in person whenever they could catch a “window of opportunity” in the midst of the pandemic.

Franck Riester, Minister of Trade and Economic Attractiveness, visited Belgrade in November 2020, where he signed an important agreement on economic cooperation. A Serbian ministerial delegation visited Paris and Lyon a few months later to discuss the Belgrade Metro rolling stock, which will be constructed by French company Alstom. We also have dynamic cooperation in the field of security and defence, backed by a Strategic Partnership Agreement signed in 2011.

We held a strategic dialogue in June, as soon as

Many alleged non-papers have circulated in the Western Balkans during previous weeks.

They seem to serve as a “test” of public opinion, but the authors and their ultimate goals are unknown, which can be very destabilising for the region the sanitary situation improved in Paris. Less than three weeks later, the Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, General François Lecointre, paid a visit to Serbia, which was an all-time première.

This is easy to explain. Serbia is a country that matters a lot to France, at both the regional and international levels. It is an EU candidate country, which we support actively, and a major player in the Balkans. We also have common challenges, such as regional peace and stability, the normalisation

The more frequent meetings between the two presidents formed the basis to conclude that Serbia is beginning to receive some special support from France on current issues, and of course on the dialogue with Priština. However, you stated unequivocally in one interview that “there is no game of alliances” that would deviate from the already familiar positions of the EU. What does that mean exactly?

This means that France is dedicated to supporting the EU-led Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, but without any political bias or “alliance”. EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajčak is primarily in charge of this, but France, along with Germany, also dedicates diplomatic resources to the success of this dialogue. From where I stand, I can confirm that there are good quality discussions going on with the authorities in Belgrade on the matter, in a spirit of trust and respect, but there are also bilateral talks with the authorities in Pristina, of course.

A solution to the “Kosovo knot” is high on the agenda of President Macron, who is personally committed as a dialogue facilitator, along with his diplomatic staff. In this regard, our role is not to take sides but to try to get an overview of the field of possibilities for each party, to see where they overlap and build on this to reach a comprehensive agreement. Ultimately, the exact terms shall not be “dictated” by external players, as I sometimes read in the press, but defined and agreed upon by the parties themselves. There is undoubtedly interest in resolving this issue for the future of citizens in both Serbia and Kosovo.

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INTERVIEW France is nevertheless credited with authoring at least one document, a famous non-paper that relates to Kosovo. It allegedly proposes a special status be granted to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, as well as autonomy for Serbs living in the north?

France never wrote such a non-paper. Many alleged non-papers have circulated in the Western Balkans during previous weeks.They seem to serve as a “test” of public opinion, but the authors and their ultimate goals are unknown, which can be very destabilising for the region.

Regarding the ongoing dialogue on Kosovo, France calls for the full implementation of the Brussels Agreement, including the agreement on the Community of Serb Municipalities. When it comes to the content of such an agreement, I want to stress once again that France has no “red lines” and will not hinder any solution based on compromise, as long as it respects international law and is agreed upon by the parties themselves.

Will France support the recent proposal of the four countries of the Visegrad Group to involve the Western Balkan countries more directly in discourse on the future of the EU? Initially, the conference on the future of Europe was designed for EU citizens, who witnessed the course of the political, social and economic entity in which they live. This is an innovative format in which anyone can organise or take part in debates on different topics and give their say. The idea, which was put forward by French President Macron at the beginning of his mandate, was to give a voice to EU citizens at a time when they experienced some kind of fatigue.

When the idea came up, populism was on the rise and, during that time, Brexit cast a doubt on the original real sense of the European project.

Brussels institutions, which are complex in nature, were growing further away from the day-to-day realities of a substantial part of the population. In this context, there was an urge to engage citizens directly in internal debates on the economy, international security, the environment, digitalisation, social welfare and the kind of Europe they want to see in the near future. The aim is to give them a bigger role in shaping policies and ambitions. At the same time, these debates should contribute to some awareness building on the EU project itself, i.e., what it has brought to date in terms of values, welfare, ecology, international influence etc. One tends to forget this when one resides in this political environment permanently.

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No agreement was found among EU member states on opening a cluster during the IGC in June, although Serbia has resolutely thrown itself into the new methodology and adapted its negotiation structures accordingly I have always personally argued in favour of the inclusion of Western Balkan candidate countries in these debates (authorities and civil society), as was done with the Convention on the future of Europe in 2001. This being said, the digital platform that was launched in April 2021 is absolutely not limited to EU citizens.

Civil societies in the Western Balkans can take part in debates online, contribute to them and organise conferences. I encourage that in Serbia, considering its ongoing trajectory towards EU integration and the fact that this process should not be a solely “top down” project. The French Embassy and the French institute have been promoting such debates and encouraging the use of the “futurEU” digital platform.

How would you comment on the momentum lost in Serbia’s European integration process, which has not seen a single accession negotiation chapter opened for more than 18 months?

No agreement was found among EU member states on opening a cluster during the IGC in June, although Serbia has resolutely thrown itself into the new methodology and adapted its negotiation structures accordingly. I can understand that this causes frustration, especially within the Europhile community in Serbia. But the momentum is not lost and I like to think that this is just a phase, before the EU-accession procedure accelerates significantly.

This is the only development we can wish for.

As a matter of fact, Serbia made very noticeable progress in the fields of the economy, higher education, the fight against terrorism...

New initiatives are also being launched in the field of the environment and energy efficiency, which we highly welcome considering the challenge it represents in the region and globally.

However, this process is demanding in all spheres, in particular what we call “the fundamentals”, i.e., democracy and rule of law, the fight against corruption etc. They are the DNA of the EU political project, in particular freedom of Justice, the good functioning of institutions, media freedom and pluralism, to name but a few. The two previous country reports of the European Commission noted little to very limited progress in this field, and I must admit that I witnessed a “gap year” in 2020 in terms of reforms. This explains, to a large extent, why no chapters have been opened lately.

Having spent quite a long time in EU institutions during my diplomatic career, I do want to stress that accession processes can accelerate notably.

Serbian authorities have initiated reforms in the Rule of Law area, including initiating a long-awaited Constitution amendment procedure, in order to reform the judiciary. Other efforts are underway and we appreciate the good quality of the dialogue with the Serbian authorities, who keep us updated.

Ultimately, however, these reforms shouldn’t be assessed solely in the light of legislation, but also in the light of their implementation and the political will to change the environment in which citizens live. There is room for improvement until the end of this year, of course. In addition, the 2022 elections should serve to illustrate the good functioning of democracy, as well as political and media pluralism.

I hope that the European Parliament mediated inter-party dialogue will create some consensus over pre-electoral conditions, devoid of pressures

on voters, with – inter alia – good access to information thanks to media pluralism. That would be a remarkable change within the country, but also for its EU accession aspirations.

Discussions on bolstering economic cooperation between Serbia and France have actually intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. What can be expected of the bilateral cooperation agreement on projects for improving energy efficiency and launching construction of the Belgrade metro rail system?

Our economic presence is indeed growing in Serbia, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The two projects that French companies won in 2017 and 2018, i.e., the modernisation of waste management in Vinča (Suez) and the modernisation of Belgrade Airport (Vinci) are progressing well and being implemented despite the constraints caused by the pandemic.

Moreover, the intergovernmental agreement signed in November on, inter alia, the Belgrade metro, is undoubtedly an important milestone for 2020-2021. As already mentioned, French company Alstom will construct the metro’s rolling stock. Its technology is recognised worldwide; it is a sure and effective means of transport that should decongest traffic in Belgrade, improve air quality to a certain extent and allow quicker commute times. The technology brought by Alstom will also guarantee good energy efficiency, in line with European norms.

The other project included in the Intergovernmental agreement is the supply of a smart grid by Serbian-based company Schneider Electric for new operator Elektrodistribucija Srbija, which will reduce losses on low and medium voltage electricity transmission networks, thanks to an integrated IT solution allowing a high level of energy efficiency.

Another milestone was the approval and signature, with French Development Agency, AFD, of two loans in partnership with the World Bank, totalling 101 million euros for the AFD part, to modernise the railway sector – with core investments in and around Belgrade (Prokop station, suburban tunnels, Belgrade-Pančevo line) – and to support Serbia’s reform agenda on climate change. The AFD partnership with the World Bank on these two key operations allows the promoting of a consistent approach and the mobilising of greater technical and financial support for these projects together. But this is only the beginning: building on this positive dynamic established with the Serbian authorities, AFD plans to commit between 200-250 million euros

Having spent quite a long time in EU institutions during my diplomatic career, I do want to stress that accession processes can accelerate notably annually in Serbia, with a focus on environmental investments and policy reforms in support of Serbia’s EU accession process.

Such economic projects and financial support make a lot of sense to us, as the environment has become a very pressing and challenging issue in the Western Balkans, where national and local stakeholders are eager to cooperate with international financial institutions. From this perspective, AFD will continue and scale up its support to Serbia’s green agenda and the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, signed in 2015.

French experts on rural development visited Serbia recently. What kinds of benefits are farmers provided by the LEADER project?

LEADER is the French acronym for “links between rural economic development actors”.

The programme aims to develop rural areas by bringing together different stakeholders from

the civil society, the private sector – such as farmers – and the public sector, to design and implement a local rural development strategy.

These stakeholders work together in what we call Local Action Groups (LAGs), in a bottom-up approach to development.

The LEADER methodology has had a very positive impact on rural development in France.

Farmers can either be part of a local action group or benefit from it, by presenting projects funded by these clusters of stakeholders. For example, they can suggest the creation of a shop to sell local products, a tasting room for wine produced locally, or they can launch a boating school etc.

This programme is part of the EU Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for Rural Development (IPARD), but it has yet to be accredited in Serbia. However, several LEADER-like initiatives were created in 2021 and are already promising.

The local action group of Ketena Mundi and the upcoming Tri Morava group partnered with the community of Maremne Adour Côte Sud, located beside the Atlantic Ocean in France, and are already designing new projects with the support of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.

We are ready to promote such initiatives at a larger scale, together with the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and the EU Delegation.

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INTERVIEW DRAGOLJUB DAMLJANOVIĆ, PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH-SERBIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, CCIFS

New Fields Of Cooperation Appearing The Western Balkans are becoming an ever more important region on the French agenda.

Visits of top French officials, as well as agreements signed and commitment shown to the local community among French companies operating here, all testify to the claim that Serbia is among France's priorities on the international stage. Also supporting this notion are indications that we could again host French President Emmanuel Macron by the end of this year.

I

f Serbia really does host French President Macron again this year, that will provide strong confirmation of the ever-increasing interest of French companies in Serbia. Despite the difficult moments experienced by French companies in Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems that there’s ever more good news when it comes to cooperation between the two countries. Here CCIFS President Dragoljub Damljanović shares with us his experiences of the Chamber’s work during the pandemic, as well as his expectations regarding the further development of economic cooperation.

You’ve stated repeatedly that the most important thing to do while we’re in this crisis is to protect our people. To what extent have your members managed to retain their personnel, maintain business processes and ensure the liquidity of their companies during the previous period?

Members were confronted by a very difficult situation, because business activity was reduced to a minimum in many sectors and it was difficult to maintain business at all and to not lay off employees. Fortunately, the growth of business activities was noticeable in most sectors in the second half of the year, and the economy began to recover gradually. On the other hand, some companies will need more time to make up for losses, because they weren’t even able to relaunch activities in the second half of the year. It has been shown so far that companies with localised production have better chances than those with globalised supply chains, but the vast majority

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PROMOTION

SATISFACTION

INITIATIVE

We promote Serbia as a general destination for nearshoring, because capacities and competencies for high-quality industrial production exist here in all domains.

I’m particularly satisfied with the speed of our reaction in the crisis situation, because from the first day of the declared state of emergency we transformed ourselves into a tool to help our members.

The Serbian Government should devise a plan to attract as much European money as possible to launch the parts of its economy focused on ecology, the green economy and digitalisation.

of businesses still have significant changes in liquidity, and business models themselves will continue to be changed to a greater or lesser extent, while very few companies will be in a zone of no change.

However, as we emphasise constantly at the Chamber, the most important thing is for the business community to try to assist small and medium-sized enterprises, for large systems to go out of their way to meet their payment deadlines, and for banks to offer more flexible terms and cashflow assistance. This crisis will pass, it is important to show that we are human, that we take care of each other, that we preserve jobs and people, SMEs, and that we remain calm and clear headed.

How much did the chamber manage to help them in that during the previous period?

I’m particularly satisfied with the speed of our reaction in the crisis situation - already on the first day of the declared state of emergency, following consultations with members from the ranks of small and medium-sized enterprises, we wrote to Finance Minister Siniša Mali with a request for measures to assist SMEs. Our action to seek assistance from the finance minister was quickly joined by twelve other bilateral associations in Serbia, as they recognised the importance of the initiative. It was at that moment that we launched the slogan “How can we help you?”, thus transforming ourselves into a tool to help the membership, providing them with information and connecting those who are seeking something with those who have something to offer them. The Chamber is there to help members with information related to COVID-19, processes on how to access state aid, assistance in re-establishing the normal functioning of supply chains, while there were also, of course, sanitary and travel inquiries.

We had an opportunity to hear recently that the primary focus of French companies is actually North Africa, and not the Western Balkans. How accurate is that?

French investors have come to stay, as we see in the fact that they implement their own CSR culture, new HR methodologies, as well as new technologies, thereby also improving local communities and the companies with which they cooperate The entire African continent is a sphere of interest for France. It has strong historical ties to these countries, many of which are Francophone countries, and it is completely logical for France to be more present on the African continent than it is in some other countries. I would also give the example of the French Development Agency, which is most active on the African continent.

However, the Western Balkans is becoming an increasingly important region on the French

agenda. For example, the French Development Agency opened its regional headquarters in Belgrade in 2019, and that office is responsible for the entire Western Balkans and for financing a large number of projects in the region.

Linked to this topic, you released the publication “French Economic Presence in Serbia” this year. What does it tell us about the presence of French companies in our lands?

That publication tells us that their presence is increasing every year. I would like the numbers to grow faster, nevertheless what’s important is that all investments of French companies are extremely stable. French investors have obviously come to stay, and confirming that additionally is the fact that when they embed themselves in Serbia, French companies implement their own CSR culture, new HR methodologies, as well as new technologies, thereby also improving local communities and the companies with which they cooperate. I believe that, in this sense, the Serbian

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INTERVIEW Serbia has accepted obligations regarding renewable resources and ecology and, given that we’re still a long way from achieving the goals, it’s clear that a lot of investments are needed from this perspective. French companies have great expertise in this domain and it is logical for them to be interested in this area.

In this context, what are the most important steps that the CCIFS expects the Serbian government to take in order to realise these major plans?

We would regard it as being positive if the Government of the Republic of Serbia encouraged polluters to reduce their emissions and demonstrated the importance of respecting norms.

We are glad that Serbia has started providing subsidies for the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles. And, of course, it is essential to continue investing in the production of electricity from renewable energy sources.

economy is becoming more competitive at the world level, which is very positive.

Your virtual events with other French chambers in the region gave us the opportunity to discover that interest in the Serbian automotive industry and agriculture exists. What can Serbia offer French investors in this area?

The automotive industry is a sector that we promote specifically. Serbia has exceptional development potential in this domain. The greatest growth of recent years has been recorded in this industry, and all sub-industries linked to this sector.

A large number of various manufacturers that have launched operations in Serbia are suppliers in the chain of the automotive industry. For example, this is a sector that foreign investments came to even during the worst periods of the COVID-19 crisis, such as Japanese company Toyo Tires late last year, which invested in Serbia in the midst of the pandemic, setting up its first European factory in our country.

We also promote Serbia as a general destination for nearshoring, because capacities and competencies for high-quality industrial production exist here in all domains. The pandemic has shown us the fragility of supply chains and the need for production to be as close to markets as possible.

When it comes to agribusiness, this is an historically strong and valued sector in Serbia, as a country that has fantastic potential, especially

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Serbia needs a lot of investment in the area of renewable resources and ecology… and French companies have great expertise in this domain and are interested in this area for organic production. What is lacking is a greater presence of the processing industry, which is why we encourage French companies to locate their production facilities on the spot, in order to strengthen Serbia in the processing segment.

Major changes to Serbia’s energy and ecology sectors have been announced. Do you see a place for yourselves and major French companies in this transition of Serbian energy and the Serbian economy towards green solutions?

A serious and detailed incentive programme to support economic growth has been prepared in the European Union, and this programme is mostly focused on ecology, the green economy and digitalisation. The Government of the Republic of Serbia should devise a plan to attract as much of that money as possible, in order to launch these parts of its economy. Moreover, as a candidate country that’s on the road to EU integration,

In the meantime, despite the pandemic, there have been political meetings that are important from both the French and Serbian sides. What is the next step awaiting us on this front?

One of the most important political meetings of last year was the November visit of French Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness Franck Riester. That visit saw the signing of an Agreement between the two governments on cooperation in the area of implementing priority projects in Serbia. With this agreement, which is worth €581 million, France confirmed its interest and confirmed that Serbia is among its priorities on the international scene. There is also talk about us once again hosting French President Emmanuel Macron by the end of this year.

The start of works on a metro rail system have also been announced in Belgrade this year, and the metro project has always been a “French topic”.

How are your feelings as we await this event?

The Belgrade metro will be one of the largest investments in Serbia. We are very honoured that French company Alstom was selected as a partner in its construction project. It was in November last year that an agreement was signed between the Government of Serbia and the Government of France on the provision of funding for the metro amounting to 454 million euros. The metro is planned to open in 2028, and I’m already looking forward to the day when we will ride in French trains.

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INTERVIEW DOMINIQUE HAUTBERGUE, DIRECTOR OF THE FRENCH DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (AFD)

Building A More Resilient World

Our mandate supports Serbia's rapprochement with the EU through the financing of sustainable and innovative projects that have a strong environmental and social dimension.

T

he French Development Agency (AFD) is this year celebrating 80 years since its establishment. It is present in all parts of the world, but the Western Balkan region is its first bureau in Europe.

What motivated AFD to come to this region?

AFD is the public operator in charge of implementing the French government’s international solidarity and development policy. Created 80 years ago, AFD Group today comprises

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three entities: AFD, the development bank in charge of public sector and NGO financing; Proparco, which is responsible for private sector financing; and Expertise France, tasked with leading technical cooperation. AFD Group finances, supports and accelerates transitions towards a more coherent and resilient world.

Since September 2019, I have had the pleasure – together with my growing and dynamic team – to deploy AFD’s activities in the Western Balkans, under a mandate granted by the French

Government for AFD to contribute to France’s reinvestment strategy in the region. In this context, the mission of AFD’s Belgrade-based regional office is to promote sustainable economic development and support the European integration ambitions of Western Balkan countries. We operationalise this mandate through the financing of investments and policy reforms that foster convergence with EU norms and standards, as well as supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in your focus in the Western Balkans and Serbia; and how do they relate to broader EU objectives?

The SDGs are indeed at the heart of AFD’s strategy and are fully integrated into all aspects of our work and financing activities.

AFD invests in areas as diverse as climate change, a cross-cutting approach that guides all of AFD’s activities, as well as gender equality, biodiversity, health, education, digital technology, entrepreneurship, energy, mobility and transport, but also sports and the cultural and creative industries. Through a wide range of financial tools (sovereign and non-sovereign loans, public policy and investment loans, bank intermediation loans,

Peaks in air pollution are a cruel reminder of the urgency of addressing this issue, and AFD stands ready to support the authorities and relevant stakeholders in that regard.

How does your work contribute to the EU accession agenda, in particular cluster 3 – Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth and cluster 4 – the Green Agenda and Infrastructure Connectivity?

Our mandate supports Serbia’s rapprochement with the EU through the financing of

being prepared to support the fight against flooding, with climate change causing that risk to become more frequent and intense, the fight against air, soil and water pollution, waste management, support for low-carbon mobility (public transport, non-motorised transport) and the digitalisation of the economy.

As you’ve stated previously, the agency aims to invest up to 400 million euros in the region by the end of this year. When it comes to helping Western Balkan countries become

AFD's objective is to ensure that its operations are fully aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement, the success of which is a core component of EU policies and objectives at the international level guarantees etc.), grants and non-financial assistance, partnerships and peer-to-peer cooperation, AFD Group supports governments, local authorities, state-owned and private companies, as well as civil society organisations, in their endeavours towards a greener, more inclusive and climate-resilient future.

AFD’s objective is to ensure that its operations are fully aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement, the success of which is a core component of EU policies and objectives at the international level. In this respect, priority will be given to operations that support the transition to a low-carbon economy, all sectors combined.

For instance, ensuring the mobility of people and goods is one of the essential conditions for achieving the SDGs: it is essential for people to have access to employment and essential services (health, education); for the efficient and sustainable functioning of a productive economy; and for cities to remain efficient, breathable and “liveable”.

sustainable and innovative projects that have a strong environmental and social dimension.

Beyond AFD’s current active support for the implementation of the legal framework for adaptation to climate change, our action aims – in the framework of our mandate to support Serbia’s EU accession process – to encourage investments that further current transitions, such as the energy transition, but also territorial and ecological transitions.

Various funding programmes are currently

part of the EU, how do you decide between national and regional interests?

AFD Group favours partnerships for its operations in the region. However, a few sustainable transnational initiatives bring together all the countries of the Western Balkans. In this respect, the first support provided by AFD at the start of its activity aimed to strengthen regional integration through the establishment of a “smart cities” strategy to support the development of the Balkan capitals since

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INTERVIEW

2019 (Smart City), protection of the Balkans’ rich biodiversity, or the project dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs in the Western Balkans, in cooperation with the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO).

Finally, AFD can mobilise and manage EU funds to strengthen the impact of its actions.

As mentioned, our mandate is to support the convergence of the Western Balkan countries with the EU’s common standards and, ultimately, to support the acceleration of their EU accession processes. In that respect, by promoting alignment with EU social, technical and environmental best practices and standards, AFD’s actions aim to contribute to improving the quality of development processes.

Thus, after only two years of activity in the region, AFD has already granted more than 300 million euros (excluding the private sector) and intends to increase its commitments to 200 to 300 million euros annually by 2021, in support of the advancement of the relevant sector reform agendas, which are essential elements for the region’s future development.

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To what extent does the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) - as a European financial facility involving the European Commission, EU member states, Western Balkan countries and the main bilateral and multilateral donors operating in the region – counterbalance other sources of development assistance that are available to the region, such as that of China, for example?

One of the key elements of our intervention is the mobilisation of European resources, for which AFD is accredited. It is with this in mind that AFD has integrated, since 2018, the WBIF. This EU blending platform enables the pooling of resources available in the form of grants and loans, but also technical assistance from different partner organisations, in five priority sectors: transport, energy, environment, social sector and private sector development. Several projects are currently being implemented by AFD under this platform, which contributes to the quality and financial attractiveness of the support provided to Serbia and other Western Balkan countries by “Team Europe”, i.e., the EU, together with European development banks and cooperation agencies.

After only two years of activity in the region, AFD has already granted more than 300 million euros (excluding the private sector) and intends to increase its commitments to 200 to 300 million euros annually by 2021 Could you tell us more about the projects you’re supporting in Serbia, which include the construction of the Belgrade Metro rail system and the automation of management of the electricity distribution network – both of which are massive, financially demanding projects? What is your role in them?

An Intergovernmental Agreement was signed in November 2020 to support the authorities in carrying out structuring projects in the field of public transport (Belgrade Metro) and energy. This support, both financial and in terms of expertise, is independent of the aid provided to Serbia by AFD.

You are also supporting the Regional Youth Cooperation Organisation (RYCO), which aims to promote cooperation between young entrepreneurs in the Western Balkans.

Could you outline an example of cooperation that best reflects your goals in this area?

Indeed, the first financing granted by AFD in the region was aimed at the NGO sector in co-financing with RYCO. The first call for applications was a resounding success, with more than 20 projects (of the 250 submitted) now being supported at the maturation and implementation stage. This allows the creation of a network of young entrepreneurs in all countries of the region. A second call for applications should be launched in 2022.

Thus, since 2019, AFD has been resolutely committed to supporting Serbia in particular, and the Western Balkans more broadly, on the road to EU membership. This is the meaning of our team’s commitment on the ground, of AFD and France’s action alongside national authorities, the private sector and civil society actors.

