Diplomacy and Commerce No. 36

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February 2019 | ISSUE No. 36 | Price 350 RSD

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GROWTH ON HEALTHY GROUNDS

JORGOVANKA TABAKOVIĆ

Governor of the National Bank of Serbia

SLOW BUT SOLID PROGRESS

28 A FAREWELL PARTY OF H.E. ISABEL CRISTINA DE AZEVEDO JAN

HEYVAERT, AMBASSADOR OF BRAZIL TO SERBIA

WE ARE NOT GIVING UP!

DUŠKO JOVANOVIĆ

Secretary General of the Association of Serbian Insurers

TANJA MIŠČEVIĆ

VIOLIN IS LIFE-TIME PARTNER FOR ARTIST

Head of Negotiating Team for Serbia's Accession to EU

WE VALUE OUR FRIENDSHIP STEFAN MILENKOVIĆ Violinist

VOJVODINA IN 2019

H.E. HOSSEIN MOLLA ABDOLLAHI Ambassador of Iran

Croatia

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

IGOR MIROVIĆ President of the Government of Vojvodina

H.E. GORDAN BAKOTA

Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Serbia

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EDITORIAL

CONTENTS

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TANJA MIŠČEVIĆ

STEFAN MILENKOVIĆ

WE ARE NOT GIVING UP!

State of the Union Address Dear readers, Recently, it was exactly 25 years since I first visited the USA. In early 1994, I participated in the five-week-long International Visitors Program, organized by the US Embassy in Belgrade. During this just over a month long stay in the US, I visited Washington D.C., Atlanta, Columbus in Nebraska, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston and New York City. I was at the same hotel as Bill Clinton where he gave his first ever State of the Union Address. For someone who came from the politically encumbered state such as Serbia which had just embarked on multi-party political life, while being surrounded by civil wars, and struggling with hyper-inflation (prior to my departure for the US, the last issue of our magazine 'Svet' cost 500,000,000,000 dinars at news-stands), the State of the Union Address by an American president was the most important thing in the world.

My hotel in Atlanta had two halls with TVs. On the first TV set, we could watch the State of the Union Address, while the other broadcasted the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal (we had the opportunity to recently see the film “I, Tonya” about this). There were exactly two people watching TV in the first hall and 50 watching TV in the second one. At that moment, I came to a realization that there were countries in the world were politics was not the most important thing on the planet, and where people were actually interested in other topics too.

My life was changed during those five weeks in America. In Atlanta, I interviewed Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King. In Las Vegas, I had an interview with the general manager of MGM Grand, which, at that time, was the largest hotel in the world. With the help of Beka Vučo, from Open Society Foundations, I managed to interview George Soros in New York City. In Boston, I watched the film “Schindler’s List” only a day after its official premiere, and in New York City, I was able to see one of the last performances of the musical "Cats".

This was America in the early 1990s - political correctness was in full swing, and the ban on smoking began to be practiced in almost all places. America was the sovereign winner of the Cold War, and it seemed that Francis Fukuyama really was right when he said that it was “the end of history”.

Cue to 25 years later and Donald Trump speaking about building a wall on the border with Mexico in his State of the Union Address, while the United States and the rest of the world are preoccupied with other topics. Even Fukuyama himself admitted that “the end of history” was not yet.

In Serbia, we are living the Groundhog Day. What is our State of the Union Address like? Apart from not being a union anymore since Montenegro decided to leave, we are still dealing with the same topics as in 1994 – the freedom of media, election conditions, are we in a dictatorship or not, is the West supporting presidents that serve only their interests and so on.

Political correctness in public speech disappeared before it took off, and smoking ban in public places is yet to be introduced.

ROBERT ČOBAN Director

VIOLIN IS LIFE-TIME PARTNER FOR ARTIST

Head of Negotiating Team for Serbia's Accession to EU

Violinist

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SOCIAL EQUALITY IS LIBERALISM

WE VALUE OUR FRIENDSHIP

Economy

H.E. HOSSEIN MOLLA ABDOLLAHI

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Ambassador of Iran

IHC VOJVODINA HAS A POTENTIAL TO BECOME A GREAT CLUB AGAIN

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IMMIGRANTS ARE NEW SLAVES

NEMANJA VUČUREVIĆ

Politics

Captain of Vojvodina Ice Hockey Club (IHC Vojvodina)

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CENTRALIZATION KILLS, DOESN'T IT?

FASCINATING COUNTRY THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

MLADEN JOVANOVIĆ

Head of the National Decentralization Coalition

S P E C I A L

OLIVER SAROV Travel story

E D I T I O N

TRŽIŠTE OSIGURANJA U SRBIJI

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THE MAN WHO WON THE COUNT

Félix Tshisekedi’s Presidency of Congo Begins Inauspiciously It may not get better

Against all the odds, and the laws of arithmetic, Félix Tshisekedi was due to become the Democratic Republic of Congo’s fifth president as The Economist went to press. A few weeks ago he was trailing in the polls. Experts predicted that the election in December would either be won by Martin Fayulu, a popular opposition candidate, or rigged in favour of the ruling-party candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.

Somehow, Mr Tshisekedi “won”, although data leaked from the electoral commission and a count by 40,000 Catholic volunteers suggest that in fact Mr Fayulu won 60% of the vote. Many suspect a secret deal between the new president and the old one, Joseph Kabila, whose business interests Mr Fayulu had vowed to investigate.

Mr Fayulu filed a petition before the constitutional court, stacked with Mr Kabila’s appointees. He expected it to fail, and it did. He hoped that street protests would keep up the pressure. “The Congolese people will not accept the result, there may be an uprising,” he said. But few turned out at what was supposed to be his first big public appearance since the court ruling, perhaps because so many armed police did. A small crowd waved photographs of Mr Fayulu. Two hours later the police were lounging in plastic chairs at a nearby restaurant and most people had gone home. Mr Fayulu decided not to show up.

Mr Tshisekedi’s victory marks the first time an African opposition candidate has been rigged into power, says Nic Cheeseman, an expert on African elections.

(Mr Shadary, the ruling party’s candidate, won so few votes that it would have been exceptionally hard to pretend that he won.)

The new president represents the country’s oldest opposition

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party. His father, Étienne, challenged corrupt, despotic regimes for decades until his death two years ago. Many hope that his son has inherited his principles. They yearn for a leader who will halt the looting that has lasted longer than most Congolese can remember, under two President Kabilas (father and son) and the kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko. With all its minerals, Congo should be rich, but annual income per head is a pathetic $400, 42% less than it was in 1990.

out on his own. For a precedent, they point to João Lourenço, who shoved aside his predecessor’s family and allies after taking power in neighbouring Angola in 2017.

Mr Tshisekedi’s virtues do not include loyalty; he withdrew from a pact to endorse Mr Fayulu last year only a day after signing up.

Yet Mr Tshisekedi is weak. Few Congolese think him legitimate: leaked electoral commission data suggest that he won less than a fifth of the vote. Because Mr Kabi-

MR TSHISEKEDI’S VICTORY MARKS THE FIRST TIME AN AFRICAN OPPOSITION CANDIDATE HAS BEEN RIGGED INTO POWER Mr Tshisekedi has promised, absurdly, to raise incomes tenfold.

He has also vowed to restore stability in the east, where dozens of warring militias have brought misery. To do so, he will need to bring the army to heel and take on the elite that plundered Congo on Mr Kabila’s watch. Optimists hope that he will ditch whatever deal he had with his predecessor and strike

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la’s coalition won a big majority in the national assembly (possibly by cheating), Mr Tshisekedi does not have the power to appoint his own cabinet. Nor can he count on the goodwill of Congo’s most important neighbours. Although the leaders of South Africa and Kenya raced to congratulate him, Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, has hung back. He and Mr Lourenço

were said to be largely responsible for an African Union statement questioning the election and urging a delay in his inauguration.

Neither Mr Kagame nor Mr Lourenço is likely to help Congo’s new president as long as Mr Kabila—whom they detest—retains influence over him. Yet their acquiescence is vital. Rwanda has invaded Congo in the past. Angola sent troops to save both Mr Kabila (from his own mutinous troops in 2006) and his father (from Rwandan invaders in 1998). Probably neither Kabila would have survived as long without Angolan assistance. But a maritime border dispute and an influx of refugees into Angola from a rebellion in Congo’s Kasai region have soured relations. Rwanda or Angola could easily destabilise Congo again if they wished to. Mr Tshisekedi, an inexperienced and unpopular leader in hock to a crooked and dysfunctional old regime, may not be able to stop them.

From The Economist, published under licence. The original article, in English, can be found on www.economist.com

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INTERVIEW

We Are Not Giving Up!

Serbia cannot influence the enlargement sentiment among the Member States, but it can diligently prepare itself for opening of new and closing of the opened chapters which is what we intend to do in 2019 bia's accession in the EU?

TANJA MIŠČEVIĆ Head of Negotiating Team for Serbia's Accession to EU

“Not even the internal upheaval in Germany and France, or the fact that Europe is preoccupied with elections should slow us down, or deter us from accomplishing our goals. We are listening intently to the messages coming from Brussels and other European capitals, we are looking for our place and we are trying to keep enlargement on the EU agenda“, says Tanja Miščević, Head of the Negotiating Team for Serbia's Accession to the EU at the beginning of 2019, the year when Western Balkans will not rank that high on any European agenda.

Do you associate this extended stalemate in the dialogue with Kosovo with a major slowdown in the negotiations about Ser-

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— First of all, I would disagree with you that there is a major slowdown in the accession negotiations. If we look back at the development of the accession negotiations so far and the pace at which chapters have been opened, there is no change in pace, i.e. on aver-

should be ranked better. The dialogue about the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Priština is being monitored under Chapter 35 and this chapter, apart from the one about the rule of law, holds crucial importance for the negotiation proces. But, unlike the rule of law, not everything hinges

THE TIME HAS COME NOW TO SUM UP AND ANALYZE THE CURRENT SITAUTION AND REVISE EVERYTHING THAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR, AS WELL AS TO CONTINUE AND EXPEDITE REFORMS IN THE SEGMENT OF THE RULE OF LAW age, we open two chapters at each intergovernmental conference. Of course, I am not that happy with there being no change in pace and this is something I always bring up in front of the European Commission and the Member States.

The assessment of our progress in a given area and our readiness

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on Serbia in the dialogue so due to Priština introducing certain measures, the dialogue has been at a standstill for quite some time now.

What about Chapters 23 and 24?

How do you interpret the European Commission's report about Serbia which is quite critical

about the achieved progress?

— In the last Progress Report about Chapters 23 and 24, the European Commission has continued with its relativelly balanced approach to assessing the current state in the rule of law. The Report recognizes the latency that we are also aware of, and it also recognizes that we are trying to correct it. We did not want to implement some of the measures in haste like the amendments to the Constitution, as it was more important for us for the process to be inclusive and for the text of the document to be checked by the Venice Commission twice, rather than worry about deadlines.

In 2016, when we wrote the relevant Action Plans, we set rather ambitious deadlines because we wanted to expedite the process.

However, there are a number of things that affect the process, both in our and the EU institutions.