Total is Transforming and Becoming TotalEnergies At the Ordinary and Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting on 28th of May, shareholders approved, almost unanimously, the resolution to change the company’s name from Total to TotalEnergies, thereby anchoring its strategic transformation into a broad energy company in its identity. In tandem with this name change, TotalEnergies is adopting a new visual identity.

“Energy is life. We all need it and it’s a source of progress. So today, to contribute to the sustainable development of the planet facing the climate challenge, we are moving forward, together, towards new energies. Energy is reinventing itself, and this energy journey is ours. Our ambition is to be a world-class player in the energy transition. That is why Total is transforming and becoming TotalEnergies,” declared Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies.

This new name and new visual identity embody the course TotalEnergies has resolutely charted for itself: that of a broad energy company committed to producing and providing energies that are ever more affordable, reliable and clean.

About TotalEnergies TotalEnergies is a broad energy company that produces and markets energies on a global scale: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 105,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, clean, reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people. www.totalenergies.rs

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BUSINESS SANJA IVANIĆ, CEO OF THE FRENCH-SERBIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, CCIFS

The Pandemic Didn’t Stop Us Promoting Serbia

We are satisfied with the large growth of the trade exchange between France and Serbia since 2010, and I hope we’ve also contributed to that. However, we should give most of the thanks to the improved business climate, the growth of the Serbian economy, and particularly the fact that the Republic of Serbia is an EU membership candidate country, because that’s an element that instils confidence among foreign investors.

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hen observing the activities of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (CCIFS), one gets the impression that connecting online during the pandemic provided plenty of space to present Serbia’s potentials to numerous French interlocutors. And this is also confirmed for us by CCIFS CEO Sanja Ivanić: “one of our priorities is to present Serbia and

The trade exchange between Serbia and France is recording constant growth. Thus, this exchange exceeded the value of a billion euros in 2019, and in 2020, despite the crisis, we remained above the billion-euro mark. We hope that 2021 will be even better its economic potentials to French companies, which we realise successfully through conferences and B2B meetings. This year we twice participated in the Business Booster Forum, which is organised by CCI France International.

An online version of the forum was held, encompassing more than 30 thematic webinars, with more than 50 prestigious speakers and more than 1,000 participants.”

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“During the Forum, our speaker had the opportunity to lead the workshop “Serbia, new industrial hub in the heart of Europe” and to present Serbia’s potentials to foreign investors. The CCIFS also works closely with six other Central European chambers, with which it promotes our zone as an ideal destination for sourcing and nearshoring. We jointly organised five workshops for French and international companies, as well as several networking events for our members,” explains Ivanić.

To what extent have these methods of online connection created space for you to function more efficiently as a chamber?

What would you retain from them when the pandemic abates?

Online connection methods really changed the world during the pandemic. I can state unreservedly that digitalisation has accelerated our working and operational process. Communication became easier because everyone switched to online communication. In the cases when our partners are outside Serbia, online methods really make it easier for us, giving us the opportunity to organise meetings and conferences with people from all over the world, without logistical hindrances. Of course, we can hardly wait to return to normal, but I believe that we’ll also retain some positive things that came from this process. The zoomization of society is, I believe, permanent – fortunately or unfortunately!

How much has the trade exchange between Serbia and France suffered over the past year?

These relations have been improving constantly since 2000, when diplomatic relations between Serbia and France were re-established. And since 2010, when the Interim Trade Agreement came into force, the trade exchange between Serbia and France has been recording constant growth. This trade exchange exceeded the value of a billion euros in 2019, and in 2020, despite the crisis, we remained above the billion-euro mark in exchange. We hope that 2021 will be even better.

This trade exchange has more than doubled since 2010, when the Interim Trade Agreement between the European Union and Serbia came into force. In your opinion, how much has the work of the chamber contributed to these results?

We are ready to follow the further development of cooperation between our two economies at the operational level, which is why the visit of French Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness Minister Franck Riester was followed by a MEDEF delegation comprising more than 20 French companies You’re correct. We are satisfied with the huge growth of the exchange between France and Serbia since 2010, and I hope that we also contributed to that growth. This is certainly a joint effort of all stakeholders, both the French Embassy and the CCIFS, but it’s primarily thanks to a better business climate, growth of the Serbian economy, and particularly the fact that the Republic of Serbia is an EU membership candidate country, because that’s an element that instils confidence among foreign investors.

How much have new doors to cooperation been opened by the increasingly intensive

meetings at the highest political level of late?

Apart from the visit of French Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness Minister Franck Riester late last year, in 2021 we also had a visit from MEDEF. As the Mouvement des entreprises de France, or the Movement of the Enterprises of France, MEDEF is the largest association of employers in France, and the delegation that visited Belgrade included representatives of more than 20 French companies. This is a big step in terms of our bilateral relations, and we are now awaiting its continuation at the operational level.

Physical connections between businesspeople are still difficult to maintain. When, in your opinion, can normalisation be expected in this area?

We hope that the situation will be significantly better by the coming autumn. In the case that the vaccination process continues according to plan, we are still hopeful that complete normalisation will only come next year. In that sense, we are working actively to promote vaccination - I believe you’ve all seen the campaign we did together with the Serbian Association of Managers “Let’s not postpone our meetings, let’s get vaccinated!”

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BUSINESS

Renault Brings A Revolution The Renault Mégane Conquest brings an entirely new body shape to Renault's offer – that of a sports SUV. The exterior look is a blend of elegance and robustness that particularly comes to the fore with the R.S. Line system, but also for drivers seeking to reduce consumption while retaining their driving habits.

According to François Laurent, director of the Mégane Conquest programme, this model is the latest proof that modernity and innovation are deeply rooted in Renault’s genes. It is hybrid in every respect, as it perfectly combines the elements of SUVs, i.e., their sporty appeal, dynamism and versatility. At the same time, it

The Mégane Conquest comes in Glacier White, Pearl White, Metallic Black, Metallic Grey, Zanzibar Blue, Flame Red and Valencia Orange

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his revolutionary new Renault model is ready to satisfy the most diverse demands of international markets and to represent the embodiment of the group’s global approach, as well as its ability to gain countless new fans.

With its new sporty SUV Mégane Conquest model, Renault has caused a revolution on the market. It has become the first car manufacturer catering to a wide range of customers to offer an SUV coupé on the European market, which is a type of vehicle that was previously reserved for premium brands. This all-new car completes Renault’s range of compact vehicles, which comprises Mégane, Kadjar and Scenic models.

The new Renault Mégane Conquest combines the characteristics of modern SUV models with state-of-the-art hybrid technology – an elevated

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driver’s position that instils a sense of security, a spacious passenger cabin that doesn’t reduce boot volume, as well as an innovative and striking style. The new model brings more excitement to driving, especially when equipped as the R.S. line, and simultaneously combines several types of engine thanks to the latest full hybrid technology. The E-TECH Hybrid, with 145hp, as well as high performance engines TCe 140 and TCe 160, with the 12 V microhybrid. The battery is charged during deceleration and braking, and can also be charged using excess energy that’s released by the thermal engine when the vehicle is moving at optimum speed.

The driver needn’t worry about anything, as E-TECH hybrid technology adapts to all types of roads and all users. It is suitable for all those seeking to save fuel by using an electric drive

gives new wind to the sails of the compact SUV segment, which is the most important segment on the European market. The hybrid engines of Mégane Conquest models are modern and provide a unique driving experience, while the top of the range is represented by the innovative E-TECH Hybrid engine, which combines top driving pleasure with reduced CO2 emissions and lower fuel consumption.

The new Mégane Conquest is equipped with the most advanced driving assistance systems, which ensure driving is safer and more carefree, including a system for motorway driving assistance and driving in traffic congestion.

Its advanced driving assistance systems are divided into three groups - driving, parking and safety – and together comprise the Renault EASY DRIVE concept.

The new Mégane Conquest is based on the CMF-B modular platform developed under the Alliance partnership. It is 4,568 mm long, 1,571 mm high and has a 2,720 mm wheelbase.

Thanks to large, 18-inch wheels, it has exceptional stability on the road, which is particularly important given Renault’s refusal to accept compromises on safety.

BUSINESS www.flatrentbelgrade.com

NENAD STOJANOVIĆ, MANAGING DIRECTOR, R.E.A.L. CONSULTING

Current State Of The Belgrade Real Estate Market We may or may not like the Belgrade Waterfront development, but one thing that’s for sure is that it has impacted on the real estate markets of Belgrade and certain other major cities in Serbia simply exploding

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he famous maxim used around the world when investing in bricks, “location, location and only location”, has once again proven to be completely true. Newly constructed properties are increasingly in demand, while old buildings are, unfortunately, still lagging far behind. According to our estimate,

this market segment will change and start to grow in the near future.

The City of Belgrade, in cooperation with the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, has launched the process of establishing as a Protected Spatial Cultural-Historical Unit the Krunski Venac urban neighbourhood, encompassing Krunska Street and the Neimar Escarpment, where we can still find ambient units that are very often a century old. These houses are masterpieces of both our renowned and lesser-known masons and architects, where Belgrade families

raised entire generations and led an intensive social life.

The awareness of citizens has changed, with several associations having been launched to protect these unique units, such as the corner of Smiljanic, Njegoševa, Kneginje Zorka and Krunska streets, and the city government is starting to understand and appreciate that factor.

Investing in such structures, representing protected salon-type houses withayard,garageandsummerkitchen, situated in unique Belgrade locations, is a safe haven for investing money. A

great example of this is provided by Upper Dorćol and Kosančićev Venac, which have enjoyed the status of protected spatial cultural-historical units for a long time. It’s almost impossible to find a salon house or apartment in those neighbourhoods, while there is constant demand for them. I would estimate that these rarities will be increasingly sought-after and that their price will inevitably rise.

There are plenty of examples like these around the world, and above all in Europe,solet’sprotectwhatwealready have and invest money right there.

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BUSINESS

Tradition And International Expertise For Top Quality Dairy Products

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n 2007 Somboled joined Lactalis Group, a leading dairy group globally, and gained the opportunity to modernise its factory, as well as to access the international market. Thus, experience and tradition dating back to 1934, when Somboled was founded, have been enriched with international expertise and stateof-the-art production technology. Being part of Lactalis Group, today Somboled belongs to the very top of the Serbian dairy industry and is considered one of the vital representatives of Serbian-French economy cooperation.

As one of the Balkans’ oldest dairies, Somboled processes over 80 million litres of milk annually, while remaining consistent in preserving the freshness of products and their natural ingredi-

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ents. Within the Dukat, President, Galbani and Somboled brands, each year the company places a wide variety of dairy products on Serbian market, consisting of milk, yoghurt, fruit yoghurts, sour cream and butter, as well as various types of cheese and other products. The company is committed to preserving the local gastronomic heritage, which results in the production of dairy products that are favourites among consumers.

Today the company cooperates with almost 700 farmers on the procurement of raw milk, preserving the tradition of producing the highest quality milk and dairy products. Thanks to the Lactalis Group, domestic milk producers have been granted access to additional expertise and financial

support for optimizing production and preserving the quality of raw milk, in accordance with the European Union’s high standards of quality. Thus, for many years Somboled has been successfully exporting its products to the countries of the region, such as Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, but also further afield, to Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as to Russia.

The past year, marked by the pandemic, didn’t stop Somboled’s development, with the company using the crisis period for further growth. Alongside the regular maintaining of the supply chain under aggravated conditions, Somboled managed to launch a new production line for one of the most beloved cheeses on the Serbian market - President Somborska, thus expanding its capacities. Somboled’s priorities included intensive cooperation with farmers and preserving the purchase price of milk, with which

the company contributed to ensuring the sustainability of its subcontractors’ operations. By reorganising its own operations, applying all sanitary measures and respecting the recommendations of the government, Somboled ensured its employees had a safe and secure place to work. These steps contributed to the smooth running of all aspects of production, distribution and sales.

Even during the year of the pandemic, Somboled remained consistent regarding its objectives: to maintain the highest level of quality of raw materials in terms of safety and nutritional value, which make Somboled products healthy, tasty and top quality. Staying true to the highest standards of production, the company continued investing in the modernisation of technology and all-encompassing control measures at all stages of production, continuing to place dairy products tailored to the modern consumer on the domestic and international markets.

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BUSINESS ARHI.PRO TEAM

Proud Of Every Project Arhi.pro was established in 2002 in Belgrade. Emerging out of a small, local architecture studio, it has since grown to become a leading enterprise in the region, focusing on architecture and design services, as well as construction services

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ver the course of the last 18 years of our valuable experience, we were able to form a hardworking team of approximately 200 employees, all of whom are professionals that are happy to successfully execute any type of jobs that our clients have for us

There are very few companies from these lands that can boast of cooperating with the world’s biggest architectural firms, operations on four continents, and prestigious awards and acknowledgements. How can such results be achieved?

Success is achieved through knowhow, dedication and flexibility. Arhi.pro is a company that’s dedicated to the constant improvement of its engineering personnel, in terms of harmonising with the highest international standards, which ensures our team is compatible in working with

We consider our integrated approach to the design and execution of works to be our advantage, and our goal is to maintain and improve upon it as much as possible firms around the world. We are sufficiently flexible to adapt to various roles and are dedicated to implementing every task in the best way possible, within set deadlines and, first and foremost, to the satisfaction of our clients. We’ve achieved cooperation with firms from Europe, America, Asia and Australia, which provides huge motivation for us to continue collaborating with international colleagues and contributing to significant projects with the same enthusiasm and sense of satisfaction.

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Montenegro is becoming a destination for the world’s most demanding tourists, who don’t settle for anything less than the best. Were you thinking of just such guests when you worked on the Porto Montenegro project?

Arhi.pro Montenegro is a company that has been engaged on the development of the Porto Montenegro project since 2008, as a local consultant, local architect and the leading designer of all engineering phases of construction of the Ozana, Teuta, Zeta, Milena, Tara, Ksenija and Elena buildings, as well as the Regent Hotel. We are currently engaged as local architects and leading designers on the Boka Place project, which is part of the new phase of Porto Montenegro’s development. With the objective of satisfying all the needs of future users of the space, including the most demanding ones, our entire team of architects and engineers, as well as all specialised consultants, is constantly focused on identifying solutions that will contribute to improving Porto Montenegro’s offer in the best possible way. It has been a pleasure for us to monitor the development of Porto Montenegro for these many years and to contribute to ensuring that every subsequent project is implemented with the latest project solutions and systems that are aligned with modern technologies.

The fact that the Boka Place project fulfilled all conditions required for inclusion in the Economic Citizenship programme confirms that the design team succeeded in providing its contribution to offering even the most demanding users of the space appropriate real estate that adheres to the highest world standards.

Could you single out some of the other projects that you’re particularly proud of, both in Montenegro and other markets where you’re worked? Perhaps something that you’re currently working on?

We are proud of all of our projects, particularly the major international projects that we’ve participated in developing from initial idea to realisation, i.e., which we’ve been engaged on until the finalisation of construction. Apart from projects in the scope of the Porto Montenegro settlement, we’ve also implemented the projects Hotel One&Only Portonovi, in which we worked on developing the concept design of Denniston Architects, and the Marina Apartments Portonovi building, developing the concept design of RTKL London. We are particularly proud of the projects we’ve authored ourselves, such as Lavender Bay in

Morinj and several authorial projects of villas and residential buildings in the coastal area, mostly in the Bay of Kotor. Our team of architects and engineers successfully implemented the project for the region’s largest shopping centre, Galerija Belgrade, in which we were also engaged as a local consultant, local architect and lead designer of all engineering phases of construction, which is a project we did by developing the concept design of Callison RTKL Los Angeles.

We are particularly proud of the Lavender Bay project in Morinj, as well as several villas and residential buildings in the coastal area, mostly in the Bay of Kotor

Arhi.pro doesn’t only deal with design and engineering… Could you tell us more about your company’s other segments?

Arhi.pro deals with the design and execution of construction works, the design and manufacture of joinery fixtures and fittings, as well as the design of lighting. In addition to important design and construction references, we are particular proud of the “design & build” projects in which we’ve incorporated our design and construction resources, including the design and manufacture of furniture and the design of lighting. In this way we’ve implemented significant projects, such as the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Belgrade, the BW Magnolia residential and commercial building, which we implemented by developing the concept design of RMJM Serbia, and the Buddha Bar restaurant in Belgrade, which we implemented by developing the concept interior design of Paris-based Design Wapler & Associés - DWA. We certainly consider our integrated approach to the design and execution of works to be our advantage, and our goal is to maintain and improve upon it as much as possible.

How has the pandemic impacted on communication and service delivery processes?

The pandemic brought significant changes to the process of organising work, and it was essential to adapt quickly to the new circumstances, with the aim of adhering to agreed deadlines without negatively impacting on the quality of services delivered. Our design bureau, which boasts over a hundred architects and engineers, switched fully to the BIM 360 platform, utilising various communication and data sharing applications, which strengthened coordination in accordance with the principles of integrated design. The applying of modern technologies further eased cooperation with architectural firms from around the world, especially during the creative process and early design phases.

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BUSINESS

From June to August sun-drenched fields of lavender are a feature of Provence.

Perfectly adapted to the Provençal climate, the four types of wild lavender – Lavandula vera, Lavandula spica, Lavandula stoechas, and Lavandula dentata (French lavender) – flourished under the dazzling sun that seduced artists including Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Matisse.

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BUSINESS

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INTERVIEW

By Sonja Ćirić

MANUEL BOUARD, COUNSELLOR FOR COOPERATION AND CULTURE AT THE FRENCH EMBASSY IN BELGRADE AND DIRECTOR OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE IN SERBIA

To Be A Citizen Of The Current World “Everybody is concerned by themes like global warming, identity, discrimination, history or education. We want to build the possibility for debates linked with our common world!”

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t’s been 70 years since the French Institute came to Serbia to spread the country’s culture and share our everyday existence with us. The birthday celebrations began on 21st June and, apart from the building of the Institute, have expanded to encompass the part of Knez Mihailova Street in front of the building, and these celebrations will continue until the end of the year. This important jubilee provided the occasion for us to interview Manuel Bouard, counsellor for cooperation and culture at the French Embassy in Belgrade

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and director of the French Institute in Serbia, to discuss some of the latest activities at the institute that he heads.

Considering that every anniversary provides an occasion to summarise results achieved and recall beautiful memories, what would you highlight in particular?

Our great satisfaction? Our Pride? The uninterrupted cultural exchanges between our two countries since the birth of the French institute in 1951? Many prominent French think-

ers or artists have been to Serbia. Among them we could mention Gérard Philippe, Jean-Paul Sartre, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Catherine Deneuve and Sophie Marceau, but also Alain Robbe-Grillet, Andrei Makine and Jacques Derrida.

Some Serbian artists also travelled to France and settled in Paris to work and to live. Vladimir Velickovic and Goran Paskaljevic are two of the most significant symbols of these strong links between our two artistic scenes that have been built stronger year-on-year.

novel Les Misérables, directed by Raymond Bernard. One of the topics of Les Misérables is philanthropy. In your opinion, what impact does culture have on people’s consciousness?

It’s not easy to define what culture is in just a few words! For the French Institute, it is a means to express ideas and a means to fully be a citizen of the current world. Clearly, artists, thinkers and philosophers help us to understand the world and other human groups and human beings, their differences, but also the commonalities that we share with them.

The impact of culture is huge in this way.

However, the French institute is also working with talented contemporary artists and thinkers. I would like to mention Mila Turajlic, a great filmmaker who represents the future of Serbian creative cinema, and Nemaja Radulovic, who became a world-famous violinist before he turned 40. They are Serbs, but they’ve been adopted by French society.

Commemorations of this jubilee began with the literary event Molière Days, which is one of the trademark manifestations of the French Institute. The programme was once again diverse, current and interesting. What sort of criteria do you take into consideration when forming a programme? Do you adapt to the interests and needs of the local audience, or do you endeavour to reveal to them values with which they’re not sufficiently acquainted?

We have to target both goals simultaneously!

In order to be relevant to the local audience and stimulate curiosity, we have to play the role of discoverers of new gifted writers, French ones, but also francophone ones, because the French language is rich with several cultures.

Our second mission is to promote classical or well-established authors, and to help editors translate their works from French to Serbian.

Literature matters; it is part of the French soul and culture, as everybody knows. It is also necessary to develop a good knowledge of French philosophers. Philosophers help to think about our current world and the high stakes. Everybody is concerned by themes like global warming, identity, discrimination, history or education.

We want to build the possibility for debates linked with our common world!

One of the more remarkable programmes of the Molière Days event was the debate with an extremely inspiring title - On the obsolescence of modernity. Does the concept of modernity burden us in our everyday life, perhaps also limiting our thinking about the future?

Wallonie Bruxelles international, one of our best foreign partners in Serbia, held this debate.

This a testimony to the importance of sharing ideas in French, together with other countries.

The question of modernity is deeply fixed in European consciousness. This is probably the reason you find this title inspiring! There is a direct link with our global questioning as far as the place of Europe in a changing world is concerned.

It’s not easy to define what culture is in just a few words!

For the French Institute, it is a means to express ideas and a means to fully be a citizen of the current world The “Caravan for Climate” was held recently, having been launched by the French Institute.

Awareness of environmental protection has been more evident in Serbia in recent years, yet almost every day we hear of the discovery of a new river swimming with waste or a forest with trees felled illegally. How can we fight against unscrupulous people?

To my mind, the major imperative is for us to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change and global warming among the population, and to do so as fast as possible. If a majority of people feel concerned, it will be more difficult to bypass the law. The more we inform citizens, the more the government will have to act tangibly to combat illegal or destructive behaviour. This is the aim of the “Caravan for Climate”, held with the help of different local and international partners who are fully engaged in this cause.

The main attraction of this year’s Nitrate Film Festival, held at the Yugoslav Film Archives Cinematheque, was a five-hour screening of the 1934 film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s

The French Institute was in Novi Pazar in late May, under the auspices of the project “Meet your representatives. You (are) asking/asked!”

What were the impressions like?

The impressions were completely positive.

As everybody knows, Novi Pazar is Serbia’s youngest city. It is important to involve the youth in local life, for economic reasons, but also to develop a feeling of full citizenship among the population that will build the future of the area.

The partnership with Koms and RYCO is also greatly satisfying, because local institutions are completely involved in implementing specific activities with young people in Novi Pazar.

The French Institute recently posted the ’One week - One word’ format on its Instagram account. You started with the word “Voilà”. What kinds of reactions did you receive?

This new initiative is a symbol of our commitment to the Eurovision Song Contest! The choice of the word “Voilà” was no accident…

And Serbian people gave many likes… for Barbara Pravi!

Local media here in Serbia wrote about her almost as much as they wrote about “Hurricanes”, Serbia’s own representatives, because she stated that her origins make her feel like a Serbian lady. Who did you support? Are you considering possibly bringing Barbara Pravi to Serbia?

When the French Institute and the French Embassy in Belgrade learned that the French entry was partly of Serbian origin, we decided to spread the information around us. Instagram was a tool. Moreover, Serbian viewers were clearly aware of that. I don’t know if that’s due to our commitment, but we are satisfied with the result!

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CCIFS ACTIVITIES

Reliable Partner The leading French-Serbian business network, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (CCIFS), is an institution that brings together French companies in Serbia, as well as Serbian and other international companies that maintain trade relations with France or with French companies. The Chamber is also a reliable partner to all companies from France wanting to receive information or launch operations in Serbia

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he basic role of the CCIFS is to enable its members to access its network of companies, exchange experiences and knowhow, and realise cooperation with other members, both in Serbia and around the world. In order to promote French-Serbian economic exchanges and enable communication between member companies, the CCIFS organises around fifty different events annually.

Monthly Activities The CCIFS organises three to four events of different formats per month, which represent an opportunity for members to get acquainted, inform one another and, of course, enjoy socialising together. Confronted by the new situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Chamber changed the format of events and launched a series of webinars organised for members. The topics were varied and aimed at being as useful as possible to members.

In cooperation with colleagues from six French chambers in the region, the Chamber also organised regional webinars: ‘Central Europe - what are the prospects for supply chains?’; ‘Processing industry - a chance for Central and Eastern Europe’; and ‘The future of energy efficiency in Europe’, which gathered together more than 700 participants. The CCIFS also organised various informal workshops, such as ‘Let’s Bake Together’, in cooperation with LESAFFRE, at which members were taught culinary skills.

Hybrid events were also organised, the best attended of which were ‘Hospitals Ready for the Future’ and ‘Water Sector: Smart Solutions for Sustainable Development’.

Also continuing to be held unhindered during the year of the pandemic were online meetings of clubs (Transport and Logistics, Infrastructure and Construction, CFO, HR, Digital, Agroclub and CSR), during the scope of which members exchanged experiences and mutually advised each other on ways to respond to different market demands during the crisis period.

“Dialogue 3:0” Online Conferences The CCIFS, in cooperation with the Chamber of Italian-Serbian Businessmen and the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, launched a series of online conferences aimed at promoting dialogue between companies and state institutions. Three conferences have been jointly implemented to date: with the Tax Administration, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

On 23rd October 2020, the online conference “Dialogue 3.0 with the Tax Administration” was held. These conferences, held at the operational level, are an excellent format for companies that thus receive very specific answers to their inquiries.

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CCIFS ACTIVITIES

CSR Club Educational Campaign “After college I’ll be ...”

In cooperation with the Career Development Centre of the University of Belgrade, the CCIFS launched a series of online workshops intended for students and giving them an opportunity to receive first-hand information from employees in various sectors at CCIFS member companies. The workshops organised during the first series dealt with professions in the fields of technology, finance, marketing, telecommunications, sales and project management. CCIFS organisers were very pleased with the positive feedback from students, who participated in large numbers, and will this autumn organise a new series of workshops, dedicated to the occupations of the future.

Launching The Campaign “How Can We Help You?” In the context of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the crisis that has gripped companies in Serbia, and with the aim of enabling the carrying out of its basic activity, in terms of supporting members, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce has launched a campaign called ‘How can we help you?’. Throughout the duration of the state of emergency, and afterwards, the entire CCIFS team was available to members at all times, in order to provide them with the best possible assistance and support during the crisis period.

The French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce was the initiator in the sending of an open request to Economy Minister Siniša Mali seeking the implementation of additional measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises. This initiative was supported by 12 bilateral foreign chambers of commerce and organisations in Serbia.

Simultaneously, in agreement with member companies from the construction sector, the CCIFS sent a letter to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure containing proposals to ease business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several surveys were also conducted to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the operational and financial activities of CCIFS members on the Serbian market, the results of which enabled the Chamber to better understand the needs of members.

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LeBooster – CCIFS Business Centre Logotip Leboostera Under the scope of support for start-ups and enabling French and Serbian companies to more easily integrate into the local market, the CCIFS opened the LeBooster Business Centre at its address in the heart of Belgrade, with an offer of offices, office space in a co-working area, virtual offices and conference rooms in a unique environment with a French touch. Companies can register a firm at the CCIFS’s address, or rent a desk for a certain period, along with the entire logistics, business and networking offer of the Chamber.

As an added benefit, individuals and businesses who use LeBooster Centre become part of the dynamic French-Serbian business community and gain access to a network of contacts and the numerous events organised by the Chamber.

French Week This is one of the Chamber’s most important events, which aims to promote French products, expertise and culture through a series of events organised at several locations in the capital and further afield. The objective of French Week is to promote historical, cultural and business ties between France and Serbia, and it is held during the period connected to the popular French custom of welcoming the arrival of young French wine, Beaujolais nouveau. The broad and colourful contents of the event provide guests with the opportunity to participate in traditional French Week events; to learn some of the secrets of French cuisine, to taste good wine at the reception of Beaujolais nouveau, and to taste famous French cheeses and other delicious delicacies.

This year’s French Week was organised in accordance with all health measures enforced in the Republic of Serbia with the aim of reducing the spread of COVID-19 infection. Events were organised exclusively online, including an Online Job Fair, Skills lab - an event intended for students, webinars of member companies: Electric vehicle chargers - Enel PS and the Digital Transformation of Energy Management - Schneider Electric. French Week also included the organising of an exclusive online meeting with the economic counsellor of the French embassy, Fabrice Blasquez, and the general director of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Sanja Ivanić, for representatives of French companies interested in exporting and opening companies in Serbia.

Support Services For French Companies The French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce works continuously to provide support to French companies wanting to develop their business activities in Serbia. The Chamber helps companies from France in researching market potential, finding clients and partners, opening branches and their operations on the Serbian market in general. Within the network of French chambers of commerce abroad, the CCIFS is ranked in the third - highest category, because it provides a complete service to French companies interested in the Serbian market: from initial information about the market to the opening of a business and assisting in running enterprises. The Chamber has for eight years been an operating partner of Business France, the stateowned French export promotion agency, and a member of Team France export. It also provides support to companies in the countries of the region, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

The CCIFS business centre, LeBooster, provides services from the renting of offices to all kinds of assistance in company operations.

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INTERIOR

By Sara Brajović

The Hidden World Of Parisian Interiors T The history of Paris is so vast and rich that it would take an entire lifetime to write about the city’s most historic building interiors. It is so easy to find suitable locations to write about, but the real difficulty is choosing. Paris is the centre of fashion, and fashion means change, yet when it comes to architecture few cities have shown greater respect for the past. It would be nice for you to read here about interiors that are little known or at least not so present in the media.

I do want to include some interiors that you can visit on your next trip to Paris, because it would be a shame to just read about certain interiors and not to experience them in person

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Hôtel de la Païva

he Hôtel de la Païva is a hôtel particulier, a grand townhouse of France, that was built between 1856 and 1866 at 25 Avenue des ChampsÉlysées by the courtesan Esther Lachmann, better known as La Païva. She was born into modest conditions in the Moscow ghetto, to Polish parents.

According to legend, in her youth she was pushed out of a cab by a hurried customer and slightly injured. She promised to herself to build herself a house on the avenue where she fell. After her marriage to Albino Francisco de Araújo de Paiva, the self-styled Portuguese marquis de la Païva, she had the funds to do so.

This house has been used since 1904 by the Travellers Club of Paris, a gentlemen’s club that was all-male until recently. It is only accessible if you visit with a member.

Perhaps its most famous feature, beside the yellow onyx staircase that is probably unique in the world, is the Napoleon III style bathtub. This onyx tub in silver was equipped with three taps, the third being used for milk

Hôtel de la Païva

or champagne. A white onyx bath lined with silver, a marble floor and gilt bronze taps, including that third one for milk or champagne, it was sculpted

by Donnadieu from a block of yellow onyx (1.85 m 900 kg). This type of onyx was used at the time of Napoleon III exclusively for the décor of the most prestigious buildings. La Paîva is said to have taken baths of milk, lime-blossom and even champagne.

Not surprisingly, the Traveller Paris started out as the most decadent address of the 19th Century.

The Hôtel Beauharnais is also an historic hôtel particulier grand townhouse, this one located in Paris’ 7th arrondissement. Designed by architect Germain Boffrand, construction was completed in 1714 and it today serves as the official residence of the German Ambassador to France. The vast property is not open to the public. The edifice had been purchased by Eugène de Beauharnais by 1803, who had it rebuilt in the Empire style. It has been listed as an official historical monument since 25th July 1951. The Hôtel de Beauharnais boasts the earliest interiors in Paris that retain most, if not all, of their original contents. Architectural historians have little to celebrate when talking about the French Revolution. Regardless of the good that the Revolution may have done in political terms, from the architectural point of view it was one of the most disastrous evens in French history, leading to the destruction of countless historic interiors. Royal Palaces and houses of the nobility were generally left standing, but the treasures they contained were largely confiscated and distributed

Hôtel Beauharnais

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INTERIOR opens onto a central, square courtyard, around which the hôtel was built. It was constructed between 1640 and 1644, originally for financier Jean-Baptiste Lambert, then later occupied by his younger brother, Nicolas Lambert, president of the Chambre des Comptes. Nicolas Lambert commissioned Charles Le Brun to decorate the interiors, producing one of the finest examples of mid-17th-century domestic architecture and decorative painting in France.

This grand townhouse was purchased in 1843 by Polish Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, who established the building as an important centre for Polish exiles and political activities, promoting Polish culture. Among the notable guests and patrons of the Hôtel Lambert were some renowned artists and politicians of the age, including Frédéric Chopin, Zygmunt Krasiński, Alphonse de Lamartine, George Sand, Honoré de Balzac, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Eugène Delacroix and Adam Mickiewicz. Chopin’s “La Polonaise” was composed exclusively for the Polish ball that was held there every year.

In 1975, The Lambert, as a UNESCO-listed site, was divided into several luxury apartments by the Rothschilds. In September 2007, Prince Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar, bought the Hôtel Lambert from the Rothschilds, for the purported sum of 80 million euros, and began a controversial redevelopment of the building; a portion of the building was severely damaged on 10th July 2013 by a fire that started on the roof during renovation work.

The Maison de Verre was built from 1928 to 1932. Constructed in the early modern style of architecture, the primary materials used were steel, glass and glass block. The design was a collaboration between Pierre Chareau (a furni-

Hôtel Lambert at public auction. I believe that there is no single pre-Revolutionary interior in Paris that has retained its original contents. The interiors have today been restored to perfection and are among the finest examples of the First Empire style.

In 1975, Baron Guy de Rothschild and his wife, Baroness Marie-Hélène, purchased Hôtel Lambert, a grand townhouse and one of the most luxurious mansions in Paris, located on the Quai Anjou on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, in Paris’ 4th arrondissement, where the couple took up residence on the top floors.

The house, built on an irregular site at the tip of the Île Saint-Louis in the heart of Paris, was designed by architect Louis Le Vau. The entrance

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Lapérouse Restaurant

Hotel de Beauharnais ture and interior designer) and Bernard Bijvoet.

Unable to expel an elderly woman resident on the top floor, the house was engraved underneath an existing apartment. As such, the house uses a skeletal frame steel construction to allow a free plan and the use of omnipresent lightweight materials, such as glass and glass block. American architectural historian Robert Rubin bought the house from the Dalsace family in 2006, in order to restore it and use it as his family residence. He allows a limited number of tours of the house. The honesty of materials, variable transparency of forms and juxtaposition of “industrial” materials and traditional home décor makes Maison de Verre a landmark of 20th century architecture.

“Lapérouse Restaurant has always been a house of pleasures — of gastronomy, of the flesh, of drinking, smoking and seduction, of conversation, literature and the arts,” so said Benjamin Patou, an entrepreneur who has been dubbed by the French media as the king of Parisian nightlife. Jules Lapérouse took over the eatery and gave it his name in the mid-19th century, and well into the 20th century it was a place frequented

by Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Honoré de Balzac, Colette, Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Established in 1766, the restaurant was awarded three prestigious Michelin stars between 1933 and 1968.

The private salons became the love nests of senators and their mistresses, the “cocottes”, who used the mirrors as a surface to etch and verify the quality of the diamonds they were

gifted by their lovers. Lapérouse became the venue of choice to mingle and unwind behind closed doors, far from the Parisian crowds. It was here where its famous “cocottes”, Caroline Otero and Liane de Pougy, renowned for their frivolous antics during the Belle Époque, would write the legends of the erotic capital. It is also believed that senators would meet their lovers via a secret underground passage…

Legend has it that Serge Gainsbourg met Jane Birkin here. So much was said, yet so little… as secrecy was the salons’ golden rule. Scratching the surfaces of the mirrors became a ritual over the years, and among the guests who have scrawled for posterity are Madonna, Amber Heard, George Clooney and Kate Moss, whose contribution reads: “It’s 2 late 2 go 2 bed”.

T.S. Eliot one said: “the chief danger about Paris is that it is such a strong stimulant”. We don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

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COMMENT

Smart Enough, But Not Yet

FAST ENOUGH

Over the last five years, we’ve seen coordinated efforts among different state bodies aimed at supporting the national innovation ecosystem and building stronger ties between start-ups and traditional companies and academia, supported by the EU and bilateral resources

S

erbia has recently sped up its efforts to transition to the knowledge-based economy, guided by the idea that lower middle-income countries may leapfrog others by building up their human capital and the more advanced parts of their economy.

During previous years, some of the pillars of this policy shift have been incorporated into the Smart Specialisation Strategy (4S), 2020 to 2027, Industrial Policy Strategy, 2021 to 2030, Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy, 2020 to 2025, Scientific and Technological Development Strategy, 2021 to 2025 and Digital Skills Development Strategy, 2020 to 2024, as well as being supported by the Strategy for Education Development, 2030, and a series of amendments to tax law and others, aimed at providing an alternative source of capital that’s important for supporting innovative companies.

In this endeavour, the roles are more equally distributed between market forces and the private sector, on one side, and the state on the

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To summarise, there are opportunities, but also a lot of work to do to fulfil the promise of Serbia leapfrogging to a knowledge-based economy other – through its strategic support to digitalisation and technological development. On the top of that, other sources are also providing financial support, predominantly in the form of EU resources from IPA funds and the Horizon programme, and bilateral support like, for example, Chinese funding for artificial intelligence and biotechnology, and U.S. funding for digital transformation processes. Many other international actors are also supporting these trends.

Research, development and innovation activities are financed primarily by two state funds: the Innovation Fund and the Science Fund. They rely on a combination of state funds and the aforementioned forms of EU support.

The Innovation Fund strictly adheres to the criteria stipulated in the Smart Specialisation Strategy and supports both very young start-ups (expanded as of recently to include those in the very early stages of development) and SMMS that cooperate with academia to transform innovations into commercial products, services and processes. Since its inception, the Fund has poured about €31 million into these programmes.

The Science Fund, on the other hand, supports a broad range of R&D activities, only some of which are closely connected with business purposes. It has to date invested some €32.8 million.

Taken as a whole, Serbia’s public and private sectors allocate about 0.89% of GDP to R&D activities, which is far less than the EU average, where such investments equate to between two and 3.2% of GDP. The impressive rise of export-orientated, high andmediumtechnologicallyadvancedcompanies in Serbia is a sign that things are looking up, but the level of cooperation and exchanges of knowledge between academia and innovative and traditional companies has yet to improve.

This is clearly demonstrated by some of the indicators. For example, measured according to its overall innovation capacity, Serbia was ranked 83rd out of 141 countries by the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report. On the other hand, in the globally novel area of artificial intelligence (AI), Serbia is ranked 10th among the 20 countries of the Central and Eastern European region, while it occupies 46th place globally among the 172 nations that are measured by the AI Readiness Index. As you will see pointed out in interviews published throughout this edition, it may be possible for AI to find its applications in the growing automation of the automotive sector and industry.

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INTERVIEW ANĐELKA ATANASKOVIĆ, ECONOMY MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

We’ll Encourage The Modernisation Of

PRODUCTION PROCESSES Today’s market is ever more demanding and competitive, and companies that miss out on transforming digitally and don’t encourage innovation face the possibility of becoming technologically obsolete and thus losing their position on the market. Through coordinated policies of the Government of Serbia, we will encourage our companies to introduce a wide range of innovations, which will result in increased economic growth and higher exports.

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ccording to analyses conducted by economic experts, the technological intensity of Serbian exports and the speed of technological convergence have been becoming increasingly favourable in recent years. This is also confirmed by data presented to CorD by Serbian Economy Minister Anđelka Atanasković.

“In the 2014-2020 period, the structure of exports shifted to favour industrial areas of high technology and medium to high intensity.

The areas of high technological intensity that have been recording mild growth include the

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production of basic pharmaceutical products and preparations and the production of computers, electronics and optical products.

The average participation of these two areas stands at 3.5%,” says our interlocutor. “In the same period, the area of medium-high technological intensity had the largest share and amounted to 36.9%. Within the scope of this technological group, the best results were achieved in the production of electrical equipment, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, regardless of the fact that they experienced a slight downward trend in the

share of chemicals and chemical products.”

Similarly, according to Minister Atanaskovic, the area of medium-low technological intensity also had a high share amounting to 27.9%, with the standout products being those made of rubber and plastics, as well as base metals.

Serbia adopted a new Industrial Policy Strategy recently, which is synchronised with the Smart Specialisation Strategy. In the development of these complex policies, which areas included the participation of your ministry?

INVESTMENTS

INNOVATORS

EDUCATION

The Ministry of Economy will continue working on Serbia’s further development and modernisation as an investment location, but also on enticing more technologically developed companies

The leading industries in digital transformation are trade, the metal and electrical industries, expert, scientific and technical activities, as well as the sectors of food, construction and the creative industries

Our focus includes the harmonising of digital education with the needs of industry and activities aimed at strengthening the digital skills of employees in industry, through the system of non-formal education

- Alongside the expert working groups that were engaged on the drafting of the Industrial Policy Strategy and the Smart Specialisation Strategy, an inter-ministerial working group was formed and its work was coordinated from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The drafting of these strategies was carefully coordinated, bearing in mind that they have very similar goals – to raise the competitiveness of industry, i.e., the economy – and that these two strategies practically complement one another.

Additionally, within the scope of the specific objectives of the Industrial Policy Strategy that are dedicated to digitalisation, innovation and export restructuring, there are a number of activities that are supported by the findings of the smart specialisation process.

Through the work of the aforementioned inter-ministerial working group, industrial policy is coordinated with all other relevant policies, as well as being harmonised with projections of future economic trends, including in the monetary and fiscal sphere.

- I would remind your readers that the Industrial Policy Strategy of the Republic of Serbia from 2021-2030, as well as the action plan for its implementation, contains two special goals, which should – alongside other special goals – contribute to raising the competitiveness of

The Digital Transformation Programme is envisaged as additional support and will, among other things, provide subsidies of up to 6,000 euros in dinar equivalent to all enterprises that receive verification of having undergone the digital transformation process.

Alongside this, plans also include activities aimed at raising the level of digital security for industry, harmonising digital education with the needs of industry and activities intended to strengthen the digital skills of employees in industry, through the system of non-formal education.

Within the framework of the second specific goal (Development of industry based on innovation and development of higher stages of technological production), support activities are envisaged for the development of innovative solutions for businesses that form part of institutional infrastructure, such as clusters and business incubators, as well as support for the development of their production processes and organisational capacities.

Which mechanisms does the ministry use to influence the creation of policies in the field of education, which is in the process of gaining a strategy of its own that will run until 2030? What is your response to the growing shortage of labour?

- The Ministry of Economy, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and the Agency for Qualifications, strives - through the activities of the Sector Skills Council for Industrial Development - to determine the qualification needs of the labour market in the Republic of Serbia, through analysis of existing qualifications and determining the required qualifications in this sector, identifying qualifications that need to be modernised, but also qualifications that no longer meet the needs of the sector, as well as promoting dialogue and collaboration between the worlds of labour and education.

Which measures does your ministry use to encourage innovation and digital transformation?

We support companies that devote attention to modern technologies and form departments to conduct research and development within the scope of their capacities, as that will make our economy even more competitive and result in increased exports and growth as a whole our country’s industry, dedicated to innovations and digital transformation.

Specifically, within the framework of the first specific goal (Improved digitalisation of industrial production business models), a series of promotional activities are envisaged to raise awareness of the need for digital transformation, as well as a series of educational activities that will help the economy to apply these solutions practically.

To what extent are favourable technological changes a result of the arrival of increasingly sophisticated foreign investors, and to what extent are they the creation of domestic medium-sized companies that are ready to apply new technologies?

- A stable business environment, with a recognisable and attractive investment environment, is one of the reasons that companies are interested in investing in Serbia.

The Ministry of Economy will continue working on Serbia’s further development and modernisation as an investment location, and the aim will certainly be to bring more technologically developed companies, as has been the aim to date.

We mustn’t forget that new investments drive entire chains of domestic suppliers and manufacturers, as well as the introduction of new technologies and new employment.

I must note that we are considering further directions for the development of the Serbian economy through those economic branches

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INTERVIEW are based on, or related to, associated scientific and technological achievements.

Within the scope of this programme, scientists use artificial intelligence to develop a software system for agriculture, create tools for saving electricity, develop a versatile and intelligent production system for Industry 4.0, improve algorithms for increased safety at work and conduct research that will yield results that will be applicable in other sectors of industry.

There is noticeable interest in these projects in the economy, but also among researchers who possess or are developing the skills required to develop algorithms or systems based on artificial intelligence.

Some of the project teams have already established cooperation with the economy, both with domestic and foreign companies. and areas in which we already have growth, but also through those areas that need additional stimulation to achieve better results.

In this context, in the period ahead we will consider the possibilities of greater incentives for advanced technological solutions in the manufacturing sector and modernisation of production processes.

We need to devote more attention to the possibilities of introducing and more broadly applying modern technologies, as well as to research and development, which in combination can have a positive impact on reducing operational costs, but also creating new value.

By providing new opportunities to export companies, but also those companies that devote attention to modern technologies, and accordingly forming departments to conduct research and development within their capacities, our economy will be even more competitive on foreign markets, which will result in increased exports and growth as a whole.

Otherwise, with the aim of attracting both domestic and foreign investors, the Investment Department of the Ministry of Economy applies four regulations in its work that govern the criteria for granting incentives to attract direct investment, as well as attracting direct investment in the food production sector, the automation of existing capacities in the domain of the food industry and the sector of hotel accommodation services.

With the applying of these regulations, through direct investments, we have also en-

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There is noticeable interest in the economy for projects in the area of artificial intelligence, but also among researchers who possess or are developing the skills required to develop algorithms or systems based on artificial intelligence abled, among other things, the automation of existing capacities aimed at improving the productivity of recipients of incentive funding.

Which of the innovations supported by the Innovation Fund and the Science Fund would you single out as being particularly important for providing an impetus to certain smaller or larger sectors of industry?

- The Innovation Fund provides financial support for the implementation of development and innovation projects.

The Fund has to date supported more than 220 projects, through which more than 300 new, innovative products have been developed.

When observing the industrial areas to which they belong, half of all innovations supported by the Fund are in ICT domain, followed by the food industry, agriculture and mechanical engineering.

Within the framework of the Programme for the Development of Artificial Intelligence, the Science Fund finances 12 scientific projects that use innovative artificial intelligence methods that

In which sectors do you see the leaders of digital transformation? Are those some of the classic sectors, or some newly created industrial sectors?

- On the basis of cooperation between the Ministry of Economy and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Centre for Digital Transformation, half of all companies plan to advance operational processes through automation and the connecting of their systems and processes in a single solution that will enable all-encompassing review and control.

Despite the fact that this represents an opportunity for companies to reduce costs, it simultaneously also includes challenges.

In almost all cases, it is essential to initially reengineer existing processes and optimise them prior to proceeding with digitalisation.

The most common advances in digital transformation for companies that have implemented solutions with the support of the Centre for Digital Transformation relate to improvements to business processes (74%), improvements to the business model (15%), improvements to services (8%) and improvements to products (3%).

On the basis of the results of the joint work of the Centre for Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Economy, the leading industries, or the sectors that have the greatest need and strive for digital transformation the most, are trade, the metal and electrical industries, expert, scientific and technical activities, as well as the sectors of food, construction and the creative industries.

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INTERVIEW MARKO ČADEŽ, PRESIDENT OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY OF SERBIA

We Connect Science And

THE ECONOMY

If we wish to raise the technological level of our economy, it is important to secure favourable conditions to raise credit for the procurement of modern machinery and equipment, as well as support programmes for the digital transformation of traditional industry and the automation of their processes, to adapt our education systems to the needs of the labour market and encourage the use and production of green energy and transferring to the business models of the circular economy.

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he structure of the economy can’t change overnight, nor even over the course of a year or two. But testifying to the progress achieved is the fact that that Serbia hasn’t only increased its sales fivefold on the international market in the last fifteen years, but has also significantly changed the structure of its export offer.

While our lists of export commodities used to be dominated by raw materials and primary agricultural products, in the previous period we’ve seen a significant increase in the share of the processing industry and higher value-added goods, primarily in the form of motor vehicles, auto parts and electrical devices.

“The latest analyses of the editorial team of magazine Macroeconomic Economic Analysis and Trends are encouraging, as they indicate above-average growth in exports of high and medium technology products, and particularly exports of high-tech products,” says Marko Čadež, president of the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia.

Sales of high-tech products on the international market have increased almost 15-fold over the past decade and a half - from 77.4 million euros in 2005, to 1.16 billion euros last year. Exports of high and medium technological complexity products, which amounted to only 13.5% 15 years ago, today account for a third of Serbia’s total goods exports, according to these analyses.