Hence, in 2018, we started revising Action Plans for Chapters 23 and 24

in order to adapt the activities and the deadlines to interim criteria while bearing in mind our experience in implementing the previous plans. The time has come now to sum up and analyze the current sitaution and revise everything that we have done so far, as well as to continue and expedite reforms in the segment of the rule of law.

So far, Serbia has not skipped over a single cycle in terms of opening of new chapters in the accession negotiations, but, as the rule of thumb, this always happened in the nick of time, just before year-end and realistically or apparently, as a result of some sort of coercion. What is your take on this?

— The country that presides over the Council of the European Union determines its own schedule when taking over the presidency, as well as its agenda and priorities, which, in turn, sets the dates for intergovernmental conferences with the participation of the countries that are in the accession negotiation process. The thing that slows us down, and not only us but also Montenegro and possibly any country that is about to engage in the accession negotiations, is the

way the reports about the rule of law chapters are being drafted, plus, in our case, the reports about Chapter 35. It is absolutely crucial that, before a chapter is opened, Member States have an insight in the state of the rule of law and this insight comes from the European Commission. The Commission does that either in the form of a report, also called The Non-Paper on the Rule

have a more understanding attitude towards this challenge.

The decision to open Chaptes 17 and 18 has been made, although there had been announcements that some other chapters might be opened. Did you have your own favourites in terms of chapters considering that several of them had already been prepared

2019 IS THE YEAR OF ELECTIONS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION, AFTER WHICH IT WILL BE CLEARER WHAT CAN WE EXPECT DURING THE THE TERM OF THE NEXT COMMISSION AND PARLIAMENT of Law, or in an annual progress report. Such reporting forms slow down the negotiation process and opening of new chapters, because it is the report that results in scheduling only one intergovernmental conference every six months. We have been trying to point out to the European Commission and Member States that such approach is slow and unsustainable, while, at the same time, proposing other reporting options. We hope that one of the next presiding countries will

for opening? What implications does opening of the aforementioned or other chapters have on the pace of the European integration process in practice?

— It is the Member States that decide on opening of chapters and our plans and expectations do not necessarily match theirs. Some countries are more interested in the enlargement process, some are better acquainted with the situation in the region, while some show more interest in certain seg-

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ments and act accordingly. I don't have a favourite chapter because I am well-aware how important is each chapter and how much time, resources and enthusiasm are spent by negotiation groups on drafting negotiation documents.

On the other hand, I think that it would be a great success when we open the chapters about agriculture and food safety, and environmental protection, considering the extensiveness of the legal framework, the resources and the importance that these chapters have for Serbia. Currently, the Member States are discussing five negotiation chapters – Chapter 9 (Financial Services), Chapter 2 (Freedom of Movement for Workers), Chapter 4 (Free Movement of Capital), Chapter 14 (Transport Policy) and Chapter 21 (Trans-European Networks). We have been working on other chapters too, both those who have and don't have criteria, with the intention of presenting plans for every single of these chapters as soon as possible. Sooner we make plans, sooner we are going to start implementing them.

Is there any logic in investing a lot of effort in the European integration process now when

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gling with Chapter 19, Europe is already contemplating profound changes in job contracts. Is it plausible to expect that one day, when we become Europeans, what we view as European will no longer be?

France and Germany are struggling internally and are focused mostly on themselves?

— Actually, now is the time that makes perfect sense because we should also be dealing with ourselves, our reforms and standards.

Obviously, becoming an EU member is not the sole goal here. We are listening intently to the messages coming from Brussels and other European capitals, we are looking for our place and we are trying to keep enlargement on the EU agenda. Actually, we are confident that we can help with finding a solution for various European crises, just like we were able to help during the migrant crisis.

It took some countries five years to finalize the negotiations about joint foreign and defence policy, while Serbia is still at an initial stage. Why is progress so slow in this segment?

— The fact that there is no Screening Report for Chapter 31 (Foreign, Security and Defence Policy) puts Serbia in a rather unique situation which is that, even after five years, we still have not finished the process of analytical review of our legislation. The situation is oneof-a-kind because Chapter 31 does not specify the parts of the Acquis that candidate countries should integrate in their own legislation, but it contains something called „soft law“, or rather recommendations and principles. Truth be told, Member States have different approaches to what to do with this chapter in the case of Serbia and they still disagree on it. Also, there are rather particular relations with the countries that have or have not recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo, bearing in mind that Serbia adapts its foreign policy to preservation of its sovereignty. I do hope that Member States have a good grasp of the fact that the EU's foreign policy is not only about harmonizing foreign policy stances, like in the case of the sanctions against Russia. There are also elements like Serbia's commitment to preserving peace and security, and the fact that our country has the highest number of soldiers participating in the EU and UN peacekeeping missions, compared not only to the countries in the region but also to other candidate countries.

In 2017, Serbia became a member of the HELBROCK Battlegroup comprised of Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Ukraine. We also rank 8th in terms of the num-

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THE RELATIONS BETWEEN SERBIA AND NATO HAVE BEEN AT A VERY HIGH LEVEL FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW. ACTUALLY, THIS IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL THAT A COUNTRY ASPIRING TO BECOME AN EU MEMBER CAN HAVE WITH NATO

What bearing does the ever-changing situation in the field have on the countries that are undergoing the harmonization process? NATO is no longer the only option, as there is frequent mention of the formation of an European army.

tually, this is the highest level that a country aspiring to become an EU member can have with NATO. We have adopted the individual Action Plan regarding our participation in the Partnership for Peace that has been implemented for a few years now. In terms of the European army and the talks about forming one that have been quite pronounced in the last few years, this is a topic that is cyclical and has been talked about since the formation of the three Communities. This time around, the reason why these talks are taking place is the discussion about the place that NATO has and its role especially in reference to the relations between trans-Atlantic partners. However, we can say with certainty that the cooperation between NATO and the EU in the segment of defence and safety is here to stay because these two organizations are compatible and are founded on the same value system.

— The relations between Serbia and NATO have been at a very high level for quite some time now. Ac-

Can we also mention labour legislation? While we are still strug-

ber of soldiers participating in the EU's peacekeeping operations Also, there is the drafting of strategic documents and compliance with the Global Strategy, cooperation in the coalition against terrorism, cooperation in the prohibition of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the development of equipment and weapons, and many other forms of cooperation between Serbia and the EU. We expect that the remaining Member States will soon give their consent to the adoption of the Screening Report, as this is the first step in preparing the negotiating position and opening this chapter.

MEASURE OF SUCCESS It would be a great success when we open the chapters about agriculture and food safety, and environmental protection, considering the extensiveness of the legal framework, the resources and the importance that these chapters have for Serbia.

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— In order to illustrate just how demanding the negotiation and reform processes are, I often use the moving target metaphore because it best demonstrates the fact that what is expected from us today can change in relation to what will be expected of us in 2020 and later. We are following closely the developments in Brussels, at the plennary sessions of the European Parliament in Strasbourg and in the Member States.

We are carefully assessing the areas where biggest changes could be made and consequentially, we leave certain reforms for the latter part of the negotiations. In regard to labour legislation, we are currently finalizing the adoption of the Action Plan for Chapter 19 (Social Policy and Employment).

We are also in consultations with civil society stakeholders and I am confident that this Action Plan will be the foundation for improving the legal framework and building administrative capacities in this segment. Furthermore, the Plan takes into consideration the development of the EU's Acquis in the areas of labour and labour relations.

Is it realistic to expect for Serbia to finalize the accession negotiations by 2023? What does your schedule show?

— Our schedule shows that we have years and years of hard work behind and ahead of us. So far, we have opened 16 chapters, and closed 2. The revised National Programme for the Adoption of the Legal Acquis of the European Union is devised in such a way that the full harmonization of domestic legislation with the European one is expected by the end of 2021. That is the date we are running with, but we still have a lot to do to prove that we can successfully apply these adopted norms. In addition to preparing for the opening of the remaining chapters, we are working hard on meeting the closing criteria. What we cannot influence is the enlargement sentiment among the Member States. 2019 is the year of elections in the European Union, after which it will be clearer what can we expect during the the term of the next Commission and Parliament.

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INTERVIEW

We Value our Friendship There is a long list of high level visits, and important events in the sphere of economy and culture which over the past two years opened a new chapter in the history of bilateral cooperation between Serbia and Iran. Abolishment of non-visa regime didn’t change the upward trend

H.E. HOSSEIN MOLLA ABDOLLAHI Ambassador of Iran

Over the two year period since H.E. Mr. Hossein Molla Abdollahi.

Ambassador of Iran came to Belgrade, we have witnessed many positive developments and progress in bilateral relations between two countries, with a satisfying upward tendency. Exchange of high level visits, such as the visit of Dr. Zarif Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister to Belgrade, the visit of the Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister of Serbia to Tehran; convening 15th Session of the Joint Economic Commission of the two countries in Belgrade; exchange of visits of economic delegations and officials,

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such as the visit of the Head of Iran Trade Promotion Organisation to Belgrade, mutual visits of businessmen, convening two Business Forums to introduce investment and trade opportunities between the two countries in Belgrade, with participation of the

tries, with almost 45,000 Iranian tourists and businessmen visits to Serbia; establishment of direct flights between the two capitals; visit of H.E. Mr. Vukosavljevic, Serbian Minister of Culture and Information to Iran and his participation at the 31th International Book

THE PRESENT FRIENDLY COOPERATION BETWEEN IRAN AND SERBIA WILL BE CONTINUED AND WILL BE FURTHER DEVELOPED AS IT HAS BEEN DONE DURING PREVIOUS SANCTIONS IMPOSED AGAINST IRAN high level state officials and private sector representatives; convening two rounds of consular consultations in Belgrade and Tehran; remarkable number of tourist exchange between the two coun-

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Fair in Tehran, at which Serbia was a Guest of Honour; having Serbian Film and Music Week in Iran; celebrating the 80th Anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relation between the two countries

and publishing a catalogue on selected historical documents about bilateral relations between Tehran and Belgrade…

“These are just part of what has been done in bilateral relations between the two countries over the past two years. One of the most important achievements during this period is increase the level of mutual interactions and visits between Iranian people and Serbian people which created much better mutual understanding and promoted mutual knowledge of our people to each other. This achievement provided a solid ground for expanding and diversifying the areas of cooperation between the Iranian and Serbian people and governments and at the same time crated a very positive friendly atmosphere between Iran and Serbia”, says Mr. Abdollahi.

How were these relations affected by the cancellation of the visa abolishment?

— The Republic of Serbia and the Islamic Republic of Iran agreed to practice Non -Visa Regime between the two countries from September 2017. This mutual agreement was an important step to facilitate exchange of visits of our people and led to increase the level of interactions and communication between Serbian and Iranian people. Furthermore, the establishment of direct flights between Tehran and Belgrade was another essential step towards easier travel of tourists and businessmen of the two countries.

These two important steps opened a new and joyful chapter in cooperation between Tehran and Belgrade enabling many important achievements to reach.