Simultaneously, we are seeing constant increases in exports of Serbian services, and the surplus in exchanges of services with the outside world. Last year’s value of exported

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POTENTIAL

INCENTIVES

INNOVATIONS

Serbia has huge potential in the science and research sector, but that potential is not sufficiently utilised in the creating of new higher added value products and services

We have two key assets when it comes to attracting high-tech companies that open their own R&D centres in our country: capable people and a serious package of tax incentives.

Our objective is to connect companies that have capital and require innovative solutions with the innovative technological and scientific research community.

services was 2.5 times higher than it was ten years ago, while the surplus was 8 times higher.

The largest share and greatest contribution to that growth has been provided by IT services, the export performance of which – according to these data - increased from 171 million euros in 2011 to 1.3 billion euros in 2020, with average annual growth of 26 per cent.

Who instigated that change: was it exclusively foreign investors, or also innovative domestic companies?

- Foreign investors have, without a shadow of a doubt, provided a great contribution to reducing unemployment, increasing exports, changing the structure of exports and accelerating economic growth in the previous period.

For example, thanks to the investments of German companies, about 70,000 people have gained employment in Serbia, and today almost 90 per cent of our goods that are exported to the German market are industrial products, more than 80 per cent are goods with a higher degree of processing, and more than half are represented by machinery and devices. Foreign investments are also important because of the technologies, standards and business models that they transfer to our economy from the developed world. With the arrival of foreign investors, local companies receive market competition that encourages them to improve themselves, to strengthen their capacities.

In striving to emulate foreign corporations, domestic firms adopt their technologies, standards and business management principles, becoming more capable of inclusion in global supply chains.

The structure of Serbia’s economy is also improved thanks to the contributions of large domestic business systems, some of which have dozens of companies in their structures and engage hundreds of local suppliers in their chain. The impact of their investments, as well as their influence on the development of the domestic economy, shouldn’t be undermined.

Serbia’s largest business systems have announced individual investments of 50-plus million euros for this year alone.

One important step in strengthening links between the economy and science is the introduction of dual education to colleges, which will start this autumn However, it is equally important for the recovery and further growth of the economy as a whole to support healthy small and medium-sized companies as they continue investing in the expansion and development of their operations, to improve productivity and strengthen their companies and the competitiveness of their products.

Sticking to foreign investors, when we observe the structure of foreign investments made in Serbia over the last two to three years, how many of them could we classify as being made by

companies that bring medium- and higher-level technologies to our country?

- The vast majority are precisely those kinds of companies. The decrease in unemployment to a level below 10 per cent has enabled us to instigate a turnaround in the policy of incentivising foreign investments in recent years, for us to shift towards focusing more on attracting companies which, apart from creating new jobs, bring the latest technologies to Serbia and contribute to raising the technological level of our economy, creating products with added value and employing a highly educated workforce.

When it comes to attracting high-tech companies that increasingly decide to not only open factories in Serbia, but also to create their own research and development centres in our country, we have two key assets: people who are competitive, trained, skilled workers, top experts and world-renowned engineers; and a serious package of tax incentives for investing in research, development and innovation. Thanks to all of this, Serbia is on route to becoming one of Europe’s leading hubs for high-tech companies. Apart from Microsoft, which has had its regional development centre in Serbia for years, and NCR, which is finalising the largest technological campus in Europe here, there are companies like Continental, Draexlmaier, ZF Friedrichshafen, Brose, Nidec etc. that already have, or are set to establish, their own R&D centres in our country. Serbia has also been chosen as an investment and business destination in recent years by other leaders in their fields, such as Zumtobel, Toyo Tires, Fischer Automotive Systems, Barry Callebaut, MTU Aero Engines, Bizerba, Stadler etc.

What is suggested by the Smart Specialisation Strategy? When it comes to Serbia’s comparative advantages, were you surprised by the research that preceded this strategy?

- The industries marked as having the greatest development and export potential, in which we will direct future investments, are: the food industry (food for future); the manufacturing of technologically advanced machines and devices, including the automotive industry; and the ICT

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INTERVIEW and creative industries. And there really were no surprises in that.

This was also confirmed by domestic analyses and recognised by foreign investors. For instance, the production of food products, together with the beverage and tobacco industries, attracted the most foreign direct investment over recent decades – representing 20 per cent of total FDI in the processing industry.

The lion’s share of foreign investments over the last few years – viewed both on the basis of value and the number of realised projects – have been in the automotive and auto parts industry, which is particularly important when we consider the technologically intensive nature of producing cars, machinery and equipment, which carry greater added value and bring the possibility of greater industrial sophistication, and thus help improve the structure of exports by increasing the share of products with higher technological complexity.

When it comes to IT, this isn’t only the Serbian economy’s fastest-growing sector and one of its four leading industries, with growth of revenue and employment exceeding the economy’s standard level and annual export growth averaging 26 per cent, with top experts, software solutions and products that are recognised and used around the world. Rather it is also a sector that is an important asset when it comes to attracting high-tech companies from other sectors, but also a pillar of support for the domestic economy in the processes of transforming and advancing production and operational processes.

By relying increasingly on the IT sector and young, highly educated creative people, Serbia’s creative industries have been recording the continuous growth of added value and exports of newly registered companies and entrepreneurs over the last five or six years, to now exceed a GDP share of seven per cent.

Apart from the production of video games and interactive media, the Serbian creative sector’s greatest potential lies in the field of audiovisual production, supported by state incentives for the shooting of foreign and domestic films and television series.

How does the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia contribute to strengthening the Serbian economy’s innovation potential?

- Apart from participating in the drafting of advanced business regulations, we also provide

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world. Our objective is to connect companies that have capital and require innovative solutions to improve their production and operational processes with the innovative technological and scientific research community, which has ideas and solutions for the business challenges confronting the economy.

We are delighted that the Ministry of Economy has recognised our Centre for the Digital Transformation of the Economy as one of the partners for implementing measures to advance the digitalisation of industrial production assistance to companies in applying innovations and strengthening their innovation potential and their ability to create their own innovations. And, perhaps most importantly, we help in securing better access to financing from corporate, state and European funds.

Apart from being the nexus in connecting science and the economy, we also work on the mutual networking of companies: connecting the technological, innovative start-up community with major companies; connecting the ICTsector with traditional industries; and connecting our high-tech companies with others around the

How do you envisage future cooperation between science and the economy?

- It is essential for science and research to be put in the function of economic and technological development by establishing stronger ties between the economy, R&D activities and investment capital. As such, it is important to change the attitude of science towards the economy and vice versa, and to establish a system that will ensure better communication, greater understanding and better coordination of all actors in the chain: from the state, via academia and individual innovators, to the business community.

Serbia has huge potential in the science and research sector, but that potential is not sufficiently utilised in the creating of new higher added value products and services.

A large number of projects that have been implemented at local universities and scientific institutes are only known to academic circles, i.e., they are rarely applied in domestic practises. Scientific research organisations are mainly financed from budgetary sources, only generating around a quarter of their total funding on the market, which is significantly below the EU average. In conjunction with that, the share of domestic private sector investment in R&D remains many times lower than is the case in the developed world. The solution lies in a strategic partnership between science and the economy that would be established and led by scientists and professors who understand business and by businesspeople who understand the importance of science and research. The economy expects the academic community to focus more on finding solutions to specific economic problems, while the university expects to receive information from the economy that will help direct it towards educational programmes and techniques that are aligned with the needs of companies. One important step in the strengthening of these links is the introduction of dual education to colleges, which will start this autumn.

BOJANA VESIĆ ANTIĆ, HR DIRECTOR AT G4S SECURE SOLUTIONS

INTERVIEW

BUSINESS

Living The Values, Protecting

LIVES AND PROPERTY Over the course of around a hundred years, G4S has evolved from a company specialising in manned security to a company providing efficient and effective integrated security solutions with people at their essence Academy experts is passionate about securing your world, by offering the latest solutions and utilising industry knowhow to address future security needs, as well as sharing that knowhow with our clients.

How would you describe the organisational culture of your company, which is among the world’s largest private employers?

More than a third of our employees are colleagues who’ve been with the company for 10 or more years.

People connect with people and work for people, which is what characterises this team

O

ur values are core to shaping the culture of our organisation, helping to guide, unite, differentiate and sustain us. They are integral to everything we do.

G4S is an international company that has several hundred thousand employees. What do they all have in common? Is it their goal, vision and mission?

- This year American Allied Universal acquired and became the owner of G4S, a global leader in the security field. Our mission is to preserve the values, lives and property of the clients who place their trust in us. More than 800,000 employees, 3,500 of which are in Serbia, are connected by our corporate values being integrity and respect, safety and service excellence, teamwork and innovation. Our global community of G4S

- One of the biggest projects we’re planning for this year is the adapting and changing of our organisational culture, in accordance with the needs of employees and the ever-increasing challenges that we face in the business world, both at the global and local levels. G4S in Serbia is composed of three cultures of the companies that have laid foundations we use today to successfully build our recognisable and unique position in this industry.

We protect your world - but our mission doesn’t end there. We live diversity through our employees who hail from different regions and cultures of Serbia. We promote and support women in security through intensive employment and education. We support various activities within the scope of our CSR programme - our employees participate with their personal donations and by devoting their private time to educating vulnerable groups.

This is all us and our values that form part of the culture we want to preserve and upgrade, and that makes us very proud.

G4S has many employees that have been part of the team for more than 20 years.

How would you explain such loyalty? Is it the result of business relationships built on trust, good organisation, respect...?

- More than a third of our employees are colleagues who’ve been with the company for 10 or more years. People connect with people and work for people, which is what characterises this team. We have a large number of employees who know their job well and maintain excellent relations with clients, recognising all the risks and reacting in a timely manner to prevent them. Considering the fact that anti-competitive practices exist in this industry and that many employees have previously had negative experiences, G4S is a company that provides its staff with the kind of security that they had not had with their previous employers. This is the most common statement of all colleagues in the surveys that we’ve conducted.

A significant number of employees also point out the good organisation which distinguished itself during the pandemic and the state of emergency, when we showed that we care equally for everyone. That said, we transported colleagues to and from work, organised testing and sent out “health packages” to all those who fell ill. The most important element is that everyone kept their job. All of the aforementioned activities represent a sign of mutual trust and respect that people recognise and know how to reward.

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BUSINESS

YEAR THAT CHANGED EUROPE’S HEALTH PICTURE Europeans have confirmed the clear impact of the pandemic on the mental state of citizens: one in four people feels restless, while even more of them are suffering from anxiety and 15 per cent of respondents say they have trouble sleeping

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he burnout syndrome is most pronounced among Serbian citizens – as shown by the results of a new international research study conducted by the Stada Group, to which Serbia’s Hemofarm belongs, on how Europeans have coped with the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent to which their lives have changed during the previous period.

Under the scope of this research, Stada examined the thoughts of people in 15 European countries (including Serbia) regarding the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on their physical and mental health, their habits related to health and hygiene,andalsotheextenttowhichtheytrusthealth workers, but also so-called influencers in this area.

Lockdowns and other restrictions imposed during the pandemic had a significant impact on Europeans: almost one in three residents (29 per cent) suffered from elevated anxiety levels, while one in four had problems with stress and internal unrest. Another 15 per cent of Europeans reported sleeping disorders. These symptoms more often affected young Europeans than those aged over 35. When it comes to the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of citizens in Serbia, a third of respondents (31%) admit that it caused them

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Serbian Economy 2021

When it comes to the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of citizens in Serbia, a third of respondents (31%) admit that it caused them stress leading to internal unrest, while at the same time almost as many respondents (29%) said that they didn’t experience any mental health issues as a consequence of the pandemic stress leading to internal unrest, while at the same time almost as many respondents (29%) said that they didn’t experience any mental health issues as a consequence of the pandemic.

The possibility of contracting COVID-19 is not the main cause of concern: most Europeans were harder hit by the lack of personal contact with family and friends (52 per cent). Fear of infection is ranked second, with 42 per cent, while almost a third of respondents are concerned about the financial and business consequences of the pandemic. Feelings are similar among citizens of Serbia: 51 per cent of them were most concerned about the lack of contact with their nearest and

dearest, while fear of infection was confirmed as the greatest concern by 39 per cent of respondents in the country. Fear related to finances and future business was also confirmed by 39 per cent of Serbian citizens surveyed.

When it comes to prevention and a healthy lifestyle, the vast majority of Europeans (70%) are willing to invest more in their own health.

Specifically, 45% of respondents now eat a healthier and more varied diet, while they are also willing to pay extra for that. Approximately a third of Europeans have recently added some form of physical activity to their leisure activities.

In Serbia, more than half of respondents (54%) confirmed that they’ve bought healthier and better-quality food during the previous period, and almost a third (mostly among the younger population) have dedicated themselves to sports.

Hygiene measures have played an unprecedented role in our lives to date. However, Europeans don’t want to collectively abandon them any time soon: 45 per cent of respondents said that they will continue regularly washing their hands, a third plan to maintain the recommended minimum safe distance from others, while a fifth even want to continue wearing facemasks in public.

Generally speaking, 74% of Europeans are satisfied with their healthcare system. Compared with the previous year, this number was down three per cent. Swiss citizens feel like they receive the best care (91%), while Ukrainians are most dissatisfied with their healthcare system (25%).

For 73 per cent of Europeans, doctors are the first point of contact for all health issues, while pharmacists and scientists also enjoy great trust (60 per cent each). As many as 81 per cent of respondents are convinced that pharmacists and scientists, together with medical personnel, are the most deserving of our gratitude for their work in the struggle against COVID.

DRAGANA SIMOVIĆ, SALES & MARKETING MANAGER, M&M (MILITZER & MÜNCH) SERBIA

BUSINESS

M&M CONNECTING WORLDS Militzer & Münch Serbia has quickly become a serious competitor on the transport and logistics market of the Republic of Serbia, with increased demand having prompted it to invest eight million euros in a new logistics centre in Dobanovci man business leaders with the kind of service they have in their home country. Considering the situation caused by the pandemic, our company’s management reorganised operations, i.e. the provision of services, in such a way that we immediately offered our clients the possibility of transferring operations to digital platforms. In accordance with that, our further development is based on digitalisation and reducing manual work.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the entire transport and logistics sector has turned towards innovative digital solutions,

“M&M Connecting Worlds” is our company motto, which fully describes M&M’s aspirations to connect countries on all continents

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and this trend is set to continue in the coming years. Our sector is undoubtedly moving towards the B2C business model, with the optimisation of business processes, because many supply chains ground to a halt during the previous year, and globalisation is itself changing course.

Militzer & Münch Serbia was recognised as a serious market competitor very quickly after arriving in the country. How would you assess the development potential of the transport and logistics sector?

Thanks to an aggressive “brand & awareness” campaign, we managed to distinguish ourselves from the competition and bring the German business model closer to all interested parties, as well as providing Ger-

How much has M&M contributed to better connecting Serbia and the building of more successful relations between the country and the rest of the world?

“M&MConnectingWorlds”isourcompany motto, which fully describes M&M’s aspirations to connect countries on all continents.

M&M Serbia has placed its focus in 2021 on, among other things, the development of the Air & Sea sector, which should connect the most remote parts of the world. Within the scope of the Air sector, we offer all types of services – from Door-to-Door, Consolidated

hanks to a densely developed network of M&M branches in 27 countries, and partner companies, we enable expeditious, tailor-made logistics solutions, as well as other services from our portfolio - reveals M&M Serbia Sales & Marketing Manager Dragana Simović, speaking in this interview for CorD.

Multimodal transport and Charter service, all the way to the On Board Courier service.

On the other hand, within the scope of Sea transport services, we offer FCL, LCL, Split and full charter solutions. Our portfolio also includes a Rail service, which we perform using our own train that travels from China to Central Europe.

Your new logistics centre in Dobanovci meets your current needs, but is it true that you’ll have to additionally expand the centre if you continue to grow at the current rate?

We are extremely proud of the fact that, in less than two years, we’ve made an investment in our logistics centre that’s worth eight million euros. The growth that we’re facing requires additional investments, both in terms of warehouse space and process automation, but also in terms of personnel. In the coming months, we expect to reach agreement on additional investments, or the approval of funds for further investments, with the Board of Directors of M&M International Holding AG and Invictus System.

You’ve revealed some of your plans and upcoming projects in Serbia, but have you considered expanding your regional presence and opening branches in Montenegro, B-H, Albania etc.?

As we announced, we officially opened branches in Podgorica and Sarajevo recently, which was our plan for the first half of 2021, while we are in the process of opening branches in Tirana and Priština. We expect to welcome the first employees as early as 1st July, as well as the start of the first jobs.

This move will enable us to partially cover the region of the Western Balkans by year’s end, while the plan for 2022 is to cover North Macedonia with a branch in Skopje.

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BUSINESS

MINISTRY OF MINING AND LEADING MINING COMPANIES PARTICIPATE IN NSTLAW AND CANSEE

PANEL DISCUSSION

On 15th June 2021, a panel discussion on the recent Mining Law Amendments was organised by NSTLAW in cooperation with CANSEEthe Canadian-Serbian Business Association at the Hilton Hotel.

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ttendees were addressed by H.E. Mr. Giles Norman, Ambassador of Canada, who emphasised that Serbia has become one of the most interesting mining markets in Europe, and the Mining Law Amendments presented a positive step forward.

Nenad Stanković, Founder and Managing Partner of Stanković and Partners (NTSLAW), moderated the discussion with participants H.E. Mr. Giles Norman – Ambassador of Canada, Ms. Mirjana Doncic–Beaton, CANSEE Canadian-Serbian Business Association, Ms. Dragana Jelisavac Erdeljan, Ministry of Mining and Energy, Mr. Nenad Rakić, Balkan Gold, Mr. Dušan Simić, Jantar Group, and Mr. Marijanti Babić, Rio Sava Exploration. Along with the Ministry of Mining and the panelists, representatives of Rio Tinto, Zijin Mining, Dundee Precious Metals, Balkan Gold, Adria Minerals, Mundoro Capital and others took an active part in the discussion.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia outlined the main amendments and new investment opportunities in the sector. Dragana Jelisavac Erdeljan stated that she expected the amendments to result in the modernisation of the mining sector, and that the aim of the Law wastoremoveinadequaciesobservedinpractice duringimplementationofthepreviouslegislation.

When asked about the new possibility for investors and the Republic of Serbia to conclude investment agreements, Marijanti Babić said that such an opportunity had also existed before, albeit in a different format, and that investment agreements have been available for many years in Australia, Portugal, Romania and Greece. Such agreements will be regulated in more detail through additional

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Serbian Economy 2021

bylaws that will be passed in due course. Babić also noted that the novelty in terms of bank and corporate guarantees was important and was favourable and stimulating for investors.

The newly introduced amendments envisage the introduction of E-mining. As explained by Dragana Jelisavac Erdeljan, this new feature will simplify procedures and overall efficiency.

Simić stated that the amendments to the Law that introduced classification of (solid) mineral resources and the classification of reserves of mineral resources based on the Pan European Reserves and Resources Reporting Committee (PERC) Code were international standards that would reduce costs for stakeholders and more efficient research activities.

Nenad Rakić noted that the amendment to the Law that referred to authorisations of the inspections regarding professional supervision was a significant change. The

new Law stipulates that the professional supervision cannot be done by a legal entity that is also the researching entity.

The panel concluded that the amendments to the Law on Mining and Geological Research provide opportunities for improvement in that sector, but that there were certain ambiguities and that there were expectations with respect to responsible development given the controversy over this topic.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Embassy of Canada and Ambassador Norman for their support in this panel and look forward to working together to secure the most optimal framework in this dynamic sector.

Further thanks to all the panelists, our guests and our long-term partner CANSEE – Canadian – Serbian Business Association for their active participation and contribution to the organisation of this panel discussion.

Humane banking: Mobi Banka employees collect 305 thousand dinars during marathon In the "Kilometer of messages" action, 1,527 SMS messages were sent to the Budi Human Foundation

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n the humanitarian action named “Kilometre of messages”, the employees of Mobi Banka collected 305 thousand dinars of aid for the Budi Human Foundation, which helps finance the treatment of rare and serious diseases. Mobi Banka employees who participated in the marathon, half-marathon, or pleasure walk sent one SMS to the number 3030 for each kilometre covered.

“I thank my colleagues who participated in this action. Actions like this are an example of humane banking that we advocate. I am most proud of the marathoners of our bank who designed this action and encouraged my colleagues to participate in the marathon and help those who need it the most,” said Marija Popović, President of the Executive Board of Mobi Banka.

491 marathon runners participated in this year’s Belgrade Marathon, with Telenor as their exclusive partner, along with 3,043 half-marathon runners who finished the race. For the first time in the marathon’s history, instead of a fun run, a pleasure walk was held in the spirit of supporting people with disabilities under the slogan “Without Barriers”.

“We take care of employees and their health, so we decided to design this action and give colleagues an additional reason to participate in the marathon, and at the same time give at least a small contribution and help those who need our help the most”, said Nenad Joksimović of Mobi Banka Human Resources, who completed the race in 2:22:37.

Serbian Economy 2021

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Serbian Economy 2021

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INTERVIEW USA 2021

USA 2021

INTERVIEW

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USA 2021

CONTENTS

FROM 06 TRANSITION TRUMP TO BIDEN

BY RICHARD WIKE, JACKOB POUSHTER, LAURA SILVER, JANELL FETTEROLF AND MARA MORDECAL

LEADERS PREDICT THE U.S. IS JUST AS 21 ONLY THE FUTURE 28 IMPORTANT TO US AS THE EU ALEKSANDAR PAVLOVIĆ, IT SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR, AIGO

VLADIMIR MARINKOVIĆ, DIRECTOR OF THE SERBIANAMERICAN FRIENDSHIP CONGRESS

MORE THAN THREE 32 DECADES INVESTING IN SERBIA VESELIN JANIĆIJEVIĆ, DIRECTOR OF MCDONALD’S SERBIA

WITH THE EXCEPTION 10 OF KOSOVO, OUR VALUES ALIGN

NIKOLA SELAKOVIĆ, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

CITIZENS 22 SERBIAN RECOGNIZE SPIN

DARKO SOKOVIĆ, MANAGING PARTNER, PROPULSION

30

BUSINESS PREMISES DON’T LOSE VALUE

MIA ZEČEVIĆ, CEO, NOVASTON

THERE’S NOTHING 14 MORE CONTAGIOUS THAN SUCCESS

BARON LOBSTEIN, ECONOMIC SECTION CHIEF, U.S. EMBASSY TO SERBIA

150 YEARS SINCE THE 34 BIRTH OF THEODORE DREISER

THE OUTSTANDING AMERICAN PRACTITIONER OF NATURALISM

GREAT PARTNERSHIPS 24 STAND BEHIND OUR SUCCESS SHANLEY PINCHOTTI, USAID ACTING MISSION DIRECTOR FOR SERBIA

COMMITTED TO WE CAN CHANGE 32 PATIENTS’ HEALTH IN 38 BOTH OURSELVES & SERBIA THE WORLD NEBOJŠA ŠKULJEC, DIRECTOR, MERCK SHARP & DOHME

FOCUS

THE 40 REALIZING AMERICAN DREAM

NIKOLA JOKIĆ, BASKETBALL ACE

18 TIME FOR OPTIMISM

IVAN MILETIĆ, FIRST VICE PRESIDENT OF AMCHAM SERBIA

TO REACT 27 READY PROACTIVELY

JELENA KNEŽEVIĆ, PARTNER, LEITNERLEITNER

SITKA - A DASH 44 OF FASCINATING HISTORY TOURISM

STATUE OF 48 THE LIBERTY 4

USA 2021

INTERVIEW

IMPRESSUM EDITOR IN CHIEF Neda Lukić n.lukic@aim.rs ART DIRECTOR Branislav Ninković b.ninkovic@aim.rs PHOTOS Zoran Petrović COPY EDITOR Mark Pullen mrpeditorial@mail.com

PROJECT MANAGERS Biljana Dević b.devic@aim.rs Vesna Vukajlović v.vukajlovic@aim.rs Mihailo Čučković m.cuckovic@aim.rs OFFICE MANAGER Svetlana Petrović s.petrovic@aim.rs FINANCE Dragana Skrobonja finance@aim.rs

GENERAL MANAGER Maja Vidaković m.vidakovic@aim.rs PUBLISHER Ivan Novčić i.novcic@aim.rs DIRECTOR Ana Novčić a.novcic@aim.rs a.novcic@cordmagazine.com

PRINTING Rotografika d.o.o.

Segedinski put 72, Subotica USA 2021 Published by: alliance international media Prote Mateje 52, 11111 Belgrade 17, PAK 126909, Serbia Phone: +(381 11) 2450 508 Fascimile: +(381 11) 2450 122 E-mail: office@aim.rs; office@cordmagazine.com

www.aim.rs; www.cordmagazine.com No 30 ISSN: 2560-4465 All rights reserved alliance international media 2021 The views expressed in this publication are those of the presenter; they do not necessary reflect the view of publications published by alliance international media

THIS PUBLICATION IS FREE OF CHARGE

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USA 2021

COMMENT

By Richard Wike, Jackob Poushter, Laura Silver, Janell Fetterolf and Mara Mordecal

TRANSITION FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN The election of Joe Biden as U.S. president has led to a dramatic shift in America’s international image.

Throughout the Donald Trump presidency, publics around the world held the United States in low regard, with most opposed to his foreign policies. This was especially true among key American allies and partners. Now, however, a new Pew Research Center survey of 16 publics finds a significant uptick in ratings for the U.S., with strong support for Biden and several of his major policy initiatives.

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n each of the 16 publics surveyed, more than six-in-ten say they have confidence that Biden will do the right thing in world affairs. Looking at 12 nations that were surveyed both this year and in 2020, a median of 75% of respondents express confidence in Biden, compared with 17% for Trump last year.

Presidential transitions over the course of the past two decades have had a major impact on overall attitudes toward the U.S. When Barack Obama took office in 2009, ratings improved in many nations compared to where they’d stood during George W. Bush’s administration, and when Trump entered the White House, in 2017, ratings fell

6

In most countries polled, people make a stark distinction between Biden and Trump as world leaders. Nearly eight-in-ten Germans (78%) have confidence that Biden will do the right thing in world affairs; just 10% said the same about Trump a year ago sharply. U.S. favorability is up again this year: Whereas an average of just 34% across 12 nations had a favorable overall opinion of the U.S. last year, this year that median is at 62%.

In France, for example, just 31% expressed a positive opinion of the U.S. last year, matching the poor ratings from March 2003, at the height of U.S.-French tensions over the Iraq War. This year, 65% see the U.S. positively, approaching the high ratings that characterized the Obama era. Improvements of 25 percentage points or more are also found in Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada…

Respondents in most of the surveyed countries make a stark distinction between Biden and Trump as world leaders.

Nearly eight-in-ten Germans (78%) have confidence that Biden will do the right thing in world affairs; just 10% said the same of Trump a year ago. Similar differences are found in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, and there is a difference of at least 40 percentage points in all nations where a trend from 2020 is available for comparison.

This is also the case with views of the United States as a whole, with confidence in U.S. presidents having shifted dramatically over the past two decades, especially in Western Europe. In Germany, the UK, Spain and France – four nations surveyed consistently by the Pew Research Center – ratings for Bush and Trump were similarly low during their presidencies, while this year’s confidence in Biden is fairly similar to the ratings received by Obama while he was in office.

Biden’s high ratings are partly linked to positive assessments of his personal characteristics, and here again the con-

trast with Trump is stark. Looking at 12 countries polled during the first year of both their presidencies, a median of 77% describe Biden as well-qualified to be president, compared with 16% who felt the same was true of Trump. Few think of Biden as arrogant or dangerous, while large majorities applied those terms to Trump. Assessments of the two leaders are more similar when it comes to being a strong leader, although Biden even receives much more positive reviews than his predecessor on this measure.

High levels of confidence in Biden are also tied to favorable views of his policies, several of which have emphasized multilateralism and reversed Trump administration decisions. The current survey examines attitudes toward four of the Biden administration’s key policies and finds widespread support for all four.

A median of 89% across the 16 publics surveyed approve of the U.S. rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO), which the U.S. withdrew from during Trump’s presidency. A median of 85% also support the U.S. rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was met with widespread criticism, and was overwhelmingly unpopular in the surveys conducted by the Center during his presidency. For example, just 8% of respondents in France

Although Biden’s more multilateral approach to foreign policy is welcomed, there is still a widespread perception that the U.S. mainly looks after its own interests in world affairs approved of Trump’s plans to withdraw support for international climate change agreements in 2019, compared with the 91% who now back Biden’s reentry into the agreement.

Support for the Biden administration’s proposal to organize a summit of democracies from around the world is also widespread, with a median approval rating of 85%. There is only slightly less support (a median of 76%) for Biden’s plan to allow more refugees into the U.S. (Biden campaigned on allowing more refugees into the country, briefly reversed his initial goal to raise the cap on refugees from levels set by the Trump administration, and then walked back the reversal amid criticism.)

Biden has also made clear that he plans to strengthen America’s commitment to the NATO alliance. And, as the current poll shows, NATO is viewed positively by the member states included in the survey.

Although Biden’s more multilateral approach to foreign policy is welcomed, there is still a widespread perception that the U.S. mainly looks after its own interests in world affairs. More than half of respondents in most of the surveyed publics say that the U.S. does not take their interests into account when making foreign policy decisions, although fewer feel this way in Japan, Greece and Germany.

Doubts about the U.S. considering the interests of other countries predate the Trump administration, and this has been the prevailing view – even among close U.S. allies – since the Center began asking the question in 2002.

Despite widely reported bilateral and multilateral tensions between the U.S. and many of its major allies and partners over the last four years, relatively few people describe the U.S. as an “unreliable partner.” But neither do they express great confidence in the U.S. as an ally.

Across the 16 publics polled, a median of 56% say the U.S. is somewhat reliable, while just 11% describe America as very reliable.

In addition to the concerns that some have about the way America engages with other nations, there are also concerns about domestic politics in the U.S. The 16 publics surveyed are divided in their 7

USA 2021

COMMENT views about how well the U.S. political system is functioning, with a median of only 50% saying that it is working well.

And few believe that American democracy, at least in its current state, serves as a good model for other nations.

A median of just 17% say democracy in the U.S. is a good example for others to follow, while 57% say it used to be a good example but has lost that status in recent years. Another 23% do not believe it has ever been a good example.

One of the reasons for the low ratings received by the U.S. in 2020 was the widespread perception that it was handling the global pandemic poorly.

In the current poll, the U.S. receives significantly more positive marks for the way it is handling COVID-19, but most still say that the U.S. has done a bad job of dealing with the outbreak (for more see “Global views of how the U.S. has handled the pandemic have improved, but few say it’s done a good job”).

In his first overseas trip as president, Biden is preparing to attend the G7 summit in the UK and the NATO summit in Brussels. Once there, he will meet with two other leaders who are widely trusted for their handling of world affairs (…) (…) Across the 16 publics surveyed, majorities or pluralities say the U.S. is a somewhat reliable partner. But in no public surveyed do more than two-in-ten say that the U.S. is a very reliable partner.

At the same time, fewer than fourin ten say the U.S. is a not too reliable partner, and in no public do more than 8

In 2020, only 10% of Germans had confidence that Trump would do the right thing in world affairs (matching a previous all-time low earlier in Trump’s presidency).

Once Biden took office, confidence in the U.S. president increased by 68 percentage points in Germany, but it is still lower there than the all-time high of 93% in 2009, Obama’s first year in office one-in-seven say that the U.S. is a not a reliable partner at all.

The sentiment that the U.S. is a very or somewhat reliable partner is highest in the Netherlands (80%), Australia (75%) and Japan (75%), while 44% in Taiwan and 43% in Greece say that the U.S. is not too reliable or completely unreliable.

When asked whether relations with the U.S. will improve, worsen or remain the same over the next few years, a median of 57% across the 16 publics say that they will stay the same. While a continuation of current relations with the U.S. is the most common response, a median of 39% say relations will improve and only 5% say they will worsen.

The only country where a majority thinks that relations with the U.S. will improve is Germany (60%), where attitudes about the transatlantic alliance

have become increasingly pessimistic in recent years. Half of Canadians also say that relations with their southern neighbor will get better over the next few years. (…) In the first year of his presidency, Biden enjoys positive ratings from majorities in each of the publics surveyed.

Overall, a median of 74% have confidence that the U.S. president will do the right thing in world affairs.

Confidence is particularly high in the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Canada, where around eight-in-ten or more trust Biden when it comes to international affairs. He receives his lowest ratings in Greece, South Korea and Taiwan, though his handling of world affairs is trusted by more than six-in-ten in each of these countries.

Widespread confidence in Biden contrasts starkly with views of his predecessor. Trust in the U.S. president was historically low in most countries surveyed during Trump’s presidency. In many cases, however, the share of those who have confidence in Biden is not as high as the share who had confidence in Obama, at the start or the end of his presidency.

Germany is a good example of this pattern. In 2020, only 10% of Germans had confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs (matching a previous all-time low earlier in Trump’s presidency). Once Biden took office, confidence in the U.S. president increased by 68 percentage points in Germany, but it is still lower there than the all-time high of 93% in 2009, Obama’s first year in office.

A similar trend can be seen in Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Japan.

However, in Greece, confidence in the U.S. president is the highest it has been since Pew Research Center first asked this question in the country. A much higher share of Greeks have confidence in Biden compared with Obama in 2016 and earlier. Notably, Biden has shared a positive relationship with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Greeks are now more than twice as likely to say that the U.S. takes their country’s interests into account when making policy decisions (53%) than they were when Obama was president (20% in 2013).

USA 2021

INTERVIEW

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USA 2021

INTERVIEW

NIKOLA SELAKOVIĆ, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF KOSOVO, OUR VALUES ALIGN This generation of politicians is obliged, first and foremost in the interests of Serbia, to attempt to once again find a common language and common interest with the United States, and that won’t be as tough as it may seem at first glance, provided good will exists on both sides.

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erbian Foreign Affairs Minister Nikola Selaković attracted great media and public attention when he highlighted the building of new partnership relations with the U.S. as one of Serbia’s priorities. In a year

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when we are commemorating the 140th anniversary of the establishing of bilateral relations, as well as 20 years since both the start of USAID’s work in Serbia and the establishment of AmCham in the country, our interlocutor provides his views

on cooperation to date and proposals for different approaches in the future. “We can only miss out on the opportunity to elevate our relations to a much higher level in the coming period if we are extremely unreasonable,” says Selaković.

“Serbia and the United States have had harmonious political and diplomatic relations throughout their entire history.

We had the misfortune as a state, due to numerous circumstances, of finding ourselves in conflict with the United States at what was a critical historical juncture for the entire world, but this was undoubtedly an uncharacteristic situation if we look at the tradition of bilateral relations between Serbia and America,” says Selaković. “This generation of politicians is obliged, first and foremost in the interests of Serbia, to attempt to once again find a common language and common interest with the United States, and that won’t be as tough as it may seem at first glance, provided good will exists on both sides. Our countries have foundations based on the same libertarian traditions and democratic values, and, with the exception of the Kosovo issue, we don’t have outstanding issues with the United States that could represent an insurmountable obstacle in the creating of a new partnership.”

Speaking in your then capacity as Secretary General of the Office of the President of Serbia, you expressed satisfaction that an agreement on economic normalization

INITIATIVE

REGION

INVESTMENTS

Today’s economic relations between Serbia and the U.S. are far below our possibilities, and it is necessary to invest new strength and energy, and to initiate some more efficient mechanisms to strengthen those relations.

The “Mini Schengen” initiative that was launched by President Vučić, as well as our solidarity during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, testify to the direction in which Serbia wants our region to develop.

The type of relationship and cooperation between our countries that is reflected in investment activity represents a key segment of the political and diplomatic warming of relations.

between Priština and Belgrade had been reached thanks to the mediation of then U.S. President Donald Trump. However, it now seems that the Serbian administration has high expectations when it comes to new U.S. President Joseph Biden.

The political postulate that forms the basis of the Washington agreement is that relations between Belgrade and Priština can be eased gradually through the strengthening of business ties and the creation of common economic interests.

This is a recipe that’s based on common sense, but also on tried and tested American political experiences. Despite many doubts among the local public and around the world regarding the attitude of President Biden’s administration towards the fruits of the work of the preceding administration, the State Department has clearly said that there won’t be a change of attitude when it comes to the Washington Agreement. When it comes to Serbia’s European integration, Washington has provided continuous support on our path to the EU. Given that the Biden administration intends to restore the United States’ active role as a beacon of democracy at the global level, the U.S. administration’s expectations regarding reform processes in Serbia coincide with our own interests and aspirations when it comes to the further consolidation of democracy in Serbia.

predictably. We have been saying for many years that we were ready—through some kind of compromise solution to outstanding issues between Belgrade and Priština—to create a more stimulating environment for the economic recovery and advancement of the region. And this isn’t only about taking an economically pragmatic approach, but also about our genuine desire to permanently shift the Western Balkans out of a post-conflict atmosphere and to bring an end to all interethnic friction in our region, in a sustainable way. In that sense, Serbia couldn’t be more constructive and sincere, while the only reservation we have relates to Serbia’s state and national interests, which must be satisfied as part of every enduring and sustainable solution in the Balkans. I am deeply convinced that such solutions are possible and only require a

the future strengthening of friendship and cooperation with the U.S.?

There are countless historical events that could be singled out as highlights or peaks in Serbian-American relations, starting with the presence of American doctors in these lands during the Balkan wars, through Pupin’s relations with President Wilson, to Operation Halyard, which resulted in the rescuing of the largest number of American pilots in occupied Europe during World War II. Today, Serbia’s informal ambassadors to the United States are our great athletes, who help to shape an image that differs greatly from the stereotypes about Serbia and Serbs that emerged during the 1990s.

We recently had the opportunity to hear German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas express his belief that, with the support of the new U.S. government, an opportunity is being offered to find a solution to the Kosovo issue, and to reach a comprehensive agreement that will also bring economic prosperity. What are your expectations when it comes to this economic side?

There is no doubt whatsoever that frozen conflicts don’t represent a favorable environment for dynamic economic growth and doing business securely and

When it comes to European integration, Serbia, the U.S. and the EU undoubtedly have overlapping interests. The only things we expect are equal measures and fair relations when it comes to evaluating and appraising the successes achieved in reform processes, and to date that hasn’t always been the case little foresight and constructiveness from our Western partners, among which the U.S. certainly stands out in terms of size, influence and might.

Even though we’re talking about a new partnership, it is important to mention that this year also marks the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our two countries.

Which historical occasions would you cite as being the most important to

Unlike some bygone times, it is Beijing in particular that is becoming an important player in foreign policy, but also in economic development, in today’s highly globalized world. And that is something we’re also witnessing in Serbia. When it comes to small countries, to what extent are relations between the major powers formed by the leading of diplomatic policies?

Serbia leads an open and transparent multivalent foreign policy based on the principles of our country’s military neutrality and political independence. We have no hidden agendas and no desire, as a small country, to interfere in the geopolitical disagreements of world and regional powers. We consider it possible to persevere with such a policy provided we continue successfully proving our credibility by working consistently on the creation of a stable region and the removal of economic obstacles, which has the end goal of facilitating political relations in the Western Balkans. It is tough for small countries and nations in turbulent times—and we are living in just such a geopolitical era—to find the space to develop and advance without joining blocs, but Serbia continues to seek its own place under the sun by pursuing 11

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ate for me to discuss the details of these plans or the dynamics of their implementation. The very fact that DFC formalized its presence in Belgrade with the opening a regional office is a very important step, and it is my sincere hope that we are on the threshold of a period of the continuous development of Serbian-American relations, including economic relations. It is evident that huge untapped potential exists in economic cooperation between Serbia and the U.S., and it is estimated that areas like energy, infrastructure and new technologies are particularly favorable for the development of cooperation.

a regional policy that’s responsible and well-intentioned in every sense, but also by jealously protecting its state-building traditions and its hard-won freedom and independence.

Since the democratic changes of 2000 to this day, USAID has encouraged numerous processes during the 20 years of its activity in Serbia, from strengthening the rule of law, to providing incentives to strengthen the market and promote innovation.

How important has this support been to the modern Serbia?

After a number of years spent under an atmosphere of sanctions and isolation, Serbia found itself entering a transition period completely unprepared. I don’t think Serbia was a successful example of transition during the first decade of this millennium, but there are numerous reasons for that, and now is not the time for me to get into them. However, in many areas—such as judicial reform or the establishing of a market economy— foreign knowhow was invaluable and irreplaceable, even though that period of our history, if I must provide a general retrospective rating, was a missed opportunity to a large extent. Regardless of how good the intentions of American and other foreign experts, agencies and NGOs were, the fact remains that today’s economic relations between Serbia and the U.S. are far below our possibilities, and it is necessary to invest new strength and energy, and to initiate some mecha12

We believe it would be very important to reach agreement with the U.S. on the avoidance of double taxation as soon as possible, and for Serbia’s preferential trade status with the U.S. to be extended nisms to strengthen those relations that are perhaps more efficient. I will only remind your readers that the value of the trade exchange with the U.S. amounted to 811.5 million dollars in 2020, while in the first four months of this year it totaled 285.4 million, which I’m sure you’ll agree is only symbolic when considering the possibilities on offer.

In accordance with the Washington Agreement, another U.S. agency, the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), should contribute to opening the door to U.S. investment in the Western Balkan region. Is it true, as media have speculated, that the arrival of the Biden administration has led to that plan being shelved; and, if so, what would be the repercussions when it comes to expected American investments, primarily in infrastructure?

The United States has a permanent interest in Serbia and the Western Balkans.

We certainly have high expectations when it comes to economic cooperation with the United States, but it wouldn’t be appropri-

This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the forming of AmCham in Serbia, as an association of American investors that operate very successfully in the country and have created a great many jobs over the years. How important are these business links when it comes to consolidating good diplomatic relations?

Apart from creating a significant number of jobs in Serbia, it seems to me that American investors also deserve the credit for one much more important change. Specifically, they brought to Serbia a new type of work ethic and well-organized systems that encourage competitiveness in the workplace. This mostly relates to companies that employ young, highly-qualified people. And some of those people opted to remain in Serbia and forge their professional future here thanks precisely to them gaining the opportunity to work for American companies, where they have predictable career development pathways. This type of relationship and cooperation between countries, which is reflected in investment activity, represents a key segment of the political and diplomatic warming of relations, because that changes the way Americans perceive Serbia and Serbs, but also the way a critically important group of the Serbian population perceives the U.S., which is extremely important following years of crisis in our relations.

That’s why we owe a debt of gratitude to business associations like AmCham, but also why we are obliged to continue improving the business environment, to ensure that economic relations between Serbia and America continue to flourish.

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BARON LOBSTEIN, Economic Section Chief, U.S. Embassy to Serbia

THERE’S NOTHING MORE CONTAGIOUS THAN SUCCESS When more technology companies understand that Serbia possesses a rich pool of intelligent and creative technology talent, and that the government is sincerely interested in boosting the growth of the sector in Serbia, then success will feed on success, and the number of new investments and new startup ventures will grow at an increasing rate.

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ew York-based video game company Take-Two Interactive recently acquired privatelyheld Serbian mobile games developer Nordeus, marking the latest of several Serbian startups or innovative companies to have been acquired by U.S. giants. We took the opportunity to explore the new venues of growth of the Serbian innovative industries, and to discuss the U.S. support to them, with Baron Lobstein, Economic Section Chief, U.S. Embassy to Serbia.

Are examples like Nordeus rare, or could we talk about a pronounced interest in exploring the Serbian startup market among U.S. investors?

Take-Two’s acquisition of Nordeus is simply the latest example in a growing wave of interest in the Serbian market.

We have other examples in the past, like 3Lateral and Frame. And we should certainly expect more in the future. Since I arrived in Serbia nearly two years ago, I have been inspired by Serbia’s progress in creating a nurturing environment for the digital economy. It is especially encouraging that the private sector has taken on the responsibility of pressing for improvements in laws and regulations to facilitate new investment in technology firms. I recently discussed this issue with the CEO of Nordeus, Branko Milutinović.

He explained the critical role of the Digital

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PROGRESS

ACHIEVEMENT

SUPPORT

Serbia has successfully addressed urgent problems from the past and is now focused on the challenge of positioning its economy for long-term sustainable growth.

I have been impressed at how the Serbian government has continued to evolve in a positive direction in improving the legal and regulatory environment for business.

The newest U.S. government agency, the Development Finance Corporation, is dedicated to facilitating investment in the digital economy and other strategic sectors .

Serbia Initiative – which he co-founded – in gathering the voices of private companies to work in partnership with government to make these regulatory changes. By the way, this is similar to the role that industry associations play in the United States, and it is consistent with the approach that we have encouraged through our economic development assistance.

people living in those countries. Serbia must advance in these fields if it wishes to be the kind of place where Serbians want to stay and raise their families.

likely potential foreign investors when it comes to these technologically innovative parts of the Serbian economy? How can small countries like Serbia dream about attracting Silicon Valley players?

The next investors in a growing economy like Serbia’s are likely to be those whose leaders have noticed the success of other companies in the market, and who want to share in that success. When companies notice their primary competitors enjoying success in Serbia, they will also want to come. However, this question reminds me of another important point that Nordeus CEO Branko Milutinović made in our recent discussion – which echoes a fact that has driven the development of the knowledge-based economy in our own country: a rich source of new innovative companies in Serbia may be companies like Nordeus, which already exist in Serbia and are developing new talent among their own workers. Just as Mr. Milutinović gained important experience by working at Microsoft, other bright young workers may now be working at Nordeus, gaining the skills and inspiration to start their own companies. When that happens, it is important that Serbia supports them with financing – through banks and angel investment – as well as through a constantly evolving and improving legal and regulatory environment.

Is it only from the Serbian perspective that talk about the Serbian economy increasingly leads to discussion of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, MedTech and other potential avenues for Serbia to leapfrog competitors in the knowledgebased economy? How do you perceive the changes currently taking place?

I have certainly noticed this trend. But, of course, Serbia isn’t the only country pursuing these avenues for growth. It is competing with many other middleincome European countries to attract new investment from international firms.

Investors are seeking not only countries with competitive costs of doing business and attractive investment incentives, but also those with advanced manufacturing facilities and infrastructure, where their senior executives would like to live and work. Artificial intelligence is critical to the future of many industries, including the automotive sector and industrial automation. Biotechnology is critical to the future of agriculture – that is, increasing crop yields and reducing spoilage – as well as to the future of vaccines and other innovative drugs. Thus, Serbia must incorporate artificial intelligence into the traditional industries that have driven its economy if it wishes to remain competitive in these fields. And, as other countries increasingly adopt medical technology – including remote medicine, digital medical records, and e-medicine services – these services will improve the delivery of medical services around the world and improve quality of life for

What is the role of the U.S. Embassy in supporting and inspiring such initiatives?

The United States has worked in Serbia for many years, through its assistance programs, to encourage an environment that welcomes and nurtures business – especially smaller businesses and technology firms. To take only a couple of examples, USAID has two new programs with ICT Hub and the Digital Serbia Initiative that

We provide resources and encouragement, but the Serbian government and people are taking a leadership role in deciding how best to use these resources are helping new startups grow in digital industries, and also helping to build an entrepreneurial mindset in younger generations. In fact, USAID helped to establish NALED, which has provided an enormous contribution to improvements in the legal and regulatory framework for small and medium-sized businesses.

The newest U.S. government agency, the Development Finance Corporation, is dedicated to facilitating investment in the digital economy and other strategic sectors around the world, including through its Balkan regional office at our Embassy in Belgrade. In all these cases, we can provide resources and encouragement, but the Serbian government and people are taking a leadership role in deciding how best to use these resources.

In the context of innovation, which companies do you see as the most

Considering your knowledge of the Serbian economy, what would you single out as the major changes that have occurred since 2019, when you began your mandate in Belgrade?

In the past two years, I have been impressed at how the Serbian government has continued to evolve in a positive direction in improving the legal and regulatory environment for business. It has not been so much a case of major changes, but rather of a continuing trend, consistent with a clear strategy on the part of Serbia’s leadership to encourage 15

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development of the knowledge-based economy. It is well known that the central goal of the U.S. Embassy in Serbia is to support Serbia’s own goal of European integration; and Serbia’s government ministries have worked consistently over the past two years to continue harmonizing the country’s laws and regulations with those of the European Union.