The decision to abolish non-visa regime made by the Republic of Serbia, as a result of certain pressures, affected the growing trend of tourist and trade cooperation between our two countries. Undoubtedly, neither Iran nor Serbia is satisfied with the unwanted consequences which led to cancelation of direct flights and reduction of touristic cooperation.

In order to overcome these unpleasant consequences, relevant officials in Tehran and Belgrade agreed to create a new mechanism in order to facilitate and accelerate the visa issuance procedure in both countries. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran issue visa for Serbian citizens in just few days and for Serbian business people grants multiple visa at least for six months. In order to expedite the visa granting procedure for Iranian citizens, Government of Serbia will increase the number of staff of the embassy in Tehran.

To what extension are the US sanctions against Iran affecting our cooperation and cooperation between Iran and other countries?

— The US sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which were imposed following the unilateral and irregular US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), caused number of problems for economic cooperation and trade between Iran and other countries of the world and consequently created lots of difficulties for daily life of Iranian people.

Unfortunately the concern and fear over US punitive actions or

fines is the main reason that trade and economic partners ceased or reduced their cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although the Serbian government is not supporting unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran but the activities of Serbian economic and business partners are also affected by those concerns.

What are your expectations from the EU in that respect? How likely is that the special purpose vehicle (SPV) proposed by the EU will be operational soon?

cilitating legitimate trade between European and Iran.

The creation of INSTEX is an overdue first step forward taken

by E3 countries and accordingly the E3 underlined their commitment to pursue the further development of INSTEX with interested European countries to make this instrument in support of trade exchange with Iran. This important step which was taken by E3 will pave the way for resuming economic cooperation and trade exchange with Iran for all countries of the world.

SERBIAN-IRANIAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION, WHOSE MEMBERS ARE RESPECTED FIGURES FROM SERBIA SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL WALKS OF LIFE AND ACADEMIA, HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN DEEPENING OUR FRIENDSHIP

— The EU is one of the major traditional trade partner of Iran and also one of the main party in JCPOA. The EU did not accept the unilateral and hegemonic approach of US toward the JCPOA and strongly stands committed to the Nuclear Deal with Iran.

On Thursday 31st. January 2019, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, in accordance with their resolute commitment and continued efforts to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) endorsed by United Nations Security Council resolution 2231, announced the creation of INSTEX SAS (Instrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) aimed at fa-

In which areas Serbia and Iran can improve their cooperation in spite of these circumstances?

— It is important to know that the Serbia Government on 14th June 2015, formally supported Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) and like EU does not supporting US unilateral sanctions against Iran. Since Serbia itself experienced heavy economic sanctions imposed by the US, I believe Serbia as the country with independent approach in foreign policy, and friendly relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, will continue its cooperation in all mutual interested areas with Iran.

We live in a world which is as it seems to us full of conflicts. How

would you assess the current situation in your region?

— The current situation in the Middle East is tense and very much complicated. There are several disputing issues and number of crisis and conflicts which caused uncertainty for the future. Foreign interventions beside activities of terrorist and extremist groups severely endangered peace and security in this region. At this time more than ever a proper arrangements through positive and friendly approach is needed to defuse tensions. This could be done through collective sincere efforts and dialogue among all countries of the region.

I hope all nations and governments in this region would witness positive developments in their domestic affairs as well as in their foreign relations with their neighbouring countries and with all other countries in the region specifically and in the whole international community in general in the year 2019. Achieving this desired goal, needs great efforts, sacrifices and tolerance of all people and all governments. Accepting religious, geographical, ethnical, cultural and traditional diversities as a normal phenomenon of the creation in the world and as the given gift of the creator, will pave the way for having mutual understanding and peaceful dialogue in order to find the best possible solutions for the current problems and difficulties.

People of the region with the great historical background and civilization deserve better style of life and better relations among each other and for sure they are able to achieve it. Establishing a regional security framework among all countries in the region could be a proper mechanism to enhance security and peace and to put an end to the foreign interventions and all ongoing conflicts.

Those people who already left their homeland due to security and uncertainty problems deserved to return to their homeland and to start normal life in their country.

The worse scenario could be the escalation of current tensions and crisis which may lead to a wider conflicts in this vulnerable region. In this case peace and security of the region will be seriously in risk and then as a result, more people prefer to leave their homeland so that to be away from different kind of dangers and this may lead to a new wave of migration to other regions.

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What kind of developments in the region would you expect in 2019 and how these developments will affect some of the global issues such as refuge crisis?

— I would rather prefer to see positive developments not only in the Middle East but also in all regions around the world in the year 2019 to bring an end to all ongoing problems and conflicts. The fact is that the Middle East region is seriously affected by number of old and new challenges from inside and outside. Some of these challenges are global and it cannot be overcome without effective collaboration and serious cooperation by the countries inside and outside the region. The ongoing conflicts has the potential to lead to chaos and bring enormous unpredictable difficulties striking anywhere, any time. These serious problems could not be removed or resolved by one country or another. It needs serious, efficent and constructive collective efforts at national, regional and international levels.

It is extremely important to understand that ongoing unilateralism is a serious threat to international peace and security and it is a major source of fragmentation and distrust in the whole international community. In fact, the Middle East is not the only region in the world which is suffering from different type of problems and conflicts, unfortunatly, most of the regions and even the whole international community are facing new challenges and problems due to this fast growing unilateralism.

This is a real threat for any country and any region and in general for the whole world.

How would you assess our cultural cooperation and the role of the Serbian-Iranian Friendship Association in that respect?

— The cultural cooperation of the two countries in all fields of mutual interest has an active, positive and satisfying trend. Serbia Minister of Culture and Information,

ALTHOUGH THE ABOLISHMENT OF NON-VISA REGIME HAD NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE MUTUAL COOPERATION IN TOURISM AND TRADE, DIFFICULTIES INCURRED WILL BE RESOLVED BY IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW AGREED MEASURES paid an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran in May 2018, and as the guest of honour participated at 31st International Book Fair in Tehran. Beside Tehran, he also visited Esfahan and talked with Iranian cultural officials about cultural cooperation in various fields and signed MOU on cooperation between national libraries of the two countries. Furthermore, during his visit, another MOU on cooperation between museums of our countries was agreed to be signed, it is also agreed that dialogue among reli-

gions to be held between the two countries. In 2015, Islamic Republic of Iran was the guest of honour of the International Book Fair in Belgrade. The two countries have been continuously taking active participation at the international book fairs organized in our capitals.

Based on agreements, and also mutual interest on literature, arts, civilisation and history, of each other, Iran and Serbia are actively involved in translating and publishing books on the said subjects.

So far number of books has been

WE SHARE COMMON STAND AGAINST FOREIGN PRESSURE In which areas our two countries share common thoughts and actions when it comes to multilateral questions?

— There are number of multilateral issues that Iran and Serbia share common thoughts and common stand on them. Opposing unilateralism is one of the area which both countries have a common position on that. Common stand against foreign pressure or foreign intervention in regional and national issues

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is another common approach and thought of Iran and Serbia.

Both Iran and Serbia are following independent foreign policy and they are active members of non - aligned movement. Iran is supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and implementation of UN Security Council resolution No.1244. Serbia supports the JCPOA and the UN Security Council resolution No.2231.

translated from Persian to Serbian language and published in Serbia and vice-versa in Iran.

Film and music festivals are two other fields of quite interests for both countries. Islamic Republic of Iran organizes film and music festivals every year in Serbia. This year, Iran Film Festival started on 4th February in Belgrade, screening 13 selected films of contemporary Iranian cinematography.

These films will be also shown in other cities in Serbia.

In 2018, during the visit of the Minister of Culture to Iran, Serbian film and music festival was held in Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz. Famous Iranian film directors and actors travelled to Serbia and they have been always warmly welcomed by the people in Serbia. Film co-production of cinematography’s of our countries is on the agenda and initial consultation on this cooperation have been already held.

In December 2018, the exhibition of Iranian handicrafts and arts was held in the National Assembly of the Republic Serbia. Later, this exhibition was shown at the Charity Bazaar in Belgrade, attracting many enthusiastic visitors.

The cooperation on the field of education is also a domain of cultural and scientific cooperation between our countries. Exchange of professors and students, organization of educational tour for students, convening Persian language courses due to the great interest of students and exchange of scholarships are current activities in cultural-scientific cooperation of the two countries.

Cultural and social similarities of our countries and great interest for mutual cooperation in the field of science, culture, sports and art have created very positive, active and friendly atmosphere for mutual cooperation between the two countries. The Iranian national team of futsal on 4th and 5th of February 2019 had friendship matches with their Serbian counterparts.

NATIONAL DAYS

in February & March

ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES

FEBRUARY

H.E. CHEN BO

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Newly appointed ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Serbia

Chen Bo was born in January 1970, in Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou city.

She is a university graduate.

In the period from 1992 to 1996, she worked at the Directorate for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Foreign Ministry. After that, from 1996 to 1999, she was Attaché, Third Secretary in the Embassy of China in FR Yugoslavia. From 1999 to 2004, Mrs. Bo was re-assigned to the Directorate for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Foreign Ministry.

From 2004 to 2006, she was Head of

JAPAN

Department at the Directorate for Europe of the Foreign Ministry.

In the period from 2006 to 2008, Mrs. Bo was an advisor at the Embassy of China in Serbia. From 2008 to 2014, she was a counselor, Deputy Head of the Directorate for Europe, and in 2014, she was appointed Deputy Mayor of Tangshan City in Hebei Province. Since 2015, she has served as the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is married and has a daughter.

ational N Foundation Day

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IRAN

Islamic Revolution Day

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VATICAN

oundation of F Vatican City

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ESTONIA

Independence Day

25

KUWAIT

ANDRÉ RINNENSLAND

ational Day and N Liberation Day

New general manager of Metro Serbia

André Rinnensland was appointed the new General Manager of METRO Cash & Carry Serbia, effective as of January 1st, 2019.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Rinnensland was the Global Director for House of Learning and Regional HR Operations Director at METRO AG in Asia. With this appointment, METRO Serbia has gained a general manager with an extensive professional experience in the company itself which will contribute to further development and investments in employees, as well as result in development and growth of the company's operations.

Mr. Rinnensland acquired his diverse professional experience by

working in various segments of the industry, which gives him additional qualifications to manage and further develop the company in Serbia.

He worked for METRO Italy and METRO Turkey, as well as at the company's HQ in Germany where he acquired substantial work practice and an insight into the development of human resources and their skills while focusing on their professional advancement.

In his first ever statement as the new General Manager of METRO, André Rinnensland underlines that he is very enthusiastic about working in the exceptionally dynamic Serbian market.

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EGYPT

Independence Day

MARCH

01

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Proclamation of Independence 1992

03

BULGARIA

Liberation Day

08

SYRIA

Independence Day

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ADOLFO ORIVE New CEO of Tetra Pak

The Board of Directors of Tetra Laval Group appointed Adolfo Orive as President and CEO of Tetra Pak, staring from April 1, 2019. The appointment took place after Dennis Jönsson's decision to withdraw from office of the president and general manager which he held for 14 years and after 36 years working for the company.

Adolfo Oriveo, currently Vice President of Clusters for North, Central and South America, joined Tetra Pak in 1993. Previously, he performed

MAURITIUS

several management functions in the Group, including Cluster Director General for Columbia, Spain and Vice-President of Clusters for North and Central Europe. In 2014, Orive joined Tetra Pak's global management team.

Adolfo Orive (age 55) graduated Industrial Engineering from Ibero-American University (IBERO) in Mexico, and received a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Mexico Autonomous Technology Institute (ITAM) in Mexico.

Independence Day

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HUNGARY

1848 Revolution Da

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IRELAND

St. Patrick's Day

20

TUNISIA

Independence Day

25

GREECE

Independence Day

31

MALTA

Freedom Day

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CORPORATE

Old Obstacles Disappearing, New Ones Popping up The recommendation for the establishment of a public register of fees and charges, that was also one of the top 10 initiatives last year, as well as the development of e-archiving remain priorities in the new edition of the Grey Book. However, the request for further reduction of salary tax and contributions remains the ultimate priority for businesses

VLADIMIR NOVAKOVIĆ Chairman of NALED’s Managing Board and General Manager of Apatin Brewery

Although the state authorities have managed to remove many obstacles to better functioning of companies and easier life for the citizens, new edition of the Grey book shows that there is still a long way to go.

What are the key recommendations for the Grey Book in 2019?

Which reforms have to be expedited?

— The 11th edition of the Grey Book brings 100 recommendations for reduction of administrative and (para)fiscal burdens, which were devised based on the experience of citizens and businesses in their direct contact with the state authorities. 31 recommendations are brand new, which suggests that we are not sufficiently effective in dealing with bureaucracy and that new laws continue to impose complicated procedures. New obstacles have popped up also because of the changed market circumstances, or due to technological progress or examples from other countries that shed the light on the extent of bureaucratization of our society.

In 2018 the ministries implemented 12 recommendations in whole or in part, which is 30% more. However, we believe that the pace of adoption of recommendations should be much faster considering that, in addition to describing the problem, the Grey

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Book also offers concrete solutions which makes it a kind of a guideline and work plan for institutions on how to improve the business environment.

Which obstacles for doing business have you targeted this year?

— We have singled out 10 priority recommendations that we are nominating to be included in the Government of Serbia’s agenda, primarily in the field of digitization. For the first time ever in the Grey Book we have an initiative for establishment of an electronic public procurement system.

Also, we propose that, in 2019, we should introduce an e-agri system, for the electronic registration of agricultural holdings and the incentive allocation. In terms of tax regulations, we recommend the establishment of electronic delivery of tax certificates, as well as the digitization of tax decisions for

for businesses.

With regard to brand new recommendations, apart from e-procurement, we would also like to mention the proposals for abolition of paper payment orders, enabling automatic change of residence in documents, the optimization of the procedure for changing ownership of vehicles, the introduction of the electronic invoice delivery system, etc.

How much did the development of e-services and e-government help companies with reducing

31 RECOMMENDATIONS ARE BRAND NEW, WHICH SUGGESTS THAT WE ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY EFFECTIVE IN DEALING WITH BUREAUCRACY AND THAT NEW LAWS CONTINUE TO IMPOSE COMPLICATED PROCEDURES small businesses that pay flat tax rate. The recommendation for the establishment of the public register of fees and charges, that was also one of the top 10 initiatives last year, as well as the development of e-archiving remain priorities in the new edition of the Grey Book.

However, the request for further reduction of salary tax and contributions remains the ultimate priority

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administration and extra costs?

— Several e-government services have been introduced in the past three years, quickly proving their practical value and thus being readily accepted. We are proud that NALED took part in their development. The first such service is the system of electronic issuance of building permits through which over 200,000 building per-

mit applications have been submitted in the period of three years.

Today, this procedure is completely transparent and has improved the efficiency of institutions with over 90% applications processed within the legal deadlines. Now, it takes only six days to obtain a building permit.

E-Counter has replaced six visits to relevant authorities with a single visit to a public notary, now serving as a one-stop shop to submit your application and registration document. In just six months, over 130,000 applications have been submitted via e-cadastre, i.e. 40% of all procedures handled by the cadastre office. Also, the average time required to process the application is shortened from 25 to 5 days.

The portal for electronic registration of seasonal workers was launched in January this year, and during its first three weeks, it has received over 3,000 applications for hiring seasonal workers in agriculture. For instance, this is the total number of applications that we had for the entire 2017.

NALED has also implemented training for over 5,000 civil servants and other system users.

We are proud to say that we have also secured donations for e-permits and the system for electronic

registration of seasonal workers from the german development cooperation organization (GIZ) that were used towards development of the needed software. By doing so, we have saved a lot of taxpayers’ money.

Last year, when you summed up the decade-long results since the launch of the Grey Book, we saw that an impressive number of initiatives were accepted, but also that, in some cases, public administration proved to be extremely stubborn. Is there any chance that one of these perennial initiatives will be implemented?

— There are several reasons why some of the initiatives are published time after time in the Grey Book, and we are mainly talking about systemic reforms or reforms that require the coordination of several institutions. For example, reduction in taxes and contributions requires an extensive analysis of the possible effects on budget revenues, business conditions, the impact on the grey economy and employment.

Implementing such reform is not an easy fet.

Another example is the reform of non-tax charges, which began in 2012, following the abolition of 138 fees and charges at NALED’s initiative. However, this reform was quickly abandoned. Last year was marked by the adoption of the Law on Fees, which does represent a shift in transparency. However, contrary to our expectations, some new fees were introduced while some old ones still remain in place, mainly those resembling taxes by nature and the so-called double fees. Also, our key requirement for the establishment of the public register of fees and charges was not accepted.

What success from 2018, under the framework of the fouryear Public Private Dialogue for Growth project, would you like to single out?

— Public Private Dialogue for Growth project is an initiative that we have launched with USAID with the aim of developing sustainable cooperation and communication between the state, businesses and civil society, as well as the development of the capacities of all three sides for dialogue. Public-private dialogue has not been established in our country as a

regular practice as yet, and 60% of the laws are passed without an adequate public debate.

In 2018, we selected three associations with which we will work on advocating reforms in the segments in which their members operate. They are the Association for Entrepreneurship Develop-

ministration?

— Communication and cooperation have been improving in the last five years since we, together with the Government of Serbia, agreed to establish two joint bodies comprising representatives of line ministries and businesses from the segments that need ur-

BUSINESSES ARE VERY INTERESTED IN COOPERATING WITH US. LAST YEAR ALONE, WE HAD OVER 300 MEMBERS AND FOR YEARS NOW, WE HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST BUSINESS ASSOCIATION IN SERBIA ment, Agri-cluster of Serbia and the Association of Beekeeping Organizations of Serbia. In agreement with them, we would like to nominate improvement of business conditions for small businesses that pay flat tax rate, boosting organic food production and preventing the poisoning of bees to be included in the Government’s agenda. During September and December, we organized two campaigns - "The Month of Flat Tax Payers” and "The Organic Food Month" - which attracted attention from both the public and institutions. We have already reached an agreement with the line ministries about next steps.

In the first half of 2019, we will launch a beekeeping campaign, and in the next few years, we plan to open three new topics with three other organizations.

How would you assess the overall cooperation with public ad-

gent reforms. They have achieved excellent results. These are the Expert Group for countering grey economy and the Joint Group for the improvement of Serbia’s ranking on the Doing Business List. By working together, we devised the National Programme for Countering Grey Economy, which contributed to the fact that, in the last three years, the scope of grey economy among registered businesses has been reduced from 21.2% to 15.4% of GDP, as well as Serbia improving its rank on the World Bank’s Doing Business List from the 91st to the 43rd place.

We believe that such bodies are needed in other priority areas such as agriculture and healthcare.

On the other hand, we expect that certain institutions will become much more active in reform activities and implementation of the recommendations stipulated in the Grey Book, and by this, we primarily mean the ministries of

economy and health.

How much do citizens and companies use the opportunity to launch initiatives for policy change together with you?

— Businesses are very interested in this. Last year alone, we surpassed the number of 300 members and for years now, we have been the biggest business association in Serbia.

Business people are particularly interested in joining thematic alliances, in which they actively contribute to drafting and implementing reforms in specific areas.

Thus, we have formed alliances for fair competition, e-government, property and spatial planning, healthcare, agriculture and food. Membership in these alliances is constantly increasing because they have proven to be an effective mechanism. We are in the process of forming yet another alliance.

Citizens and companies are very interested in cooperation. Last year, in addition to the “The Month of Flat Tax Payers” and "The Organic Food Month" campaigns, we also launched the campaign called “Ask When” during which we singled out bureaucratic procedures that need to be digitized. We had an excellent response in all three campaigns.

Every year you give out the Top Reformer Award. Is choosing a winner a difficult job considering the number and the quality of nominees?

— The Top Reformer of the Year Award is given to prominent representatives of the public administration - ministers and their associates, state and provincial secretaries, heads of regulatory bodies and agencies, mayors and municipal presidents, who in the past year, in cooperation with NALED, made a concrete contribution to improving the business environment. We had nine nominees this year, with two standing out - the reform of cadastre registration and the engagement of seasonal workers.

Unlike the years when competition was weak due to a lack of substantial reforms, this year, the selection of General Director of Republic Geodetic Authority was an easy choice, as this was a systemic reform that influenced a large number of businesses and citizens, strongly demonstrating its value during the six months of implementation.

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INTERVIEW

Centralization Kills, Doesn't it?

We are facing a demographic and economic downfall

MLADEN JOVANOVIĆ Head of the National Decentralization Coalition

Many unsuccessful countries suffer from centralization. Some of them are „remnants of larger states“ with capital cities that are former regional centres which have metastasized into "the head of an octopus“, like Budapest, Yerevan, Belgrade, Sofia and Skopje. Some have a dual centralization like Athens-Thessaloniki. We are talking about decentralization with an anti-centralization activist, Mladen Jovanović.

How can we stop Serbian citizens from massively migrating to Belgrade, Novi Sad and possibly Niš?

— Centralization is a weird animal.

It feeds on concentration of power – primarily political and economic.

Centralization of decision-making and public administration is just the fuel for the engine that brings people and businesses to move to capital and larger cities.

The State of Serbia needs to act.

And act quickly, because for some smaller communities it is maybe even too late. Serbia is now fighting for the life of mid-size communities, towns and cities outside the big three (Belgrade, Novi Sad,

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Niš). What has to be done? Local self-governments need to have a direct access to larger percentage of public revenues and principle of subsidiarity needs to be fully implemented. Local government budgets combined, including the budget of Vojvodina, make only 10-12% of total public revenues in Serbia (Ministry of Finance data from 2018). This means that out of 10 dinars that citizens give to the state, maximum 1.2 dinars stay at the local level, while outside Vojvodina it is even less than 1 dinar.

This is significantly lower than the EU average of 32%, and considerably less than more developed EU democracies where the percentage goes up to over 40%. With such a dire financial framework, local governments in Serbia are powerless when faced with problems of local population. On the other hand, political and election system in Serbia disturbs local political processes, with a high level of clientelism between local and central government that is incapable of being reactive to needs of people in communities. Fiscal decentralization and enforcement of subsidiarity principle have to be coordinated with national policies dedicated to balanced regional development, that are currently completely missing in Serbia. We need to give a stronger push to communities that are currently less successful and

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don’t have resources of their own to grow and develop. To be very clear, balanced regional development policies should not be based only on increased public spending on this topic.