I have been especially impressed at the rapid work that certain ministries have done to update laws and regulations since the most recent general elections.

When a government has limited time

to show results, it is important to make quick process. But, of course, it is still critical to do so deliberately, so that the business community and the public can participate in the process. And ultimately, enforcement of these laws and regulations is critical.

How, if at all, has the position of the U.S. evolved when it comes to identifying possible avenues of cooperation with Serbia?

This year we are celebrating 20 years of USAID assistance to Serbia. Over that time, our approach to cooperation has certainly evolved. But one important change has stood out in the past few years: Serbia is no longer struggling to stabilize its economy, to deal with runaway inflation, or to reduce massive 16

unemployment throughout the country.

Serbia has successfully addressed these urgent problems and is now focused on the challenge of positioning its economy for long-term sustainable growth. Thus, our relationship is changing from a focus on stabilization to a focus on supporting future economic growth. A good example of this is the establishment of the Development Finance Corporation office in Belgrade, which aims to facilitate new strategic investment to help integrate the Western Balkan countries.

We also have new consultations with

We strongly support the initiatives of the Regional Cooperation Council, the Mini-Schengen initiative, and the new Common Regional Market as a way to facilitate trade, transportation, and labor mobility within the Balkans the Ministry of Mining and Energy on improving the legal and regulatory framework to support new investment in renewable energy, as well as to ensure environmentally sound and sustainable mining practices. These are the types of cooperation that Serbia has identified

as being most important at this stage in the country’s development.

Given that the U.S. strongly supports the EU accession process of Serbia and the countries of the region, how do you view the current stalemate, especially from the perspective of the region’s economic opportunities?

We certainly recognize that the slow pace of the EU accession process is frustrating. However, we are encouraged that Serbia is looking for new ways of advancing economic integration in spite of this situation. The initiatives of the Regional Cooperation Council, the Mini-Schengen initiative, and the new Common Regional Market have given us reason to hope that the countries of the region can work together to facilitate trade, transportation, and labor mobility within the Balkans.

We strongly support these initiatives.

They are important not only for improving economic growth and living standards throughout the region, but, if successful, they will demonstrate to Brussels that the EU candidates of the Western Balkans can work together to support their mutual goals of economic advancement despite political differences. This cooperation will be crucial to eventual EU accession.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the objectives of your department, if at all; and what do you see as the most important milestones for your work in 2021?

While the pandemic has been a painful struggle for us all, it has not affected our goals or our overall work. If anything, Serbia’s response to the pandemic has demonstrated how much progress the country has made in stabilizing its economy and preparing for such emergencies.

Serbia’s pandemic response also included implementation of the CEFTA-EU Green Lanes initiative, which helped ensure continued delivery of critical medical supplies and equipment throughout the pandemic. These important successes have simply confirmed our view that the Embassy’s economic engagement with Serbia should remain focused on the policy steps I have outlined above, which will position Serbia for long-term sustainable economic growth.

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IVAN MILETIĆ, FIRST VICE PRESIDENT OF AMCHAM SERBIA

TIME FOR OPTIMISM Almost two-thirds of AmCham members have realized or even exceeded plans for the first quarter of the current year, and as many as 65% of them believe that they will achieve growth in their operations, compared to both 2019 and 2020. In addition to this, 27% of members plan to hire new colleagues. The activities of our members show that the economy is really recovering faster than we expected

but also thanks to fiscal and monetary incentives, expressing myself in the spirit of the current European Football Championship, on home soil,” says our interlocutor.

I

’m an optimist despite the pandemic, and my optimism is shared

by AmCham members - says AmCham Serbia First Vice President Ivan Miletić. This optimism is based on the results of a survey conducted by AmCham among its member companies during April. The optimism of AmCham members for this year is reflected, first and foremost, in the fact that almost two-thirds of them realized or even exceeded their plans for the first quarter of the current year.

The situation is the same when it comes to employment. Optimism is not waning, because 37% of members plan

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to hire new colleagues, while 57% plan to maintain last year’s level of employment. Additionally, this good news is complemented by the fact that as many as 65% of AmCham member companies believe that they will achieve growth in their operations, compared to both 2019 and 2020.

“Judging by the economic results for the first quarter of 2021, we are awaited by a more successful year, with more favorable growth projections. The economy is recovering faster than we expected. As we know, there are both external and internal reasons for that from the recovery of the world economy,

What is different from the previous period in the so-called “new normal”, and what has remained the same?

Apart from ensuring conditions to maintain health, safety and security, with which I mean personal, family and team safety and security, the absolute winner of the “new normal” is flexibility.

All of us who recognized that immediately and adjusted quickly, and continue to do so, will maintain our business advantage over the long run.

Of course, nothing can replace the time that we spend together with colleagues, and it could be said that, in this “new normal”, we must take even more care to ensure that team spirit and company culture do not become collateral damage. I hope that the high number of vaccinated people, as well as adherence to basic measures like social distancing and the disinfecting of work areas and surfaces, will enable us all

SUPPORT

INNOVATION

With its timely and extensive package of measures, first in 2020 and then in 2021, the State impacted positively on economic results being significantly better than could have been the case

At Philip Morris, with the help of science and technology, we succeeded in simultaneously meeting the needs of our consumers, providing a significant contribution to public health and improving our operations

to return to our offices at full capacity as soon as possible. Of course, a lot has changed in the last two years, but those changes also created new space for development, especially in the field of the digitalization of communication and many business processes. At the same time, these changes have various consequences, which is why they need to be analyzed, corrected, improved ... abolished.

At the end of the day, what’s good for me and my company isn’t necessarily the right solution for you and yours. And that again brings us back to “flexibility”, which is definitely the key.

It is also a commendable fact that Serbia’s fiscal stability is sustainable, while it is also positive that high growth of public investments is planned for this year, that awareness of the need to accelerate the digitalization of public administration exists, etc. However, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, regardless of the pandemic!

In order for us to successfully implement our optimistic expectations by the end of the year, an absolute precondition is to continue working on improving the rule of law and the efficiency of the judiciary, while reducing corruption and

How would you rate the work of the Government of Serbia in this extraordinary period – in terms of administration during the pandemic - and in the regular implementing of reforms? When it comes to ushering in the future, what are the most important issues for your members today?

The successful implementation of mass vaccination is crucial for all economies, including ours, because it creates the conditions to do business unhindered, to open borders and enable the movement of people, goods and services. It is highly commendable that our country is working effectively on the mass immunization of the population, in which we are at the top of Europe. That is a very good starting point.

Moreover, with its timely and extensive package of measures, first in 2020 and then in 2021, the State impacted positively on economic results being significantly better than could have been the case. AmCham members consider that assistance should always be directed towards the hardest hit sectors of the economy, and during this period those were tourism, HORECA and export sectors that experienced a major fall in demand, as well as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

If we continue working seriously to improve the work of institutions, from the efficiency of the state administration to the judiciary, I believe that we will make our economy even more attractive for larger domestic and foreign investments, including American ones. And it is precisely these areas that are in AmCham’s focus increasing the transparency of the legislative process, and especially monitoring the implementation of regulations and measuring their effect. Those are also the priorities that our members see in the field of reform policies, along with the improving of the efficiency of public administration through the enabling of electronic communication with all bodies, in the optimizing of procedures and their digitalization, but also in the improving of tax, customs and Forex and health procedures. Combating illicit online trade, improving environmental laws and the labor law are also high on

PRIORITIES

Combating illicit online trade, improving environmental laws and the labor law are high on the list of priority reforms to create a better economic environment

the list of priority reforms to create a better economic environment.

And last but by no means least, there is the synergy between public and private health aimed at achieving better effects in protecting the health of citizens.

How much has Serbia changed, and how much has it remained the same, compared to the time when AmCham Serbia was founded 20 years ago?

We’ve really come a long way in 20 years. We started modestly, with 21 founding members. And today the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia brings together over 200 American, international and domestic companies that employ approximately 97,000 Serbian citizens and have invested a combined total of 14 billion euros in the country.

The American Chamber of Commerce is the leading independent business association in Serbia today, which bases its activities on improving the business environment, the professional training, education and promotion of its members, as well as on enabling business contacts among members.

But there’s no stopping on the road of development and reform. This year marks the culmination of our second decade of successful operations. As in the previous 20 years, our goal is to continue launching initiatives in cooperation with the Government of Serbia and to contribute to the creation of strategies and policies that improve the regulatory framework for doing business, encourage the growth of the Serbian economy and increase the number of jobs. In the period ahead, AmCham will strive, continuously and with dedication, to identify needs for improvement in all business aspects.

In which areas have AmCham members, as investors and advocates of reform policies, left the most visible mark?

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Among the most significant American investments in Serbia are those of companies like - and I will mention only a few - Philip Morris, Coca-Cola, Ball Packaging, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, NCR, Sitel etc. And, in recent years, companies from the automotive industry, such as Johnson Controls and Cooper Tires. I believe that, despite the existing presence of these important names, there is still room for a stronger inflow of U.S. investments in Serbia. If we continue working seriously to improve the work of institutions, from the efficiency of the

own place on the map of business ideas and increasingly attractive business environments.

Philip Morris, as the company I come from, actually recognized this potential through StarTech, a project to support small, innovative businesses that will undoubtedly lead to accelerated economic development based on science, creativity and new technologies.

state administration to the judiciary, I believe that we will make our economy even more attractive for larger domestic and foreign investments, including American ones. And it is precisely these areas that are in AmCham’s focus.

As in the previous 20 years, our goal is to continue launching initiatives in cooperation with the Government of Serbia and to contribute to the creation of strategies and policies that improve the regulatory framework for doing business, encourage the growth of the Serbian economy and increase the number of jobs

Serbia’s Nordeus was sold to American company Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Do you consider that an exception, or do you see the possibility of American companies starting to pay more attention to monitoring innovative companies in Serbia?

We are aware that Serbia is a small market that is not easy to place on the map of large investor countries like America. At the same time, we are undoubtedly characterized by creativity, breadth of education and business thinking, expertise and the kind of positive attitude that’s essential for success.

That’s why I firmly believe that, even though we are small on the geographical map, we are certainly finding our 20

Creativity and new technologies are usually linked to startups. How difficult was it for a large company

like Philip Morris to transform from a traditional industry and start applying that conemporary model of doing business?

It is difficult, but is actually the only logical step for a large company that has an ear for the needs of its consumers and plans its business over the long run.

We’ve invested huge funds in science,

which enabled us to come up with a product that’s less harmful than cigarettes and has already helped almost 20 million smokers around the world choose a better option than continuing to smoke. Thus, with the help of science and technology, we succeeded in simultaneously meeting the needs of our consumers, providing a significant contribution to public health and improving our operations. It is today especially noticeable how visionary this shift towards better options was, due to the pandemic that compelled consumers to think more, reconsider their earlier

choices and try to stop or at least reduce the harmfulness of all their bad habits.

What is the place of your cigarette factory in Niš when it comes to the global transformation of Philip Morris?

Under the ideal circumstances, the future without tobacco smoke would begin for us today, and our factory in Niš would switch completely to the production of alternative products. However, we are realistic when we say that people wouldn’t immediately stop smoking if we stopped supplying the market with high-quality cigarettes from our factory, rather they would merely switch to competing products, but also those that are procured on the black market. In order to overcome habits that they’ve had for many years, and in some cases for many decades, smokers need information, encouragement, and support. That’s why we’ve also redirected activities related to the commercialization of traditional products towards the future without tobacco smoke.

USA 2021

ALEKSANDAR PAVLOVIĆ, IT SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR, AIGO

AIGO is a company that has a “360 degree” perspective on the new demands that modern business places on the IT sector, because at this moment its services encompass everything from printing solutions to the development and systemic integration of new applications and software solutions The pandemic itself highlighted the weaknesses of old IT models and traditional “on site” solutions. For example, by observing the entire supply chain and network, we see that the unavailability of hardware, aggravated transportation possibilities and the availability of appropriate staff impacted significantly on operations, and it then became obvious that the advantage was with foreign companies that have spent many years carefully monitoring and adopting these technologies, such as “cloud” solutions, and I count AIGO among those companies.

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he IT industry has always been dynamic and on the move, and that is especially so today. That’s why it was invaluable to hear what Aleksandar Pavlović, AIGO’s IT solutions director, thinks about the new changes on the IT market as a whole.

What is your opinion regarding the general situation facing the IT market?

As we all know, 2020 was anything but normal, and that analogy can also be applied to the IT industry. From numerous relevant sources, through conversations with the CFO, we have concluded that restrained optimism exists in several segments, especially when it comes to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the region in which we operate. Specifically, almost half of them are optimistic regarding financial growth, 35 % expect an increase in operating margins, while about 44 % believe that their number of employees will remain unchanged.

Do you create software solutions that are in accordance with the needs of each client or solutions that adapt to various needs?

There is an ever-increasing trend for IT professionals not to be narrowly specialized exclusively on IT skills, but rather for them to be required to possess other knowhow and skills that are needed to properly understand demands and to place the final product with the user to the mutual satisfaction of company and client. That’s why companies that have invested in the so-called reskilling of their experts have sustained their operations or even secured growth during these turbulent times.

Does the survival and development of companies today also depend on their ability to change and to innovate a product or service?

It is up to leaders to predict a new future, otherwise that future will not exist for them, nor will they be part of it. Survival itself, but also development, are part of a corporate strategy that has always been challeng-

BUSINESS

ONLY LEADERS PREDICT THE FUTURE ing and must always be based on certain assumptions and technologies. Adapting companies to modern business conditions cannot be imagined today without the applying of IT technology and business applications. Companies that have recognized the possibilities of modern technologies, and which are ready to reengineer their business processes, successfully keep pace with the modern way of doing business, while companies that don’t recognize the importance and significance of this area in their operations end up becoming marginalized on the market.

Adapting companies to modern business conditions cannot be imagined today without the applying of IT technology and business applications The new transformations of the market have led to the emergence of a sector that develops new software solutions. What is expected of you?

The fact is that everything is available to everyone today - software, hardware, infrastructure – and all in accordance with similar technologies and models, but the essence is in the way they are used, while also achieving a comparative market advantage and recognizability, and this is universal principle that applies regardless of the time in which we operate.

We continuously listen to the market and the demands of business, investing in the education of employee and striving to be a leader in the creating of new IT services and other services that ensure continuous development for our clients.

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DARKO SOKOVIĆ, MANAGING PARTNER, PROPULSION

SERBIAN CITIZENS RECOGNIZE SPIN Propulsion, a regional organization with more than 180 associates across Europe, collaborates with brands, developmental partners and governments on programs that each year invest millions of dollars in creating positive social change The company that I run celebrated its tenth anniversary this January. If someone had told me, at the time we founded it, that we would celebrate 10 years of doing business, I wouldn’t have believed them.

However, anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t for business.

As a full-service communication organization, we specialize in social impact campaigns and projects. We are the leading supplier of social impact communications in the Adria region and wider today, working with brands, de-

PHOTO: Propulsion/Danijel Rakić

It’s good that people know how to recognize fake news, but when you ask them where they get their information, they cite the same media outlets that post fake news

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ere Propulsion’s Darko Soković speaks to CorD about innovative communications, a project being implemented together with USAID, social impact, “new literacy”, the development of technology and digitalization, new media, spin and other phenomena related to information and disinformation.

Propulsion is an organization that works in the areas of innovative communications and social impact, but what does that actually mean?

Who are your clients? With whom do you collaborate?

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velopmental actors, and governments on transformative campaigns that are worth more than a million dollars a year. We boost critical thinking, problem-solving, digital and media literacy, preventing radicalization, and other crucial communication skills and programs in an ever-shifting world.

Your “Media Initiatives and Partnerships Support” program, which you’re implementing in partnership with USAID, is recognized publicly under the name “New literacy”.

What is it all about and where did the new literacy come from? Is it linked to technology development and digitalization?

This program relies on a new, yet so logical reality that we are resolutely

introducing: We invest huge efforts and resources into understanding the people we address – their habits, needs, ideas, values, ways of getting informed, how they mourn, and how they celebrate. To that end, we constantly conduct a comprehensive research series that forms the basis of all our programming decisions.

The results are also regularly published at novapismenost.rs, because we believe that verified information that provides the basis to make the right decisions must be available to everyone.

In a four-year program cycle, we work closely with the Ministry of Culture and Information and other stakeholders, boosting critical thinking and media and information literacy skills among parents, teachers, public servants, influencers, and business leaders alike, by tailoring custom-made manuals, training modules, and campaigns. These will be systematically embedded in existing systems and curricula, while new approaches will also be created. In 2021, the program strongly supports teachers, students and the education system to strengthen their digital capacities, while also connecting students with some trailblazing companies and their leaders. It is important that our youth sees the future that is actually happening today in Serbia, both in school and in the community, so that they are ready for everything this century will bring.

What has been shown by new research, or rather what is shown by the “Media Literacy Index in Serbia”? Are we improving; are we seeing a change in our interests, the topics that attract our attention, sources of information, etc.?

Will the education system also be in charge of improving “media literacy”? Should children be taught the basics of media literacy while still in kindergarten?

The issue of media and digital literacy is really critical, first and foremost for the education system, but also for other segments of our society. We live in a time

Citizens and businesses have a high level of understanding of the media and digital environment, and are above the European average in many areas when the changes taking place around us can become obstacles if we lack the knowledge to understand and use them.

It seems to me that the responsible and wise use of new technologies is something that isn’t problematized enough.

Given the huge percentage of citizens who choose to get informed through social networks, could it be said that those same citizens are responsible for shaping public opinion, for intentionally and inadvertently disseminating real and fake news, information and disinformation?

Technological development and its complexity, as well as the subsequent technological gap, result in a lack of understanding of systemic and individual solutions as essential premises for the informed citizen. High-quality information is one of the axioms of democracy, and understanding media operations is a prerequisite to act on the merits of the

content they produce. In that process, media and information literacy becomes an instrument and precondition for understanding the media environment and quality information. However, the media’s loss of citizens’ trust is certainly an alarming indicator of the situation in this area. Admittedly, it’s a good thing that people know how to recognize fake news, but when you ask them where they get their information, they cite the same media outlets that post fake news.

This brings us to the question of whether we, as citizens, want to be adequately informed. We still have to work more on our skills, but we aren’t in such a bad position. We are doing well when it comes to in interpreting the information we receive, and are only slightly worse when it comes to creating new content, and we really have huge responsibility in that sense.

Despite all the advantages, coping without an ability to understand can lead to numerous challenges. If you are seeking consolation, rest assured that you’re not the only one for whom everything isn’t really that clear. That’s why we’re here, with our program and our partners, to together resolve all doubts and help clear the view ahead of us, in order for us to know where we’re going.

PHOTO: CMC/Radivoj Hadžić

Here’s a piece of exclusive information for your loyal readers: 67 percent of teenagers in Serbia, or youth aged from 12 to 17, have TikTok accounts.

What does this mean for someone who’s a parent, for example, or someone who’s a leader? Would you, for example, be among those parents who made a fuss when one Belgrade municipality brought a successful TikToker athlete to give a lecture to children at school? The children, clearly, went crazy with joy, while the parents were left shocked and offended.

Although you or I hadn’t even reliably heard of TikTok until around a year ago, two percent of all our citizens now say that it is the main platform they use to inform themselves about the world around them. That may seem trivial, but data from the research show that only one percent more than them (three percent) use Twitter for the same purpose.

Citizens place the greatest trust in internet portals (24 percent of respondents), while just two percent of people in Serbia trust the press. However, just for us to be informed, as many as four percent of all our people trust influencers the most!

As you perhaps already know, the Media Literacy Index represents the perception of citizens in terms of how they handle the media environment, the extent to which they check sources, and how careful, focused and aware of possible sources they are. When it comes to Serbia, the average media literacy grade is 3.91, on a scale of 0 to 6, which means that we are very good. Citizens and businesses have a high level of understanding of the media and digital environment, are competent in use of the digital channels available to them, are capable of recognizing spin and fake news, and are above the European average in many areas.

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USA 2021

INTERVIEW

SHANLEY PINCHOTTI, USAID ACTING MISSION DIRECTOR FOR SERBIA

GREAT PARTNERSHIPS STAND BEHIND OUR SUCCESS The Serbia of 2021 is a far different place than it was twenty years ago, when the economy was in shambles and democracy was in its infancy. We aren’t talking about basic building blocks and infrastructure today, but about innovative industries driving economic growth, complex policy development to modernize democratic and market institutions, and building digital skills. This is what “20 Years of Partnership” stands for.

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ver two decades of partnership, we’ve provided the resources and technical assistance, but it is really our Serbian partners who make the change happen - says USAID Acting Mission Director for Serbia Ms. Shanley Pinchotti, summarizing the essence of collaboration between USAID and its numerous partners from the ranks of government institutions, businesses and civil society, which is today being celebrated under the slogan “20 Years of Partnership”.

“We chose #20GodinaPartnerstva as our theme because partnerships have been crucial to everything we’ve achieved”, says our interlocutor.

What were the most important building blocks on which this relationship was built?

Since 2001, USAID has worked with a wide range of partners here to implement $857 million in development programs.

While we’ve always concentrated on working with our Serbian partners to drive economic development and strengthen democracy, we’ve also worked together to address humanitarian crises, like flooding and mitigating the impact of COVID-19.

I’m always happy when I hear from people about how many of our projects helped bring about long-term, positive change.

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I can’t stress enough how much more we are able to achieve when we have strong partnerships like the ones we’ve forged here over two decades. We work directly with government, private sector, and civil society actors who are committed to identifying solutions to the challenges facing Serbia and to working with us to implement those solutions.

We provide the resources and technical assistance, but it is really our Serbian partners who make the change happen.

How has your support to Serbia evolved, in terms of major areas of support and financial assistance?

I am very happy to say that the Serbia of 2021 is a far different place than it was twenty years ago. Back then, the economy was in shambles and democratic institutions were struggling to provide citizens with the services they needed.

We realized that we needed to help Serbia implement reforms, both from the top down and from the bottom up. We also needed to establish mutual trust.

Through one early program, we partnered with communities to implement approximately 5,000 different projects.

Citizens voted on priority projects, and we worked together to repair roads, renovate health centers etc., doing whatever it was that communities felt they needed.

Those activities helped restore peoples’ faith that their voices mattered, while making improvements at a local level.

We also wanted to encourage investors to look beyond Belgrade, so we started working with forward-leaning cities to improve their business enabling environments to attract investments and create jobs. Many local governments, which were initially skeptical, saw the success of other cities and asked to join our activity, or replicated what we’d done.

As Serbia’s capacity has evolved, so has our partnership. Technological advances have created many possibilities, while also challenging government institutions, businesses and civil society to keep up or risk becoming obsolete. Our programs are no longer about basic building blocks and infrastructure. We are now talking about innovative industries driving economic growth, complex policy development to modernize democratic and market institutions, and building digital skills.

This April, the U.S. committed $22 million in additional aid to Serbia’s reforms and introduced a new development strategy. What will you be doing differently?

We remain focused on helping Serbia strengthen its economy and democratic institutions, but the operating environment has changed. For example, COVID-19 has affected all aspects of our lives, so our new strategy will look to also build Serbia’s resilience to such stressors. We’re also looking at challenges in areas such as health, energy and the environment to see where our expertise and resources can make a difference. We are concerned about some of the developments in terms of democratic fundamentals, so we will be working with the government and citizens to ensure that those democratic freedoms remain.

One big area going forward for us will be

Since 2001, USAID has worked with a wide range of partners here to implement $857 million in development programs focused on economic development and the strengthening of democracy improving Serbia’s public procurement system and building greater transparency and accountability.

Media freedoms have been one of your major focuses over time.

How would you summarize the way you’ve approached this issue and what were the major achievements?

American newscaster Walter Cronkite once said, “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy. It is democracy.” We agree, and that’s why USAID supports independent media in most of the places we work.