For example, the state can simply change its requirements toward foreign investors that receive state subsidies and demand for the employee salaries to level up to the municipal average. In this way, investors will be financially encouraged to go to poorer communities.

We can also consider the option of decentralizing revenues and management of natural resources which can also assure higher level of income for local level and definitely more efficient management system. Currently, towns and villages around Kopaonik are some of the poorest in Serbia and don’t have any access or influence on what is happening in our biggest ski center, which one of the most significant income generators in Serbia. At the same time, Kopaonik’s nature is being ruined with

terms of getting higher education or finding a job. What should a young person in Serbia do in such situation than to pack their things and move to Belgrade, Novi Sad, and to a lesser degree, to Niš?

Highly regionalized countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Australia, Canada, the US and others are best regulated, while some countries, that would otherwise be highly-centralized, have somewhat mitigated this process through federalization, like Austria. Do you think that some of these formats or combinations could be copied and implemented in Serbia?

— Regionalism has not been on Serbia’s political agenda for the last 30 years, with some exceptions.

Political stakeholders also show superficial knowledge of this concept. There is a variety of models that should be taken in consideration. Regionalization based on natural resources is an interesting option, allowing better and more

BALANCED REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICIES SHOULD NOT BE BASED ONLY ON INCREASED PUBLIC SPENDING ON THIS TOPIC consequences that will have a major impact only on local population. As one of our activists said – the state is cutting down our forest, but the local community will lose its river, or face the coming landslide. Highly centralized education system management is one of the key reasons for the deteriorating situation in schools outside the big 3 cities, limiting access to good education all over Serbia and making young people from smaller communities disadvantaged in

sustainable management in favour of local communities. This model could facilitate creation of regions around Stara Planina, Kopaonik, the green belt of Negotinska Krajina, etc. Other model could be creation of regions with 3-4 stronger cities in each region, making sure that these cities provide access to good education, health, transportation and work to people in the region – i.e. Ćuprija, Paraćin and Jagodina. In this case it isn’t necessary to create huge infrastructures

in each of these 3-4 cities. Many more formats are possible. When it comes to those aforementioned, the question of political administration of the region is not in the focus. A type of political administration should be a consequence of intent and purpose of regionalization. Unfortunately, the issue of political power is always imposing itself as the issue above all issues in the Balkans, frequently more important than life itself. This is why Serbia is heading toward a demographic disaster with villages, cities and even entire regions losing people at incredibly high rates.

In our region, the term regionalization is still a synonym for a division of a country. The naturally regionalized countries like Croatia or Serbia are stubbornly refusing to recognize their own regions and give rights and money to historical regions. Rather, they keep insisting on counties. Does this yield counter-productive results, like it did in Ukraine?

— People in Serbia are scared of separatism and advocates of centralism are seriously misusing this. But separatism is wrongly linked to regionalism. The world’s history clearly shows that people demand separation when they feel powerless, when their rights and economic status are out of their control and dependent on political society that they cannot reach or hold accountable. Clearly, concentration of political power is the trigger for separatism since such concentration excludes people from decision-making. If regions have decision-making powers and if they can shape their policies to fit their specific conditions, policies will be improving the lives of people exactly when, where and how it is really needed. The very nature of centrist policies is fundamentally wrong since one generic solution at a national level cannot fit different specific needs of people living in dramatically different environments, even in a small

THE RELATIVE SUCCESS OF VOJVODINA COMPARED TO THE REST OF SERBIA CLEARLY SHOWS THAT REGIONALISM DOES HAVE ITS ADVANTAGES

Serbia doesn’t start forming some sort of administrative regions.

Local and regional levels should be in charge of urban transportation development, energy distribution, small and medium sized airports, culture and cultural heritage, environmental issues, natural resource management, provision of basic health services, elementary education etc. Some of these authorities could be shared with central level, but key inputs, plans and inclusion of citizens in decision-making processes can happen only at the local and regional level. Political participation is the key to pacification and conflict management. Taking away the possibility for meaningful citizen political participation leaves people in position where they have no other choice but to leave or fight.

Consequences of both are destroying communities.

Who are your partners, both domestic and foreign?

country like Serbia. Relative success of Vojvodina compared to the rest of Serbia clearly shows that regionalism does have its advantages. The question is how to develop regionalism further with enough solidarity and mutual understanding, while not taking anything away from Vojvodina, but allowing everybody else to get more.

My favourite future option for Serbia is akin to the Spanish monarchy – counties in provinces that comprise federal monar-

chy. Money and culture are dealt with locally, everything else is up to the federal authorities.

Nowadays, terrorism and secession is being pacified. This is surely not the way to go.

— Serbia is territorially too small for two-level regionalization, but we should start the process with an open mind. Local levels need to have bigger access to public funding without a doubt. There should be public funds and policies dedicated exclusively to the issues that are related to regions, even in case that

— NCD has 14 association members from all over Serbia. Additionally, we cooperate with more than 50 different civil society organizations from Serbia and the region on regular basis. We are most proud of our accomplishments in building our relations with citizens, where more than 300 men and women in Serbia are supporting our activism. Wider support was also evident during the protest against centralization of Niš airport when over 5.000 people gathered in the main town square. Our researches are also recognized by the University of Pennsylvania that ranked us 48th of the best research organizations in the world in 2018 in topics of transparency and good governance. Our initiatives for changing the electoral system and decentralized development of civil society are supported by different donors, including USAID, European Union, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Embassy of Sweden in cooperation with Belgrade Open School and others.

INFRASTRUCTURE CAN HELP? Do you think that infrastructure could save Serbia from centralization? For example, if a tunnel, fast railroad and motorway were built between Šabac, Ruma and Novi Sad, someone could live in Ruma and take a 25-minute-commute to work in Novi Sad, or travel from Smederevo to Belgrade for work too, without the need to move to their place of work. Could this contribute to the revival of smaller towns that are devastated and suffer from population migration to bigger cities and abroad?

— Infrastructure is the key of development. Motorway, road and railroad

infrastructure is the base of growth and progress of small communities in Western Europe. My personal experience is very much connected to France, where life in smaller towns has many advantages compared to big cities. Communities are thriving thanks to their own good local infrastructure, as well as good connections within their regions and other regions.

France is considered a centralized country, but compared to Serbia, it is a decentralization heaven. It should also be noted that one of the requests of Gilets Jaunes protesters in Southern France is “preventing the delocalization of France”.

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POLITICS

Text: ŽIKICA MILOŠEVIĆ

Immigrants are New Slaves Bitterly divided societies

Immigrants have become new slaves, not in the economic sense of the word (although, that is sometimes closer to the reality) but in the sense of the topic of contention or rather the bone of contention that has become a very bitter one.

AMERICAN DILEMMA

Since the time of the Civil War in the United States, there has been no such topic that polarized the public in the United States to that degree as immigrants. At the time of Civil War, the abolition activists strongly advocated that slavery should be finally abolished, citing the examples of many countries that had already done so, including their ’motherland’, the United Kingdom. The abolition activists were concentrated mainly in the North, and their opponents mainly in the South. The big contention and the "rift" between them ended in a civil war, of all things, which was the biggest armed conflict in the history of the American continent up until that point. It seemed that it would be easy or even possible for the two sides to reconcile, but that was not the case. Even to this day, the continent has not recovered from this war, or any other, for that matter.

The situation today is not as nearly as simple because although the immigrant haters are, for the most part, concentrated in Arizona and Texas, there are a lot of them also in Trump's electoral base, in the Rust Belt and many other places.

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EUROPEAN DILEMMA

Europe would be much happier if it took in those very same American immigrants; the ones that come from Honduras or Mexico. In America, the problem of identity is the problem of language and race, in that order. The worst thing that Americans cannot "forgive" the new arrivals is not their origin (pick whatever origin you want, but first and foremost, be an American, and believe that America is the best system and the best country in the world), or the race, to a certain extant (although race is sometimes factored in) but the problem of not accepting the language that all the immigrants before you had accepted – rather, you should reject your native languge or at least use it (be it German, Italian, Yiddish, French or Russian) only at home.

the flock, others speak of the necessity of inclusion, post-religious society, and the globalization of cultures. It is difficult to explain the growing rift between the two options, and they are seen at every step. The centre parties in Germany (CDU or SPD), and their Austrian counterparts have been losing on popularity. In Germany, SPD and CDU are getting weaker, while in Austria, the Green Party and AfD are growing stronger. We can view the Green Party, in lieu of Die Linke, as the extreme left. Alexander van der Bellen from the Green Party (now Austria’s president) and Heinz-Christian Strache (now Foreign Minister) were the two last standing presidential candidates during the last election in Austria.

THE DARK CLOUDS ARE LOOMING

Common sense and moderation are losing the battle. Easy solutions are winning, dialogue is becoming scarce, and more and more people, entrenched in their opinions, are advocating their solutions as being the only right ones. There is no understanding for dialogue.

This happened in America in 1861, when the rift became insurmountable. In Europe, this happened in the 1930s, or more precisely, in 1939, when World War II broke out,

LET’S NOT ALLOW TWO EXTREME GROUPS OF VALUES TO REMAIN AND INEVITABLY FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER AGAIN Europeans like the fact that they speak different languages, but in spite of the proclaimed laicism, they react the worst to the people who are not of the same religion as they are, and the religion that disturbs them most is Islam, although they do not want to admit it. While some are fiercely opposed to the "Islamization" of Europe, painting Muslims as black sheep who are slowly but surely throwing the white sheep out of

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as well as some 70 years later. After 1917, Europeans started to believe that the system of kings, emperors, bourgeoisie and good manners, capitalism and parliamentary democracy, honour and morale was dead. They wanted to remedy this in two ways – by going “left“ or „right“, starting with October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, through to Bavaria and Hungary and coup d'état in other countries, all the way to the emergence of fascism

in Italy in 1922 and later non-democratic dictatorships, or juntas, or right-wing parties or something along those lines seizing power in most European countries in 1937.

Lest we forget the notorious King Alexander and his so-called 6th January dictatorship. Today, everything is solved either by left or right solutions, which leave no room for the story itself. There are celebrities in the United States that tweet how "it is unacceptable that there is no marriage equality", even though the same-sex marriage was unlawful in most US states only until a few years ago. The political correctness threw Apu out of The Simpsons while every word is nowadays being carefully weighed. Remember a TV anchor who said that, back in her time, it was acceptable to mask yourself into a black, Indian or Chinese person. She was fired for that.

Others are talking about „the leftwing fascism“ and are rejecting all Western values in advance and in their entirety, and we are not only talking about same sex marriages but also about immigration, political correctness and multi-culturalism. Snowflakes, as they call them, are angry about every little thing that destroys „the paradise“ that we are living in. The people from Middle and Far East, who are coming to Europe in droves, are unhappy with the conservatism and poverty in their own countries while opposing the liberalism in their adopted countries, and yet have similar socially conservative attitudes to those who would like to see them going back to their native countries. Total mayhem! This is the Gordian Knot that rose from the identity issues and has resulted in schizoid combinations.

The same thing happened in the US in 1861, and 78 years later, in Europe in 1939. It’s 79 years since the beginning of World War II. Let’s not allow two extreme groups of values to remain and inevitably fight against each other again. Not again!

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CORPORATE

Ambitious Production Programme When the new owners took over Tehnički Remont Bratunac, they brought with them a new vision for the company, new technology, new way of thinking and a stronger desire for the company to keep up with the global trends. As a result of substantial investments and hiring new experts, the company started producing innovative products for international market

SLAVEN RISTIĆ General Manager of Tehnički Remont Bratunac

Tehnički Remont is an outstanding example of a company that has successfully passed through the ownership transition. It was founded as Tehnički Remontni Zavod in Bratunac in 1996, when companies from Hadžići and Kaolin Company from Bratunac merged to engage in overhaul of weapons and military equipment from the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Six years ago, the company was officially privatized, and the South African company ELW GLOBAL became its majority owner.

Since then, the company's machinery has been significantly improved and a number of skilled workers, such as mill workers, grinders, welders, turners, elec-

20

tricians and electronics workers have been employed. Also, several young and talented engineers joined the company, thus significantly improving the company's staff structure.

In addition to constant investments in the company itself and its technology, it was also necessary

and a stronger desire for the company to keep up with the global trends in weapons production.

The company is still in an investment stage and its priority now is development of new products for global launch.

Guided by an idea of new owners – „new time requires new

WE ARE GOING TO LAUNCH SOON THE SECOND MODEL OF THE RS9 PISTOL, AS WELL AS SEVERAL VARIATIONS OF THE HUMANE DEMINING MACHINE AND OUR ARMOURED VEHICLE to keep hiring and investing in young people so that Tehnički Remont Bratunac maintains quality of its workforce.

When the new owners took over, they brought with them a new vision for the company, new technology, new way of thinking

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products“ - the company has developed a 9mm caliber pistol with a distinctive design and great features that does not lag in any way behind its competitors in the same category. The gun is designed for use in every extreme condition imaginable. The company's General

Manager, Slaven Ristić says that the gun's latest version could be launched in the very near future.

In October last year, the company presented its new ammunition production line. Additionally, the company produces humane demining machines.

At the time of the takeover, the situation in Tehnički Remont Bratunac was burdened by many problems which have been gradually resolved. Today, the company is a conscientious taxpayer, and it regularly disburses salaries and settles other financial obligations towards the state. At the moment, the company has enough contracted projects to keep it busy for the next 10 years.

As a result of the company's revival and its ambitious production programme, it has established contact and cooperation with a number of foreign companies, including the regional ones.

We have talked to Slaven Ristić, General Manager of Tehnički Remont Bratunac, about the company's technical capacities, innovations that have become its trademark and production plans.

We have also talked about the capacity of the weapons industry in the region in terms of regaining its rightful place in the weapons and military equipment global market.

At the moment, the company is fully financed from its own funds.

In order for this industry to develop, it has to have institutional support in obtaining licenses for cooperation with a number of markets around the world, as well as available financing sources and tax incentives which will help this industry to regain the global market position it deserves.

What capacities does Tehnički Remont Bratunac (TRB) have today, and what can you offer to your clients?

production line, and 4. MH17 humane demining machine. We are financed exclusively from our own revenue sources.

To which markets do you export the Despot multi-functional armoured vehicle?

— Despot can cover a large segment of the global market, but let's say that Africa and the Middle East are our target markets, in addition to our domestic market.

What are your innovation capacities and how are you going to expand your product offer?

CERTAIN SEGMENTS OF THE REGIONAL WEAPONS INDUSTRY ARE ALREADY QUITE COMPETITIVE GLOBALLY, AND WE EXPECT THAT OTHER WEAPONS FACTORY FROM THE REGION WILL FOLLOW SUIT

— TRB's capacities consist of two plants with latest CNC machinery, serial and individual production machines, thermal processing and painting equipment, locksmith workshops, etc. Together with the administration staff we have over 200 workers. In line with its production and administrative capacity, TRB can offer to the market a number of products and services in the land defence system segment, as well as a number of products and services related to the civil metal processing industry.

What segments did you inherit from the previous state-owned company, and what parts have you modernized?

— We inherited experienced workers, a part of production, and some of the documentation. We have employed and trained a number of people, acquired many modern

— Most of our projects are development projects in the final stage, so all of them, in themselves, can be called innovative. In addition, we are definitely going to innovate the RS9 model, as well as produce various variations of the demining machine and armoured vehicle.

Now is not really the time to talk about the projects that we have in the pipeline.

What is your assessment of the development of weapons industry in the region?

— Considering that, not so long ago, the regional weapons industry was one of the strongest in the world, we can see a noticeable recovery in all regional countries. Certain segments of the regional weapons industry are already quite competitive globally, and we expect that other weapons factories from the region will follow suit.

machines, and upgraded and overhauled the existing infrastructure.

What does product line look like today and what revenue sources do you rely on?

— The most prominent products in our weapons and military segment are: 1. Semi-automatic pistol, 9mm calibre, RS9 Vampire, 2. DESPOT multi-functional armoured vehicle, 3. DRINA machine gun

What kind of institutional support should weapons industry have in order to enusure its growth and development?

— We need support in securing licences for collaboration with other global markets, readily available financial sources and tax incentives.

DESPOT – MULTI-FUNCTIONAL ARMOURED VEHICLE The first series consisting of four multi-functional armoured vehicles Despot will have its public launch soon. This new version has been significantly improved in relation to the prototype presented at the military parade held on the occasion of the Republic of Srpska Day. Despot is a multi-functional vehicle that we have been working on and developing for four years. The vehicle is manufactured and designed in line with all relevant international standards, and is based on both global experiences and the know-how of our own

engineers. It is intended for anti-terrorist units, the army and the police.

The basic concept of the vehicle is based on a multi-purpose chassis made of drive and power transmission units, as well as an independent suspension system that allows high mobility in all weather and terrain conditions.

Despot has a modern design, is 6.05 metres long and 2.7 metres high, with a maximum weight of 14 tonnes. The name Despot comes from a Byzantine title that emperors used to give to their children and sons-in-law. The vehicle is intended for the international market.

21

CORPORATE

Ahead of its Time

With a great understanding of market trends and a well-coordinated team, we firmly occupy the leading position of the biggest classic lottery games provider in the Western Balkans. We will endeavour to remain in this position in the future too

SIMONIDA KAŽIĆ Acting CEO, State lottery of Serbia

“With the new prizes and games we are going to continue bringing luck both to our players and the state budget beneficiaries this year”, says Simonida Kažić, Acting CEO of State lottery of Serbia, a company that has been recording excellent business results while contributing to the society year-on-year.

What results did the State lottery achive in the past business year and how are they going to reflect on your future plans?

— We are extremely proud of the results we achieved in 2018 and mostly of the fact that we generated much bigger funds for the state budget which are intended for financing humanitarian, health and social institutions and organizations.

The total amount we generated through collection of game of chance provision fees and profit tax exceeded 2 billion dinars, which is a 10 percent increase from last year and a 30 percent increase relative to 2016. This outcome is a result of an increase in total turnover in 2018, which reached almost 55 million euro.

Positive business results also led to an increase in the number of our luckiest players, since 85 of them became millionairs in 2018, while thousands of winners enjoyed other material and financial

22

prizes. Our strategy has brought success and good results and we are confident that our plans for 2019 will bring even more luck to our players.

cards, which are widely available in our sales network. Also, our new terminals significantly accelerate the transation process. Additionally, we are expanding the network of facilities where players can validate their online game registration.

We continue the growth trend and highlighting the importance of State lottery in it’s nobel mission that is justified together with all the participating players.

Does this suggest that you have exceeded your plans and expectations?

What remained the same and what changed relative to last year?

— We were absolutely sure of our capabilities and did everything in our power to implement our plan.

We also believed that we could exceed our plan, which we proved to be true. We have done a lot on building our positive image and improving open communication with our players and the media.

Furthermore, we have made significant steps towards restructuring and expanding our network with the goal of optimizing resources, increasing the availability of the classic lottery games and boosting our sales.

— With a great understanding of market trends and a well-coordinated team, we firmly occupy the leading position of the biggest classic lottery games provider in the Western Balkans. We will endeavour to remain in this position in the future too.

Apart from constantly expanding our sales network, most of our business in 2019 is going to be focused on further development of the infrastructure for online games available at our website www.lutrija.rs. An increase in the number of registered players proves that

STATE LOTTERY OF SERBIA IS NOT JUST A LOTTERY GAMES OPERATOR. WE ARE ALSO A RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYER, WE CARE ABOUT OUR COMMUNITY, AND WE EDUCATE AND PROTECT OUR PLAYERS Throughout the year we are working on expanding our sales network together with the largest retail chains. LOTO and BINGO are the most popular classic lottery games, but as a result of constant innovations in our portfolio, significant contribution to overal positive result comes from the scratch

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we are keeping up with e-commerce trends. We are not just the company that operates lottery games, we do it responsibly, we take care of society, we educate and protect our players. Membership in The European Lotteries and World Lottery Association is the guarantee for transparent opera-

tions, by respecting the organizational principles and standards of responsible gaming operations.

The ISO/IEC 27001 international standard presents the norm of best practice in comprehensive set of information system security measures, and it gives aditional guarantee for complete data safety.

How much is State lottery of Serbia keeping up with new trends?

— I would argue that we are a step ahead. We have introduced innovative business segments that fully meet market needs and we are constantly improving them.

The thing that clearly sets us apart from other similar companies is that we have developed a comprehensive online lottery software AVALON, a product that we have successfully exported to Macedonia and the Republic of Srpska.

We hope that last year's presentation in the international market will result in the establishment of long-term cooperation with the new markets.

Lastly, what novelties can we expect from game of chance providers?

— Our goal is for our players to have fun and to provide them with a chance of winning something.

This year, we are preparing a lot of surprises for them – additional special rounds of classic games of chance with many new prizes and perhaps new games.

It is a real privilege to be in contact with people that winn, and oftenly the value of the prize does not define their happiness, rather it is the impression that things are possible. With new prizes and games we continue to distribute happiness, to our players and to the fund users.

CORPORATE

Local Market Grows With Us As a global leader in the baking industry, Lesaffre's presence in the domestic market is very important because a company like ours has the capacity to instigate changes and helm the development of the entire industry. Also, global trends are getting closer to the domestic market while, at the same time, the distinctiveness of baking in the region is being fostered

MIODRAG JELIĆ General Manager for Serbia, Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria at Lesaffre

With its products, the Lesaffre Company has been present in the Serbian market for over two decade. 2014 was one of the most important years for the company's two-decades-long presence in the domestic market, following Serbia becoming one of the very few countries that Lesaffre chose for the location of its Baking Center™.