While we are supporting the OSCE and other relevant stakeholders to complete and implement the media strategy and subsequent legal reforms to improve the environment for free media, we know that financial independence is key to media freedom. To have a successful media outlet, you don’t just need good journalists, you also need good

businesspeople to bring in the revenue that enables outlets to maintain their independence. We’ve recently helped a number of outlets to diversify their income streams by making it easier for their audiences to support them. We’ve seen that media consumers are willing to financially support their favorite outlets. We’re also helping outlets to start thinking and working outside their “traditional media” boxes. Radio stations can no longer simply broadcast over FM radio waves if they want to reach younger audiences that want content when and where they want it. This requires changes in thinking, from both the content producers and the people who need to raise the money to keep the lights on and staff paid. We are also working with the wider community of digital entrepreneurs, like podcasters, to adopt new information channels and business models to navigate this new world.

Citizens of Serbia continue to perceive corruption as one of the top three problems in the country, alongside low wages and unemployment. How much has USAID and its partners changed the picture?

Corruption is a problem that can only be addressed by approaching it from both sides. You need to shine a light on the problem, so that citizens can see it, identify it and call for a stop to it. Meanwhile, systems need to be put in place that make corrupt practices more difficult to carry out, easier to catch and carry harsher punishments for perpetrators.

Over the years, we’ve worked on a number of activities to help tackle corruption challenges. Early on, we helped municipalities to open Citizen Assistance Centers (CAC) to make citizen interaction with their local governments more transparent and efficient.

The CACs have windows instead of mazes of hallways and closed doors.

Everything happens in the open, and I think that makes a difference.

To help government institutions and civil society, and to guide our work, USAID supports an annual corruption perception survey. Citizens repeatedly express the need for government insti25

USA 2021

INTERVIEW

tutions to protect whistleblowers and do more to investigate and adjudicate corruption. USAID has helped increase transparency and citizen participation in local governments. Our partners, with Sombor being a great example, have demonstrated dedication to improving transparency and have made admirable progress. We’re also helping youth to directly engage with their local governments, take part in budget planning, and receive funding from local governments for their projects.

Meanwhile, USAID’s support to enhance independent oversight of government has resulted in the State Audit Institution (SAI) adopting an annual planning policy and implementation of risk-based oversight of government performance focused on corruption-prone areas.

Where do you see the role of USAID in supporting the EU accession process, which is currently stalled?

The pandemic and other factors have undoubtedly slowed recent progress, but we remain focused on helping Serbia enact the kinds of reforms that move the country not just towards EU accession, but also towards being a better functioning democracy with a stronger and more equitable economy. The United States Government strongly supports Serbia’s EU accession process, and our job at USAID is to keep supporting the reforms that contribute to that process and create better living conditions.

One of the most interesting projects you have supported for a long time is food production. What can you tell us about Serbia’s potential in some of the most innovative areas, including the production of smart food?

Anyone who has had the opportunity to try Serbian food knows how absolutely delicious it is. You would think it would sell itself, but for Serbian farmers and agribusinesses to get maximum returns on their hard work, small adjustments have to be made all along the value chain to make products export ready. Meanwhile, consumers need to learn about the great quality of Serbian products.

We’ve had tremendous success working with agribusinesses. We know that

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formation of Serbia’s first Apple and Fruit Association. This led to substantial increases in exports and, hence, the value of their produce. Our work with retail chains has helped small, specialty food producers reach customers all over Serbia. We have helped producers develop fully traceable and healthy food products to meet increasing demand for smart foods. We worked to connect U.S. universities and Serbian faculties to support the process, and partnered with the government and local banks to increase financing opportunities.

We firmly believe that maximizing returns on agriculture, considering its role in the economy and the number of people engaged in it, is key to equitable economic growth.

The United States Government strongly supports Serbia’s EU accession process, and our job at USAID is to keep supporting the reforms that contribute to that process and create better living conditions high-value export markets represent their best opportunity for growth. To seize on this, modernization of production, improvements in the labor force, and the uptake of new technologies are necessary. We helped the sector to identify markets and buyers for improved products, and enter new markets for apples and blueberries through the

One of the most exciting areas of your work is related to women’s entrepreneurship, startups and innovation for growth. What does the future of our partnership hold when we look at these areas?

We have been looking at ways to support broader-based economic growth and have undertaken some new programming in a number of new areas, to see how we can help selected target segments of the population. In the past two years, we’ve been working with Impact Hub to support the WE Founders program to help women IT entrepreneurs start businesses and find investments to grow. We have seen a lot of interest in that program, with many unique business ideas coming from talented women, including one particularly profitable software that provides 3D virtual teleconferencing, which soared on the market this past year, during COVID. In terms of innovations and startups, we are launching two new programs in that area. One that is looking at eight new, emerging segments of Serbia’s economy to help startups in these industries grow. We will be initiating another brand-new program very soon, in order to build an entrepreneurial mindset within the younger generation in Serbia. Together, these programs will amplify Serbia’s innovative ecosystem and build its role into a regional and global hub for economic development.

USA 2021

JELENA KNEŽEVIĆ, PARTNER, LEITNERLEITNER

The key to gaining a competitive edge in business is competence, reliability and speed – principles that LeitnerLeitner has been putting into practice for more than 60 years. This company believes strongly that the outstanding technical skills of its team, and the high-quality services it provides, are key factors of its success in Serbia

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e apply an interdisciplinary and dynamic approach, so that we can explore all possibilities and find the best course of action for each client. Our staff’s expertise and integrity play a decisive role in the process - says LeitnerLeitner Partner Jelena Knežević.

LeitnerLeitner is a company that has existed for more than 60 years, while this year you’re celebrating your tenth birthday in Serbia. Are you satisfied with your achievements to date?

A decade of doing business is certainly a great success for us, and the positive outcome of the business is reflected in the fact that we are recognized by clients as a reliable partner. Our consistently highquality standards have also helped us achieve success and constantly increase our locations in CEE and SEE. The key source of our successful work are our employees. Our offices work together closely, while we also cultivate close professional relations with a number of renowned consultancies. We can thus eliminate country-specific risks and find the best possible solution. LeitnerLeitner Academy has its origins in Austria, and we sincerely hope that the coming period will allow easier travel, so that our employees can attend courses in Austria, which was the practice before the pandemic.

The pandemic showed us how small and vulnerable we are. How has it been traversed by your clients, our economy, Serbia as a whole…?

BUSINESS

READY TO REACT PROACTIVELY action during this difficult time, which makes me extremely proud.

This is the year in which the consequences of the pandemic will be shown.

Serbia is a country with an excellent

What we can see from a professional point of view is that 2021 will definitely follow the approach of previous years geostrategic position and excellent bilateral relations with numerous countries.

These benefits must be used in order to recover our economy in the coming period.

One of LeitnerLeitner’s main corporate strengths is caring for our employees, clients and the community. My team has shown its strength and flexibility of

Do you think this is a good time to invest in Serbia, whether that relates to foreign investors or domestic entrepreneurs? What should one invest in today?

In a word – yes. LeitnerLeitner has numerous multinational clients who’ve already made huge investments in Serbia, and there is also a significant number planning to launch new investments.

Also, in statistical terms, more than half of all FDI in the Western Balkans from 2010 to 2019 was invested in Serbia, which represents one of the highest amounts of FDI in the entire CEE region.

What we can see from a professional point of view is that 2021 will definitely follow the approach of previous years. We are aware that 2021 presents an enormous challenge, with numerous obstacles, and we must all be ready to overcome all difficulties. In order to enhance the potential in the post-pandemic world, we should be prepared to proactively react, and to work together to build a more competitive business – to maximize the stronger side of our economy and minimize the weaknesses. Each sector is valuable when the economy is considered as a whole, while all sectors need to be developed in order for all other industries to be more successful and competitive. We are all part of one system, and the problems of one affect others – that’s why the business sector has to be united and active in furthering legislative, fiscal and tax changes.

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USA 2021

INTERVIEW

VLADIMIR MARINKOVIĆ, DIRECTOR OF THE SERBIAN-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP CONGRESS

THE U.S. IS JUST AS IMPORTANT TO US AS THE EU No one should doubt that the right address for resolving any geopolitical issue is in Washington, and that cooperation in that domain with the U.S. is crucial, ensuring the guaranteed long-term stability and prosperity of our citizens.

Trump and President Aleksandar Vučić, stating that this is obviously seen as a positive message in Serbia, given that research conducted just two weeks after the signing showed that the number of Serbian citizens who support rapprochement with the United States has increased by 250 percent. “From the new administration, we expect continuity and the realization of agreed projects, such as the operational work of the Development Finance Corporation in Serbia and, of course, an attitude towards Serbia and the region that will not imply the old autopilot policy,” concludes Marinković.

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ilateral relations between Serbia and the United States are at a very correct level and are recording a constant rise and dynamism in the field of investment and economic cooperation - assesses Vladimir Marinković, director of the SerbianAmerican Friendship Congress, speaking in this interview that we’ve devoted

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to topics like the 140th anniversary of the establishing of diplomatic relations between Serbia and the United States, and the future of those relations.

Our interlocutor notes that cooperation at the political level was bolstered drastically during the time of the Trump administration, following the signing of the Washington Agreement by President

We know that Serbia organized special flights for U.S. citizens, donated protective equipment and tests, and distributed vaccines in the region, which are all parts of the mechanism for improving mutual relations during the COVID-19 pandemic. What should be added to complete this picture?

Everything that Serbia has done during the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has been respected highly in America, especially the fact that Serbia, in addition to fighting at home, also managed to help countries in the region, and even some EU member states and the U.S. This fortified America’s conviction that Serbia and President Vučić are excellent at managing crises; that we

are unquestionably an economic leader and a factor of stability in the region.

Unlike some EU member states, the U.S. has never brought into question the fact that Serbia secured four different types of vaccines and that this is a good thing for both Serbia and the region, regardless of the sources of the vaccines. It is now necessary to exert even more effort to make trade cooperation even better, considering that Serbia has proven itself to be a stable and relevant country for cooperation in crisis situations.

Why was so long need to establish the Serbian-American Friendship Congress, and in which ways should it improve mutual relations?

The main goal of the Serbian-American Friendship Congress is to bring together all relevant stakeholders and states that have the capacity to improve cooperation between Serbia and America, and recognize the strategic importance of doing so. It is logical that Serbia, with its long tradition of good relations with the United States, should be an American ally and strategic partner in this part of Europe. The conflicts that emerged in the ‘90s can help us understand that nothing is taken for granted in geopolitics, but that alliances and friendships should be improved on a daily basis. That’s why it’s important for us to strengthen cooperation in all segments, which is why our Congress brings together politicians, people from the business community, universities, NGOs, each of whom can contribute, in their own way, individually and institutionally, to our relations reaching the highest possible level.

Last April saw the launch of the first Serbian-American Academy for Leaders, aimed towards providing practical and theoretical knowledge on the most important issues concerning the U.S. What do you expect from this project?

A year after the first cycle of our Academy, we have 130 alumni; young, highly educated people who, in the near future, should work on realizing this goal to the extent that they are able in the positions in which they find themselves in social life. It is important for our

Unlike some EU member states, the U.S. has never brought into question the fact that Serbia secured four different types of vaccines and that this is a good thing for both Serbia and the region, regardless of the sources of the vaccines young people to have the opportunity to get to know America, the way the states function, the economy, foreign policy, in order for us to create an environment for them to get acquainted with young people from America, with whom they will jointly build the future of these two countries that share very similar values.

The Serbian-American Friendship Congress and organization East West Bridge (EWB) signed a Declaration of Cooperation earlier this year that relates to joint work to support state bodies in establishing even better relations with the U.S., further developing the European perspective, market economics, transatlantic cooperation and integration. Is there a clear vision of the main areas of work and tangible steps?

We’ve already launched specific activities with our colleagues from EWB, and on a monthly basis we organize panel debates and conferences related to cooperation in the economic, military and cultural domains, where we include

people from Serbia and the U.S. who can help in the process of better positioning Serbia in the States and intensifying contacts in different areas.

Who can join this initiative and how?

All those who sincerely consider cooperation with the U.S. as being the highest interest of Serbia, and who see a future Serbia as a modern, economically and militarily strong country that’s dedicated to transatlantic integration and cooperation.

Your objective is for Serbia to reach the level of this kind of strategic cooperation in a political sense, which would return the two countries to the level of the alliance they had a century ago. What does that mean exactly?

This means precisely that, even though Serbia’s strategic foreign policy objective is full membership in the EU, a possible strategic partnership with Washington is no less important, given that it is the country with the world’s best education system, that 85% of all innovations worldwide come from this country and that the full capacity of economic and military development can’t even be imagined without strong cooperation with America. To conclude, no one should have any doubt that the right address for resolving any geopolitical issue is in Washington, and that cooperation with the U.S. in this area is crucial and ensures the guaranteed long-term stability and prosperity of our citizens.

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USA 2021

BUSINESS

MIA ZEČEVIĆ, CEO, NOVASTON

BUSINESS PREMISES DON’T LOSE VALUE Novaston Asset Management is an exclusive leasing and sales representative for business premises that adhere to the latest trends in construction and interior design while applying green building standards, but also COVID-19 preventive elements business facilities. One of them is the “Revolution” business space, with a gross surface area of c. 10,000m2, which is being built by Granit Invest. We are the exclusive leasing agent for this business space, and are also partnering companies Schneider Electric and Novkabel on the development of the latest business and logistics center in Novi Sad. The first project will be to reconstruct the industrial production hall of the former Novkabel factory into a high-tech facility covering a gross surface area of c. 17,000m2, which is expected to open in 2022.

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espite many companies still working from home, the need exists for attractive business premises that satisfy the conditions imposed by the pandemic, which is why investors are increasingly opting to construct buildings that are “safe for work”.

Did the pandemic and shift to working from home impact on the development of business facilities?

All large construction sites remained active throughout 2020, during which several significant projects were finalized, i.e., business facilities such as Ušće 2, Navigator 2 and the final building within the scope of the Green Heart complex. On the other hand, demand isn’t diminishing either, so ever more buildings are being constructed that imply options for distancing, flexible workspaces, inflows of fresh air in conference rooms, contactless door opening, digitalization etc. We are currently working with large companies on developing these kinds of

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To what extent has the pandemic impacted on the operations of retail parks and shopping malls, and the retail sector generally?

Following the outbreak of the pandemic, retail parks, which are better known in our country as outdoor shopping malls, continued operating for the majority of the time, so this concept proved itself to be very resilient and good for doing business under altered conditions. Following the easing of preventative measures, there was great interest in visiting shopping malls and retail parks. In June of last year, the new BEO Shopping Centre opened in Zvezdara [Belgrade], on an area of 130,000 square meters. Then, at the end of October, the region’s largest shopping mall, Galerija Beograd, opened on an area of 300,000 square meters.

Novaston Platform recently participated as the exclusive support agent in the process of selling two retail facilities: NEPI Rockcastle and BIG CEE, working as a specialized associate for the entire process, which is expected to be concluded in July. A real estate sales

contract, worth a total contracted value of 61 million euros, was signed in June for the retail facilities of Kragujevac Plaza Shopping Centre and Kruševac Retail Park.

What are your further plans?

Viewed strategically, our goal for the period ahead is to further expand our operations when it comes to the business space and logistics sectors. We

We’re also continuing our expansion in the region, primarily in Croatia, and our plans include significant projects in the tourism sector have successfully continued cooperating with almost all the top investors in the market, such as IMMOFINANZ, NEPI Rockcastle, GTC and Ikea Serbia, but we’ve also established cooperation with large companies like Schneider Electric, MK Group, Aleksandar Gradnja and Novkabel.

We’re also continuing our expansion in the region, primarily in Croatia, and our plans include significant projects in the tourism sector. We are part of the Petram Resort & Residences residentialtourism project, which is located in the northwestern section of the Istrian peninsula and offers more than 250 luxury properties for residential or vacation home purposes, encompassing a gross area of approximately 100,000m2. This is the largest project of its kind in Croatia.

Our plans also include several projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and on the territory of Kosovo.

USA 2021

Before sitting unoccupied for decades, this warehouse on San Francisco’s Pier 70 was used to construct and repair ships from the 19th century through World War II. It’s now the home of Gusto, a company that makes cloudbased HR software for small businesses

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USA 2021

INTERVIEW

NEBOJŠA ŠKULJEC, DIRECTOR, MERCK SHARP & DOHME

COMMITTED TO PATIENTS’ HEALTH IN SERBIA For 130 years, Merck Sharp & Dohme has been inventing for life, bringing medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases in the pursuit of its company mission to save and improve lives

been confirmed by the now five-year survival data on some of the deadliest forms of cancer, such as malignant melanoma and lung cancer. We’re continuing to investigate and dem-

Merck Sharp & Dohme aspires locally to be the most-trusted partner to Serbian Government, healthcare institutions and health workers

e need to continue in the same direction, and once we close the gap on EU countries, we need to have continuous and sustainable investment behind innovation, in parallel with reducing inefficiencies in the healthcare system,” says Merck Sharp & Dohme Director Nebojša Škuljec

onstrate the benefits of Keytruda® in a range of malignant diseases, but we’ve also strengthened our commitment to fighting infectious diseases. In parallel with developing new powerful antibiotics that are needed to address growing antimicrobial resistance, MSD is investing a lot of effort into delivering quickly on the new potent anti-COVID drug. Our Molnupiravir molecule has been shown to be active in several models of SARS-CoV-2.

Has the pharmaceutical industry been working over the past year to develop new therapies for diseases that we neglected and disregarded as a result of the arrival of COVID-19?

Prior to COVID-19, most resources and efforts were focused on developing new drugs for oncology and non-communicable diseases. MSD made a breakthrough in oncology treatment several years ago, with the development of the first immunooncology drug, Keytruda®, which showed remarkable results that have

Patients in the U.S. can take advantage of the availability of the latest therapies. How can we reduce the availability gap compared to such developed countries?

Besides investing in the development of new medicines, it is also important that innovations are accessible and affordable to the patients who need them. Spending on medicines as a percentage of overall healthcare expenditure ranges from five to 10 percent in most developed countries, to as much as 60 percent in many emerging economies. All healthcare systems

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worldwide aim to secure mechanisms to control healthcare costs while serving the need for breakthrough treatments. Serbia has come a long way in the past several years, in terms of access to innovative medicines, followed by increased investment that has resulted in much better outcomes for patients.

The second important task for policymakers and the pharmaceutical industry is to expand public-private partnerships, like the latest one coming from our company, which relates to the aforementioned anti-COVID drug Molnupiravir. We believe that this kind of partnership, as well as advanced purchase agreements, are also possible in other countries, and we are actively engaged in numerous efforts to ensure Molnupiravir is also available in Serbia, immediately after global healthcare giants like the U.S. Are you preparing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of your operations in Serbia? What is behind you, and what lies ahead?

We’ve demonstrated the same commitment to patients and the health of the population in Serbia over the past 25 years by increasing access to healthcare through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships.

Today, we continue to be at the forefront of research aimed at preventing and treating diseases that threaten people’s lives, just as we also aspire locally to be the most-trusted partner of the Serbian Government, healthcare institutions and health workers.

USA 2021

VESELIN JANIĆIJEVIĆ, DIRECTOR OF MCDONALD’S SERBIA

McDonald’s was the first international company to arrive in the then-Yugoslavia and Southeast Europe, back in 1988, and the first restaurant chain of this kind to introduce a new business culture and a new food serving method to the region.

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elgrade has to this day preserved the level of importance that it has always had among our colleagues at our headquarters in the U.S. We are still an important market within the McDonald’s

system, and we’ve been making constant investments in Serbia every year. We’ve invested almost 60 million euros in the opening of restaurants and now have 30 restaurants across the country, and throughout all these years we’ve been helping to reduce the country’s unemployment rate, while we contribute to improving the living conditions of our fellow citizens with our CSR activities.

All of the aforementioned illustrates and proves that we are a reliable partner to our economy sector.

Throughout all these years, McDonald’s has also been undergoing changes, in terms of modernization, keeping pace with technological developments and market changes and trends, but what has been a permanent feature since day one, and something that makes our company recognizable across the globe, is the supreme quality of our products, services and customer satisfaction. The changes that we are always willing to implement, and changes that we’ve been implementing constantly over the

BUSINESS

MORE THAN THREE DECADES INVESTING IN SERBIA last couple of years, such as contactless ordering and food payment, turned out to be of key importance during the last year. Thanks to our services, such as Drive Thru, Walk Thru and McDelivery, since June last year we’ve managed to preserve our business, fulfil our targets, open four new restaurants, and refurbish several existing restaurants.

I am especially proud of our staff, the responsibility they demonstrate and efforts they exert, as well as their dedication in the most difficult of circumstances.

Team spirit, support for colleagues, meeting business compliance requirements and work ethics are included in McDonald’s core competences and its formula for success. We share our success with the local community by offering support to different sporting, art and cultural events; we help associations and institutions, as well as individuals with intellectual disabilities, by offering them an opportunity to work in McDonald’s restaurants, thus providing our support to their inclusion in society.

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USA 2021

FEATURE

150 YEARS SINCE THE BIRTH OF THEODORE DREISER

THE OUTSTANDING AMERICAN PRACTITIONER OF NATURALISM Theodore Dreiser, (born 1871, Terre Haute, Ind., U.S.—died 1945, Hollywood, Calif.), novelist who was the outstanding American practitioner of naturalism. He was the leading figure in a national literary movement that replaced the observance of Victorian notions of propriety with the unflinching presentation of real-life subject matter. Among other themes, his novels explore the new social problems that had arisen in a rapidly industrializing America

LIFE

Dreiser was the ninth of 10 surviving children in a family whose perennial poverty forced frequent moves between small Indiana towns and Chicago in search of a lower cost of living. His father, a German immigrant, was a mostly unemployed millworker who subscribed to a stern and narrow Roman Catholicism. His mother’s

Dreiser’s first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), is a work of pivotal importance in American literature despite its inauspicious launching.

It became a beacon to subsequent American writers whose allegiance was to the realistic treatment of any and all subject matter gentle and compassionate outlook sprang from her Czech Mennonite background. In later life Dreiser would bitterly associate religion with his father’s ineffectuality and the family’s resulting material deprivation, but he always spoke and wrote of his mother with unswerving affection. Dreiser’s own harsh experience of poverty as 34

a youth and his early yearnings for wealth and success would become dominant themes in his novels, and the misadventures of his brothers and sisters in early adult life gave him additional material on which to base his characters.

Dreiser’s spotty education in parochial and public schools was capped by a year (1889–90) at Indiana University. He began a career as a newspaper reporter in Chicago in 1892 and worked his way to the East Coast. While writing for a Pittsburgh newspaper in 1894, he read works by the scientists T.H. Huxley and John Tyndall and adopted the speculations of the philosopher Herbert Spencer.

Through these readings and his own experience, Dreiser came to believe that human beings are helpless in the grip of instincts and social forces beyond their control, and he judged human society as an unequal contest between the strong and the weak. In 1894 Dreiser arrived in New York City, where he worked for several newspapers and contributed to magazines. He married Sara White in 1898, but his roving affections (and resulting infidelities) doomed their relationship. The couple separated permanently in 1912.

Dreiser began writing his first novel, Sister Carrie, in 1899 at the suggestion of a newspaper colleague.

Doubleday, Page and Company published it the following year, thanks in large measure to the enthusiasm of that firm’s reader, the novelist Frank Norris. But Doubleday’s qualms about the book, the story line of which involves a young kept woman whose “immorality” goes unpunished, led the publisher to limit the book’s advertising, and consequently it sold fewer than 500 copies. This disappointment and an accumulation of family and marital troubles sent Dreiser into a suicidal depression from which he was rescued in 1901 by his brother, Paul Dresser, a well-known songwriter, who arranged for Theodore’s treatment in a sanitarium. Dreiser recovered his

spirits, and in the next nine years he achieved notable financial success as an editor in chief of several women’s magazines. He was forced to resign in 1910, however, because of an office imbroglio involving his romantic fascination with an assistant’s daughter.

Somewhat encouraged by the earlier response to Sister Carrie in England and the novel’s republication in America, Dreiser returned to writing fiction. The reception accorded his

In 1925 Dreiser’s first novel in a decade, An American Tragedy, based on a celebrated murder case, was published. This book brought Dreiser a degree of critical and commercial success he had never before attained and would not thereafter equal second novel, Jennie Gerhardt (1911), the story of a woman who submits sexually to rich and powerful men to help her poverty-stricken family, lent him further encouragement. The first two volumes of a projected trilogy of novels based on the life of the American transportation magnate Charles T. Yerkes, The Financier (1912) and

The Titan (1914), followed. Dreiser recorded his experiences on a trip to Europe in A Traveler at Forty (1913).