"This is a pioneering project of our company, primarily aimed at educating professionals, associates and partners, but also at continuously improving the existing and creating new products and recipes," says Miodrag Jelić, General Manager for Serbia, Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria at Lesaffre. "When we entered the Serbian market, we were aware of the distinctive features of this region, the fact that the regional markets were similar and that they had a long and serious baking traditions. Nevertheless, each country has something special, something that makes it different," Mr. Jelić adds.

During the said period, the Serbian market started the consolidation of its industrial segment, with the parallel existence of a number of small and medium-sized bakeries which are very important because they enjoy a strong consumer confidence. „In a market as distinctive as this one, we wanted to bring closer the global bakery trends and offer innovative prod-

ucts like liquid yeast, as well as contribute to the development of our branch“, Mr. Jelić says.

Early last year, you acquired Alltech's yeast factory in Serbia.

How important is this acquisition for Lesaffre's development?

— Lesaffre has important strategic goals in the segment of nutrition and health, thanks to its 165 yearlong expertise in producing and analyzing yeast and fermented products. The successful acquisition of Alltech's yeast factory helped us to further consolidate our position in the developing global yeast extract market. Lesaffre has eight factories around the world, and the new factory in our business system and its successful

takeover will help us to be even more committed to meeting the specific needs of our customers and listening intently to the needs of the local market.

With the help of the Bakers Union, you have organized the competition called Pekarijada – National competition for best professional bakers at which you gave out awards to young bakers. Are there enough young bakers interested in innovation in the baking market?

— During the eight months of selection process for Pekarijada at the Lesaffre Baking Center™ lasted, about 200 professional and young bakers demonstrated their skills in the preparation of various baking products. We are particularly proud of our young bakers category, with the first and second winner in this category being high

THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF OUR COMPANY IS TIED TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION OF THE PRODUCTS FROM THE TASTE ENHANCERS AND CONCENTRATED MIXTURES CATEGORY USED BY THE BAKING INDUSTRY, AS WELL AS TO NUMEROUS CSR PROJECTS THAT WE PLAN TO IMPLEMENT

school students. We are pleased to see that this competition is viewed as prestigious and coveted among young bakers and future baking professionals. A possibility of getting a job is a reward that these young people value very highly. On the other hand, it was extremely beneficial for them to meet their older and more experienced colleagues at the Pekarijada, and get practical advice from them. More people applied for the second Pekarijada than for the first one.

What are your further plans in this market?

— The Serbian market has a huge potential, and we have accomplished quite successful results here. With the second Pekarijada, we have succeeded in promoting our profession even better than before and showed our industry in a new, more creative way, which is more familiar to the general public. Promoting our profession is something that only the leaders can do, therefore it is very important to us. The national competition and partnership with the Serbian Bakers Union is the best validation of how much we have been focusing on this topic. We also support our industry through the Baking Center™, which we organize, but also through a number of almost daily training sessions and workshops that we organize in our Baking Center™.

As for the products themselves, the yeast that we produce under the brand names Fermin, Alfa and Vrenje are among the best-selling yeasts in the domestic market, so it is quite natural that we devise our plans in line with the results achieved by the most successful brands in our portfolio.

23

TECH TENSIONS

America Unseals its Indictments Against Huawei The Chinese giant is accused of rewarding trade-secret pilferer

IN A CIVIL lawsuit in 2017 an employee of Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, was found to have swiped one of the arms of Tappy, a phone-testing robot owned by T-Mobile, an American wireless carrier, and with it the smart proprietary technology in its fingertip. A jury in Seattle ordered Huawei to pay compensation of $4.8m to T-Mobile. The court found, however, “neither damage, unjust enrichment nor wilful and malicious conduct by Huawei”.

This week the Chinese company reminded the world of that verdict in its public response to a sweeping set of fresh allegations against it by America’s Department of Justice. The charges include bank fraud, obstruction of justice—and technology theft, as Tappy becomes the subject of a new criminal case. Huawei was also accused of defrauding four big banks (one of which is known to be HSBC) into clearing transactions that violated international sanctions on Iran.

This was why Canadian police arrested Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial officer,

24

on December 1st, on behalf of the American authorities. On January 28th they made a formal request for her extradition. Canada now has 30 days to respond.

Huawei said that it had not committed “any of the asserted violations” and repeated that it was “not aware of any wrongdoing

Ren by FBI agents in 2007, in which he is alleged to have misled investigators by saying that Huawei did not conduct activity that violated American export laws—are only now being used to bring charges has also raised some eyebrows. In a statement on Monday the FBI made the leap from trade-secret theft to

NOTHING SUGGESTS THAT AMERICA HAS ANY CONCRETE EVIDENCE TO CONFIRM ITS GRAVEST SUSPICIONS: THAT CHINESE SPOOKS USE HUAWEI GEAR TO LISTEN IN, OR THAT IT HAS TIES TO THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY

by Ms Meng”. Among the charges unsealed thus far, Tappy is the only direct evidence of intellectual-property theft. And none suggests that America has any concrete evidence to confirm its gravest suspicions: that Chinese spooks use Huawei gear to listen in, or that it has ties to the People’s Liberation Army (for which its founder and chief executive, Ren Zhengfei, once worked as an engineer), as has long been rumoured.

That events over a decade old— including the questioning of Mr

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telecom-infrastructure threat, stating that “the prosperity that drives [America’s] economic security is inherently linked to our national security”. China’s foreign ministry railed against America’s “strong political motives and manipulations”.

The indictments are explosive.

The Chinese giant is alleged to have awarded bonuses to staff based on the value of the information they managed to filch from competitors, as revealed in internal emails written in 2013 and obtained by the FBI. Sepa-

rately, speculation swirled that prosecutors might have secretly indicted Mr Ren as well; America’s acting attorney-general, Matthew Whitaker, said that Huawei’s criminal activity went “all the way to the top of the company”, though without giving further details.

Some defendants’ names have been blacked out from one of the indictments.

And if America is able to prove a simple case of trade-secret theft and bank fraud, Huawei will have plenty to fret about. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress a few weeks ago would, if passed, systematically ban the sale of American technology to any Chinese company found to have violated export-control laws or sanctions.

When ZTE, a Chinese peer, was hit with such a ban last April, only a surprise reprieve from President Donald Trump three months later saved it from collapse. In October Fujian Jinhua, a state-owned chipmaker, was hit with a swingeing export ban for posing a “significant risk” to American national security; it is expected to suspend all operations within weeks.

The threat of a similar ban is Huawei’s greatest fear. “Any relief for the Chinese national champion will likely come at a steep price,” writes Dan Wang of Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm. Huawei could perhaps dodge such a ban by paying a fat fine and allowing Americans to monitor it from the inside (a demand to which ZTE yielded last year). The big American suppliers that sell so much of their gear to Huawei, including Qualcomm, Intel and Seagate, would also rather see it more leniently treated. But for now, at least, America seems determined to press on, not settle.

From The Economist, published under licence. The original article, in English, can be found on www.economist.com

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PEOPLE & EVENTS

07 CHRISTMAS JAN

MORNING

On Christmas Day, Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Katherine traditionally attended and served lunch for over 50 children at the Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj Children and Youth Home, together with H.E. Kati Csaba, Ambassador of Canada in Serbia, H.E. Alona Fisher-Kamm,

H.E. Alona Fisher-Kamm, HRH Crown Princess Katherine, Nećko Krupalija, H.E. Isabel Cristina de Azevedo Heyvaert and H.E. Kati Csaba

Ambassadors visiting Children and Youth Home

15 NATO MLO BELGRADE JAN

EMBASSY OF HELLENIC REPUBLIC IN BELGRADE

H.E. Elias Eliadis , Greek Ambassador to Serbia

16 ROMANIAN JAN

PRESIDENCY OVER EU

the Israeli Ambassador to Serbia, and H.E. Isabel Cristina de Azevedo Heyvaert, Ambassador of Brazil to Serbia. On this occasion, HRH Crown Princess Katherine also delivered to the children Christmas gifts which were donated by Lifeline Chicago Humanitarian Organization of which she is a patron.

In its capacity as a NATO Contact Point Embassy and the NATO Military Liaison Office (MLO) in Belgrade, the Greek Embassy in Belgrade hosted a reception on Tuesday, January 15th, at the Metropol Hotel. This event marked the start of the joint term of the Norwegian and Dutch Embassies as NATO Contact Point Embassies,

starting from January 1st, 2019. In 2019, the Norwegian Embassy will be at the helm with the support from the Dutch Embassy, while in 2020, the Dutch Embassy will be at the helm with the support of the Norwegian Embassy. The event will also mark the 12th anniversary of the establishment of the NATO MLO in Belgrade.

H.E. Elias Eliadis , H.E. Arne Sannes Bjørnstad, Norwegian Ambassador, Minister Ivica Dačić, Minister Aleksandar Vulin and representatives of the NATO office in Belgrade

At the reception she held on the occasion of the start of the Romanian Presidency over the EU, the Romanian Ambassador, H.E. Oana-Cristina Popa said that the European perspective of the Western Balkans in 2018 was reaffirmed, adding that Romania would help candidate countries to

H.E. Arne Sannes Bjørnstad

advance with the European integration process. The head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, H.E. Sem Fabrizi underlined that the EU was expecting and counting on the fact that during the Romanian presidency of the EU, the Western Balkans and the enlargement strategy will be high on Brussels’ agenda.

H.E. Sem Fabrizi, H.E. Oana-Cristina Popa and Minister Jadranka Joksimović

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21 35 YEARS OF JAN

With an unforgettable celebration at the Sheraton Hotel, which was attended by the most prominent business, cultural and public figures in Serbia and the representatives of the diplomatic corps, MK Group celebrated a significant jubilee - 35 years of successful business operations. On the occasion, the company also presented its new visual identity. So far, MK Group has invested around 1 billion euro in its field of activity. At the

SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS MK GROUP

Slavko Carić, Erste Bank, Dušan Radičević, MK Group,Vladimir Bošković, Sberbank and Mario Henjak, Gorenjska banka

21 FIRST MODERN JAN

TOURIST INFO CENTRE IN VOJVODINA

Nataša Pavlović

22 NATIONAL JAN

DAY OF CUBA

Miodrag Kostić, President MK Group

celebration, the Group announced that in the next five years, it would invest an additional EUR 500 million in agriculture, banking and tourism in Serbia and the region. MK Group's export accounts for as much as one-third of the total export of Serbia. Although, the Group is most active in the agri-business, during its last 35 years, it has successfully expanded its business to tourism and banking, both in the country and in the region.

Managment MK Group with the Ambassadors of Montenegro and Croatia, H.E. Branislav Mićunović and H.E. Gordan Bakota

The first modern tourist info center in Vojvodina opened in Novi Sad. The Info Centre is one of the most important projects of the Vojvodina Tourist Board in 2019 and as such, it was supported by the Vopjvodinian Government which financed its construction, and the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, which allocated funds for its equipping. Nataša Pavlović, the Vojvodina Tourist Board, Igor Mirović,

Head of the Vojvodinian Government, and Ivan Djoković, Deputy Head of the Vojvodinian Government and Provincial Secretary for Economy and Tourism, addressed the guests at the formal opening. The ceremony was also attended by numerous high officials, other members of the provincial government, directors of local tourism boards, local business people and media representatives.