In his next major novel, The ‘Genius’ (1915), he transformed his own life and numerous love affairs into a sprawling semiautobiographical chronicle that was censured by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

There ensued 10 years of sustained literary activity during which Dreiser produced a short-story collection, Free and Other Stories (1918); a book of sketches, Twelve Men (1919); philosophical essays, Hey-Rub-a-Dub-Dub (1920); a rhapsodic description of New York, The Color of A Great City (1923); works of drama, including Plays of the Natural and Supernatural (1916) and The Hand of the Potter (1918); and the autobiographical works A Hoosier Holiday (1916) and A Book About Myself (1922).

In 1925 Dreiser’s first novel in a decade, An American Tragedy, based on a celebrated murder case, was published. This book brought Dreiser a degree of critical and commercial success he had never before attained and would not thereafter equal. The book’s highly critical view of the American legal system also made him the adopted champion of social reformers. He became involved in a variety of causes and slackened his literary production. A visit to the Soviet Union in 1927 produced a skeptical critique of that communist society entitled Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928). His only other significant publications in the late 1920s were collections of stories and sketches written earlier, Chains (1927) and A Gallery of Women (1929), and an unsuccessful collection of poetry, Moods, Cadenced and Declaimed (1926).

The Great Depression of the 1930s ended Dreiser’s prosperity and intensified his commitment to social causes. He came to reconsider his opposition to communism and wrote the anticapitalist Tragic America (1931). His only important literary achievement in this decade was the 35

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WORKS OF THE THEODORE DREISER

FEATURE

Dreiser’s first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), is a work of pivotal importance in American literature despite its inauspicious launching. It became a beacon to subsequent American

The ‘Genius’ (1915) is artistically one of Dreiser’s least successful novels but is nonetheless indispensable to an understanding of his psychology.

This book chronicles its autobiographical hero’s career as an artist and his unpredictable pursuit of the perfect woman as a source of ultimate fulfillment

autobiography of his childhood and teens, Dawn (1931), one of the most candid self-revelations by any major writer. In the middle and late ’30s his growing social consciousness and his interest in science converged to produce a vaguely mystical philosophy.

In 1938 Dreiser moved from New York to Los Angeles with Helen Richardson, who had been his mistress since 1920. There he set about marketing the film rights to his earlier works. In 1942 he began belatedly to rewrite The Bulwark, a novel begun 36

in 1912. The task was completed in 1944, the same year he married Helen. (Sara White Dreiser had died in 1942.) One of his last acts was to join the American Communist Party.

Helen helped him complete most of The Stoic, the long-postponed third volume of his Yerkes trilogy, in the weeks before his death. Both The Bulwark and The Stoic were published posthumously (1946 and 1947, respectively). A collection of Dreiser’s philosophical speculations, Notes on Life, appeared in 1974.

writers whose allegiance was to the realistic treatment of any and all subject matter. Sister Carrie tells the story of a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress while George Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her transgressions against conventional sexual morality. The book’s strengths include a brooding but compassionate view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative line. The emotional disintegration of Hurstwood is a much-praised triumph of psychological analysis.

Dreiser’s second novel, Jennie Gerhardt (1911), is a lesser achievement than Sister Carrie owing to its heroine’s comparative lack of credibility.

Based on Dreiser’s remembrance of his beloved mother, Jennie emerges as a plaster saint with whom most modern readers find it difficult to empathize.

The novel’s strengths include stinging characterizations of social snobs and narrow “religionists,” as well as a deep sympathy for the poor.

The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914) are the first two novels of a trilogy dealing with the career of the late-19th century American financier and traction tycoon Charles T. Yerkes, who is cast in fictionalized form as Frank Cowperwood. As Cowperwood successfully plots monopolistic business coups first in Philadelphia and then in Chicago, the focus of the novels alternates between his amoral business dealings and his marital and other erotic relations. The Financier and The Titan are important examples of the business novel and represent probably the most meticulously researched and documented studies of high finance in first-rate fiction.

Cowperwood, like all of Dreiser’s major characters, remains unfulfilled despite achieving most of his apparent wishes.

The third novel in the trilogy, The Stoic (1947), is fatally weakened by Dreiser’s diminished interest in his protagonist.

The ‘Genius’ (1915) is artistically one of Dreiser’s least successful novels but is nonetheless indispensable to an understanding of his psychology.

This book chronicles its autobiographical hero’s career as an artist and his unpredictable pursuit of the perfect woman as a source of ultimate fulfillment.

Dreiser’s longest novel, An American Tragedy (1925), is a complex and compassionate account of the life and death of a young antihero named Clyde Griffiths. The novel begins with Clyde’s blighted background, recounts his path to success, and culminates in his apprehension, trial, and execution for murder. The book was called by one influential critic “the worst-written great novel in the world,” but its questionable grammar and style are transcended by its narrative power.

Dreiser’s labyrinthine speculations on the extent of Clyde’s guilt do not blunt his searing indictment of materialism

and the American dream of success.

Dreiser’s next-to-last novel, The Bulwark (1946), is the story of a Quaker father’s unavailing struggle to shield his children from the materialism of modern American life. More

Dreiser’s considerable stature, beyond his historic importance as a pioneer of unvarnished truth-telling in modern literature, is due almost entirely to his achievements as a novelist intellectually consistent than Dreiser’s earlier novels, this book also boasts some of his most polished prose.

LEGACY Dreiser’s considerable stature, beyond his historic importance as a pioneer of unvarnished truth-telling in modern literature, is due almost entirely to his achievements as a novelist. His sprawling imagination and cumbersome style kept him from performing well in the smaller literary forms, and his nonfiction writing, especially his essays, are marred by intellectual

inconsistency, a lack of objectivity, and even bitterness. But these latter traits are much less obtrusive in his novels, where his compassion and empathy for human striving make his best work moving and memorable. The

long novel gave Dreiser the prime form through which to explore in depth the possibilities of 20th-century American life, with its material profusion and spiritual doubt. Dreiser’s characters struggle for self-realization in the face of society’s narrow and repressive moral conventions, and they often obtain material success and erotic gratification while a more enduring spiritual satisfaction eludes them.

Despite Dreiser’s alleged deficiencies as a stylist, his novels succeed in their accumulation of realistic detail and in the power and integrity with which they delineate the tragic aspects of the American pursuit of worldly success. Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy are certainly enduring works of literature that display a deep understanding of the American experience around the turn of the century, with its expansive desires and pervasive disillusionments.

Lawrence E. Hussman 37

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FOCUS

AMERICAN-SERBIAN VIEW OF INNOVATION

WE CAN CHANGE BOTH OURSELVES & THE WORLD Not long ago, it would have been far-fetched to tout Serbia as a location for research into virtual reality, eHealth or artificial intelligence. This summer, however, three new laboratories opened at the Innovation Center of the University of Belgrade’s School of Electrical Engineering, where young, talented Serbian researchers can push the boundaries of these most advanced scientific fields in their own country.

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e asked young people who are originally from Serbia and have forged notable careers in the U.S. what Serbia should do if it wants to take a major leap forward in terms of innovation. According to the answers that we received, the secret of success is “both there and here”. In other words, we should rely on the knowledge and talent that we have but don’t sufficiently use, while we should copy some of the recipes that have already proven extremely successful.

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NENAD GRMUSA, SVP, HEAD OF TAKEDA’S CENTER FOR EXTERNAL INNOVATION

NENAD TOMAŠEVIĆ, CEO DREN BIO INC. REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA

SELF CONFIDENCE IS KEY

LET’S COPY OURSELVES AND OTHERS

For me, the experience of studying in the U.S. was decisive in me gaining self-confidence, and that forms the basis for a person to feel the strength and motivation to change the world for the better.

I believe that the right example for Serbia is to enable people with ideas to work in incubators that are sponsored by the state or industry, as it is done in San Francisco.

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erbia is a country that has a lot of potential when it comes to innovation, admittedly like any other country in the world.

We have a long history of innovation, from Tesla and Pupin onwards. Innovation is born in various forms: in sports, science, business, etc. Novak Đoković is an innovator - he revolutionized tennis with his speed of shifting movement from shot to shot.

He is today studied and copied by younger generations. Branko Babić, the founder of PhiBrows, is an innovator, and he’s here in Serbia. He can provide a lot of advice on this topic. Just like Mate Rimac in Croatia.

Firstly, I think the key is in the ambition to change the world, to leave our mark on humanity, to ensure our children have the self-confidence to feel that they can do it. Nothing motivates people more than the opportunity to make an “impact,” to change the world for the better; to offer something that’s differentiated, better than what exists, and that’s in high demand. For children to have a passion for what they choose to do, for them to have the ambition to be “worldly.” And to believe they can do so.

Novak and Branko are good examples of that.

Secondly, it would be good for our successful, wealthy people to invest as venture capitalists in new companies devised and pushed by kids. That would help those children become “worldly” with the provision of capital, advice, and their own connections.

Thirdly, the education system should also be transformed into one that instills a sense of self-confidence in people, and not the other way around, as it has been to date, filtering children from elementary school onwards. For instance, I only gained academic self-confidence in America. Growing up in Novi Sad, in our education system, I thought I was extremely limited. I’m sure that every person can be successful, and an innovator – they just have to sufficiently interested in something. People today spend their entire lives learning, and you never know when a window of genius will open up for someone. So, the education system must be adapted to shape people who have the agility to learn, and new quality will emerge from that. America has nothing special to offer when it comes to innovation models, other than the three things that I’ve just listed.

erbia has made great progress in the IT field, and this is now a leading branch of industry that is able to keep pace with the world. As far as I’m aware, due to good earnings and working conditions in this sphere, workers have even started returning to the country. My suggestion is for the same recipe to be used to strengthen other branches related to technology and natural sciences.

The pharmaceutical industry is currently experiencing a boom in America. This relates to huge investments that result in the appearance of treatments for diseases that were untreatable until recently. The huge success of COVID-19 vaccines has further boosted confidence in the biotech industry and new treatment methods.

There are around a dozen incubators in the San Francisco area that help young biotech companies initiate research. Several hundred companies that deal with medicines, devices or diagnostics are currently being “incubated” there. These incubators are often linked to universities, but also larger pharmaceutical companies that are very happy to sponsor the functioning of these institutions. I think this is also the right example for Serbia, i.e., to enable people who have ideas to work in incubators that are sponsored by the state or industry. It would be logical for these incubators to be closely connected to universities.

Nenad Tomašević Ph.D. received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and his Master of Science degree and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Belgrade. He completed his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK, Genetics and Biochemistry Branch) in Bethesda, Maryland. During his training, he discovered two previously uncharacterized proteins. He went on to join Cytokinetics, leading a team that identified small molecule inhibitors of key players involved in actin dynamics i.e., cell motility, with that data published in prestigious scientific journals. He led a protein biochemistry group at Nuvelo that implemented numerous preclinical studies on protein and antibody therapeutics. He was director of protein biochemistry at KaloBios and his team has supported preclinical and clinical activities for three clinical-stage antibodies. During this time, he was also team leader for an antibody program in allergy.

He is today the Founder & Vice President of Research at Allakos.

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SPORT

NIKOLA JOKIĆ, BASKETBALL ACE

REALIZING THE AMERICAN DREAM Nikola Jokić seems to have done everything in his playing career with ease and spontaneity, even realizing the American dream. He has even succeeded in being declared this year’s Most Valuable Player of the NBA, becoming only the fourth player not born in the U.S. to earn this title. He set out from his native Sombor, where he had doubts over whether basketball was really for him, and then everything progressed at lightning speed. From Belgrade’s Mega club, he travelled straight to Colorado to join the Denver Nuggets. Many pundits thought he wouldn’t be able to handle the NBA, but he’s now ranked as the best of the best

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ikola Jokić recalls his beginnings, when he was still a boy.

“There were certain problems with coaches back then.

When I decided that I really wanted to play seriously, I went to the Sombor Basketball Club and coach Isidor Rudić.

I spent three years there. He played a very important role, because there was a period of around four months when I didn’t play or even train. That was initiated by my dad, because he saw that my euphoria around basketball had dissipated. Coach Rudić also said that I could do whatever I wanted, to enjoy myself. During that period, horses became very important in my life. We once went to the races and I really liked that. I played basketball together with the children of Vladimir Pribić, a man who works with horses, so we knew each other from earlier. I gradually entered that world, first cleaning the barn, then later sitting in the sulky cart to ride.

Vladimir Pribić still looks after and trains my horses, and I can’t wait to go to Sombor and hang out with them. I’m primarily interested in trotting horses [harness racing]; gallopers aren’t so interesting to me because I’m very big and heavy for them. In this way I can sit and ride.”

Fortunately, it was his love for horses that brought him back to the court.

“I returned to basketball because my teammates started training at the horse track, so I ran with them and gradually became interested again. We played two seasons and were champions of Vojvodina. We entered the Second Division of the Serbian League. In the last game in the provincial league, we played against Duga, a team whose shirt was worn by Dušan Bulut, today the world’s number one ranked 3x3 basketball player. We lost, but the coach of Vojvodina came to watch me. He spoke to my brother and they agreed that I would move to Novi Sad, enroll in school and play for Vojvodina. Again, I didn’t like that idea much, but they insisted. In the first two rounds, we played against Hemofarm and Partizan, and I had exceptional statistics. The people from the Mega club already contacted me then. In that half-season, we only lost to Red Star and Žitko Basket, so we finished in second

place. I transferred to Mega during the midseason break, and they immediately included me in the first team.”

Entering the world of professionals wasn’t easy. Due to his lack of physical preparedness, coach Dejan Milojević insisted that Jokić first worked to improve his strength, so he wouldn’t get injured.

“I couldn’t do any a single proper push-up. I worked with fitness trainer Marko Ćosić on strength exclusively.

That lasted almost two months. I played for Mega’s juniors, and sat at the end of the bench for first team games.

“It was all a game for me, and I wasn’t interested in what my body looked like.

I didn’t burden myself, nor was I afraid of injuries. I just enjoyed myself, carried away by the game. Then Dejan Milojević

Dejan Milojević was an elite power forward when he played basketball. He taught Nikola all the tricks of tall players, and Nikola would master them all at the first attempt. Jokić had entered the world of the big men.

“I was lucky that, at Mega, I played with basketball players like Marjanović, Veličković, Dangubić, Varda, Musli, Radović... They all play for big clubs today. However, I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, and I thank Milojević for that. There were many times when he remained silent despite being annoyed by my moves. But I guess he saw that this would pass in the future, so he didn’t restrain me. The freedom I had with him, as well as his desire to help me, were huge.”

I was lucky that, at Mega, I played with basketball players like Marjanović, Veličković, Dangubić, Varda, Musli, Radović... They all play for big clubs today. However, I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, and I thank Milojević for that

Nikola drew attention to himself.

He almost transferred from Mega to Barcelona, but the stars had different ideas once again. Legendary Lithuanian player Artūras Karnišovas was assistant general manager in Denver and he insisted that Jokić must come to the NBA immediately. The Nuggets chose him as the 41st draft pick.

“I don’t even know what negotiations between Miško and Karnišovas looked like, I was focused on my game. I didn’t even follow the draft. My brother Nemanja was living in New York and he celebrated my draft pick at a nightclub.

showed up and forced me to do sprints at training. I yelled that I couldn’t stand it, but he didn’t accept that. He always sought my maximum, and he was always right.”

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SPORT He called me on the phone and woke me up during the night, and all I said to him was, “Man, let me sleep. I’ll call you in the morning”! He celebrated for both of us. Prior to joining the NBA, I had the experience of playing in the NIKE Hoop Summit. That entire generation now plays in the NBA. Trey Lyles and Jamal Murray are with me and on the team. It was there that I saw that I could show something different. During those years I tended to shoot more three-pointers, and I was very precise.”

It was already clear in his first season that Nikola had the prospect of becoming the best player in Denver. The team consciously opened a space for him, because Jokić’s unique talent quickly won over fans in Colorado.

“In the NBA league I also play and have fun. I try to play with teamwork, for everyone to be happy with the way 42

It was already clear in his first season that Nikola had the prospect of becoming the best player in Denver. The team consciously opened a space for him, because Jokić’s unique talent quickly won over fans in Colorado we play. No individual can beat a good team. I think it’s nice for people to watch us, and we feel good on the floor. There is a lot of freedom in the way we play and that’s very important. Of course, the desire to win is always present, our goal will always be to reach the playoffs and do something in the finals.

“Having fun while playing basketball is a normal thing for me. We won’t die if

we lose the match. The only defeat that left a big impression on me was at the Olympic Games in Rio, but realistically we didn’t have a chance, the guys from team U.S.A. smashed us. Everything else, victory or a defeat, is a game, that’s why it’s called that. My goal is to have fun and, if I can, to involve as many people in that as possible. For us all to be happy and cheerful, not only when it comes to basketball, because moments when a person can laugh and rejoice aren’t so frequent in today’s world.”

Nikola has spent six seasons with the Denver Nuggets. And it wouldn’t be unusual for him to spend his entire playing career there.

“When I came to Denver, it was very tough for me to get used to the high altitude. The air is also very dry.

At the first training session, I felt a lack of oxygen after 10 minutes. I was

in shape, but I had to take a break.

However, you start feeling better when you spend a little longer here. That is also to our advantage, because having more air in our lungs means that we feel lighter when we travel somewhere else. That has often meant a lot to us when playing on the road, as we are faster and more aggressive than our opponents. All our opponents arrive in Denver a day early, in order to acclimatize. I think that one day is enough. I know that when I leave to go to Serbia and then come back, I need one strong training session to get reaccustomed to the conditions in Colorado.

“My brothers and I are in Denver together the whole time, as is my girlfriend, Natalija. Our parents come whenever they can. My brothers had a great influence on my career and it’s very important to me that they’re with

In the NBA league I also play and have fun. I try to play with teamwork, for everyone to be happy with the way we play. No individual can beat a good team me even now, so that I can discuss things with my own people. And they’ve been there for me in good and bad times. The support of the whole family means a lot in the upbringing of a young player. We have a real brotherly relationship, but we aren’t the only examples. New York Knicks star Kristaps Porziņģis also has two brothers supporting him. We have always had a relationship in which I’m against the two of them, no matter what we do. There was always a competitive spirit. They also played basketball very

well, so we often gauged our strengths one-on-one. There were practically no fouls. Like most older brothers, they did everything they could to beat me: stealing, cheating, fighting... Now that we’re adults, we also sometimes play. During the All-Star break, I often played one-on-one against my middle brother, Nemanja. I beat him eight or nine times in a row. He doesn’t accept that easily, because he was considered the most talented in the family, until I turned up.”

Nikola Jokić is a simple guy. He loves basketball, horses and his family. And Denver and the NBA very quickly fell in love with him, thanks to his unique playing style and the great results he’s achieved with Denver. Jokić is living his American dream, and it seems that he still has many great, historic seasons ahead of him in Colorado.

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TOURISM

SITKA, ALASKA

SITKA - A DASH OF FASCINATING HISTORY When we head to the U.S., we usually head to one of the megacities on the east or west coasts. This time we suggest that, if your trip leads you to North America, you visit one of the most beautiful corners of this great country – Sitka, a beautiful town in Southeast Alaska

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ou don’t often hear of this small town. That’s because it is a hidden gem – a place so special that it is widely accepted as the most beautiful town in Alaska. The natural beauty of Sitka is overwhelmingly.

The small town is situated between a mountain range (known as the Sisters) and the sea. The beauty is rugged and wild. For hikers, hunters, fishermen, and climbers, it is an escape from the bustle of the rest of the world. A remote

place full of raw beauty, untouched by the modern world.

With all of Alaska’s natural wonderment, it’s easy to forget about the

Sitka is perhaps the most beautiful Southeast Alaskan community, and that, combined with its dense history, means you should plan on at least a day to look around

blending of Russian and Native cultures that make it unique. Not so in Sitka.

From architecture to dance, the two prongs of this area’s history meld into one rich historic pot…and an interesting short visit.

Sitka is perhaps the most beautiful of Southeast Alaskan community, and that, combined with its dense history, means you should plan on at least a day to look around. Nestled on the west side of Baranof Island, midway between Ket-

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TOURISM

The only way to visit Sitka is either by sea or air. Arriving by air is the best way to appreciate Sitka’s stunning setting. From above, you can really see how this small town is situated between a mountain range (known as the Sisters) and the sea. When the sky is clear, you can see snow-capped peak of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano that rises almost 1,000 meters.

Even after the Russians sold Alaska to America in 1867— another event that happened here—the Russian influence lives on

chikan and Skagway, it’s flanked on the east by majestic snow-capped mountains and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

The area was first home to rich, sophisticated Tlingits, who put up quite a fight after Russian Alexander Baranof established a headquarters here in 1799 to grow even wealthier in the trading of sea otter fur. Two of the bloodiest encounters of the era were fought near here, with the natives winning round one and the Russians trumping them with cannons to win round two.

Even after the Russians sold Alaska to America in 1867—another event that happened here—the Russian influence lives on. With much of the rest of Alaska still relatively young, Sitka is the place for a dash of fascinating history—along with its gorgeous scenery.

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INTERVIEW

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THE STATUE OF LIBERTY 48

135 YEARS OF THE BEACON OF FREEDOM The Statue of Liberty, one of the most recognizable symbols of freedom and democracy across the world, was a gift of friendship to America from France

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naugurated in 1886, the statue is 305 feet tall and represents Libertas, the Roman liberty goddess, bearing a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left hand with the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Broken shackles lay underneath the statue’s drapery, to symbolize the end of all types of servitude and oppression.

For decades, her symbolic spirit has offered hope to those entering the United States as immigrants, but her famous inscription continues to evoke passionate feelings on what the Statue of Liberty symbolizes.

The statue’s original name was “The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” and it was conceived as

The statue’s original name was “The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” and it was conceived as a gift by French historian Édouard de Laboulaye in 1865, just months after the Civil War ended, to honor the United States’ new ideals of democracy and the emancipation of the country’s slaves a gift by French historian Édouard de Laboulaye in 1865, just months after the Civil War ended, to honor the United States’ new ideals of democracy and the emancipation of the country’s slaves.

In 1871, French sculptor FrédéricAuguste Bartholdi, who had enthusiastically supported the proposal and was picked as the artist, traveled to the United States to discuss the statue with American politicians, and to find a possible home for it.

He eyed Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor, due to the fact that all incoming vessels arriving in the city passed it. Four years later, de Laboulaye made a formal request to then U.S. President Ulyssess S. Grant to use Bedloe’s Island as the statue’s official site.

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THE STATUE OF LIBERTY In order to build the monument, de Laboulaye and Bartholdi created the Franco-American Union, a partnership that would raise money for the project. The French agreed that they would fund the statue, while the Americans, in turn, would fund the pedestal.

Bartholdi began sculpting the statue in 1875, in an effort that would require almost a decade. The complex structure, made of an inner iron framework and external copper plates, was first devised by engineer Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and -- after his death in 1879 -- by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer who also built the famous tower that bears his name.

The completed statue, weighing 225 tons, was presented to American minister to France Levi P. Morton in 50

The statue would undergo many changes and improvements over the years. In 1907, the first elevator was installed inside it, and in 1916, it was illuminated for the first time after being converted to electric power.

It would go dark for two years during World War II, due to blackout regulations. The torch was replaced entirely in the 1980s Paris on July 4th, 1884. The following year it began its journey from Paris to New York aboard a steamer, disassembled and without the pedestal, which was completed later.

It was inaugurated on October 28, 1886, with a ceremony presided over

by President Grover Cleveland and accompanied by a water parade of about 300 vessels. Cleveland saluted Bartholdi, the sculptor, as “the greatest man in America today.”

The statue would undergo many changes and improvements over the years. In 1907, the first elevator was installed inside it, and in 1916, it was illuminated for the first time after being converted to electric power. It would go dark for two years during World War II, due to blackout regulations. The torch was replaced entirely in the 1980s.

The Statue of Liberty was designated a National Monument in 1924 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. In 1956, Bedloe’s Island was renamed Liberty Island by a joint resolution in Congress.

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