Igor Mirović and Nataša Pavlović

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Revolution, the Cuban Embassy in Belgrade held a reception attended by the representatives of the government, parliament, political parties, friends, diplomatic corps and Cuban citizens. The Cuban Ambassador to Belgrade, H.E. Gustavo Tristá del Todo addressed those

Ivan Djoković

present and spoke about the long history of the struggle of the Cuban people until the revolutionary victory on January 1st, 1959. He also spoke about the Supreme Commander Fidel Castro and his historical role in building a more just society, while expressing his belief that Castro's ideas will never die.

H.E. Tomáš Kuchta, Ambassador of the Czech Republic and H.E. Gustavo Tristá del Todo with his wife

Minister Zoran Djordjević and Ambassador of Cuba with his wife

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43

PEOPLE & EVENTS

22 ELYSEE JAN

AGREEMENT

At the reception apropos the 56th anniversary of the signing of the Elysee Agreement, the ambassadors of Germany and France in Serbia, H.E. Thomas

Schieb and H.E. Frederic Mondoloni respectively said that honest reconciliation and cooperation of the two countries could be a model for Serbia and the region.

H.E. Sem Fabrizi, EU Delegation, H.E. Thomas Schieb, H.E. Frederic Mondoloni and Minister Branko Ružić

24 INDEPENDENCE DAY OF JAN

THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR

On the Occasion of the 71st anniversary of the Independence Day of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Ambassador of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, H.E. U

H.E. Amr Aljowaily, Ambassador of Egypt, H.E. Dagmar Repčeková, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Serbia and Denis Keefe, UK Ambassador

H.E. U Myo Aye

24 ON THE ROAD JAN

AROUND THE WORLD. ART FROM GERMANY

An exhibition has been opened In the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, which includes art works from Germany from 1949 to today. The exhibition is consisted of about four hundred works of 111 different authors (paintings, sculptures, video works, photographs, drawings). This exhibition describes the history of art in

H.E. homas Shib, Slobodan Nakarada and Vladan Vukosavljević

44

Myo Aye, hosted a reception which was attended by the members of the diplomatic corps and friends of the Embassy of Myanmar, as well as public figures.

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Germany. Art is never only national and is important for the entire history of art in Europe and in the Balkans. The exhibition was officially opened by Slobodan Nakarada, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, H.E.Thomas Shib, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany and Vladan Vukosavljević, Minister of Culture and Information.

Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister, Vladan Vukosavljević, H.E. Thomas Shib and Slobodan Nakarada

25 DAY OF JAN

REPUBLIC OF INDIA

The 70th Republic Day of India was marked at the Belgrade hotel Metropol Palace.”The diplomatic relations between our two countries go so far back in the past. Last year, we celebrated their 70th anniversary with the exhibition of archival documents called "Belgrade-New

Delhi, Seventy Years of Diplomatic Relations", prepared by the Yugoslav Archive. I am glad that together we are also celebrating our national holiday right here, in snow covered Belgrade,” said the Indian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Subrata Bhattacharjee at the reception.

H.E. Subrata Bhattacharjee

28 HOLOCAUST DAY JAN

- ISRAELI MUSIC CONCERT

H.E. Thomas Schieb, Ambassador of Germany to Serbia

Concert dedicated to the memory of an eminent conductor and a Holocaust survivor, Oskar Danon and Israeli music was staged in commemoration of the Holocaust Day 2019 at the Embassy of the Czech Republic. The programme

H.E. Tomáš Kuchta, Czech Ambassador

28 FAREWELL RECEPTION JAN

OF BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR

included Efrat Gerlich’s “The Macedonian Fantasia”, Boris Levenberg’s “Kaddish”, and Yuval Avni’s “Concertino for Violin”. The compositions were performed by Tomáš Tuláček on the violin and the Moscheles string ensemble, with Ivan Marković as the conductor.

The representatives of the diplomatic corps hosted a farewell reception in honour of the Brazilian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Isabel Cristina de Azevedo Heyvaert which

spent three years in this position. Apart from fellow diplomats and diplomatic staff, the reception was also attended by numerous public figures.

H.E. Isabel Cristina de Azevedo Heyvaert and H.E. H.E. Alexander Chepurin, Ambassador of Russia to Serbia Mohammed K. M. Nabhan, Ambassador of Palestine with his wife (far right) and H.E. Isabel Cristina de Azevedo to Serbia Heyvaert with her husband

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PEOPLE & EVENTS

19 FONDUE AT SWISS JAN

EMBASSY

H.E. Philippe Guex

and wine, and discover the art of making the cheese fondue. Plus, they networked with other SSCC members and the representatives of the Swiss Embassy in Belgrade.

Yana Mikhailova, President of the Foreign Investors Council

31 CHEESE JAN

The Swiss Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Philippe Guex hosted the Swiss Chees Fondue Soiree at his residence. The event’s guest had the opportunity to try original Swiss cheeses

PROMOTION AT FRENCH EMBASSY

For the first time ever, the International Cheese Makers Association has members from Serbia. For his exceptional contribution to the promotion of cheese and cheese-making, the Serbian Minister, Mr. Goran Knezevic and eight other individuals from public, business and political life were given the Brotherhood of St. Ignis

Medal. The first session of the International Cheese Makers Association in Serbia was held in the premises of the French Embassy in Belgrade, at the initiative of Mlekoprodukt, a member of the Savencia Fromage & Dairy Group.

On the occasion, the famous cheese master and president of this association, Roland Barthelemy came to Belgrade.

H.E. Frédéric Mondoloni, Ambassador of France to Serbia

01 NALED- TOP FEB

REFORMER IN 2018

Borko Drašković

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Within the annual conference on economic reforms, NALED Managing Board awarded special recognitions to distinguished individuals from the public administration and the media and announced the Top Reformer in 2018. The Top Reformer

award was presented to Borko Drašković, Cadaster Director for successfully implemented reforms relating to registering property rights in the Real Estate Cadastre and the establishment of electronic one-stop shop procedure – eCounter.

Ministers in the Government, Branislav Nedimović, Zorana Mihajlović, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, James Roaf (IMF) and H.E. Sem Fabrizi, EU Delegation

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THE DAVOS DELUSION

Down With Philanthrocapitalism, Says an Entertaining Polemic Anand Giridharadas says the global elite is complicit in the problems it purports to solve

IT IS MORE than 20 years since Samuel Huntington introduced the concept of Davos Man in his great book “The Clash of Civilisations”. Now Anand Giridharadas has gone one better and taken his reader deep inside the mind of that peculiar creature.

Everybody knows the basics: Davos Man believes that markets are more efficient than governments and that globalism is preferable to nationalism or localism. Mr Giridharadas’s trick is to focus on the more intriguing parts of the Davos world-view: that businesses can “do well by doing good”; that philanthropy needs to be “reinvented” for the age of the internet and the T-shirt-wearing billionaire; and that one of the greatest problems facing the world, even as some inner-cities are ravaged by drugs and violence, is that there aren’t enough Davos Women to join the Davos Men in this win-win nirvana.

A few years ago Mr Giridharadas, who works as a political analyst for MSNBC and teaches journalism at New York University, stumbled across a big problem— that the rise of the win-win mantra had coincided with one of the longest periods of wage stagnation in American history. Davos Man’s smiley-faced faith in business-led solutions (green bonds, impact investing, social innovation and the rest) concealed a harsher reality. Businesses were relentlessly pursuing efficiency and cutting costs—shifting jobs to cheaper places or forcing people to work longer hours—and then recycling a fraction of the profits they made into Davos-style consolations.

All this recycling is wonderful for the billionaires who derive a warm feeling from spending their money on helping the poor.

It is wonderful for CEOs who can burnish their brands by embracing

the latest fashionable good cause.

It is particularly wonderful for the “thought-leaders” who can spend their lives hanging out with Sergei and Mark and suggesting clever ways for their philanthrocapitalist masters to cure the world’s ills.

But it does little to make up for the winner-takes-all philosophy that is driving companies to hold down wages and transfer the burden of risk onto their employees. And it does little to solve the problems of

decades, hundreds of millions of people in the emerging world have been lifted out of poverty. His anti-business animus is bluntedged: he would have been better off focusing on genuine scandals such as tax-dodging rather than railing against efficiency-seeking in general. Yet in some ways these objections miss the point.

“Winners Take All” is a splendid polemic that is all the better for simplifying and exaggerating.

IT DOES LITTLE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF “THE UNEXOTIC UNDERCLASS”—WHITE EX-WORKING-CLASS MEN IN PARTICULAR—WHO HAVE BEEN DEEMED TOO BORING AND REACTIONARY FOR THE DAVOS CROWD TO BOTHER ABOUT “the unexotic underclass”—white ex-working-class men in particular—who have been deemed too boring and reactionary for the Davos crowd to bother about.

It is easy to raise objections to Mr Giridharadas’s argument.

He ignores the fact that figures like Bill Gates have done a great deal of good. He doesn’t mention that, even though incomes in the West have stagnated in recent

Mr Giridharadas writes brilliantly on the parasitic philanthropy industry that somehow manages to hold its meetings in desirable resorts (Davos in the ski season, Bellagio in the summer) rather than in Detroit or Lagos. In one particularly stomach-turning section he reports on a luxury cruise, Summit at Sea, where various bigwigs discuss ways to improve the world while sitting in the well

of the Bliss Ultra Lounge. “The boat’s not about getting drunk and getting naked,” a motivational speaker intones. “Well, it’s sort of about that. But it’s also about social justice.”

He produces worrying case studies that illustrate his theme of companies creating big social problems and then offering sticking-plaster solutions in the form of philanthropy. For example, Purdue Pharma has an impressive record of providing grants that “encourage the healthy development of youth by reducing high-risk behaviours such as substance abuse”.

But one reason that the company can afford such largesse is that it has made a fortune from marketing OxyContin, a drug that, thanks to over-prescription, is at the heart of America’s opioid epidemic.

The only genuine failure of this otherwise excellent screed is that Mr Giridharadas does not push his argument further. He rightly goes beyond inequality of wealth to address inequality of power: how win-win fixes invariably take problems out of the political realm and sub-contract them to unaccountable global elites. But he says nothing about the fascinating issue of inequality of esteem.

The Davos elite is not content with hoarding an inflated proportion of the world’s wealth and power. It is trying to appropriate an outsize share of the world’s esteem by reinventing philanthropy in its own techy and globe-trotting image. It is not just Davos Man’s vices that are fuelling the populist fire. It is his virtues too.

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.

By Anand Giridharadas. Knopf; 304 pages; $26.95. Allen Lane; £12.99.

From The Economist, published under licence. The original article, in English, can be found on www.economist.com

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BUSINESS NEWS

INTERNATIONAL CHEESE MAKERS ASSOCIATIONS NOW HAS MEMBERS FROM SERBIA

CARLSBERG LAUNCHES PRODUCTION OF ZRENJANIN BEER Mayor of Zrenjanin, Čedomir Janjić and Carlsberg Serbia CEO, Vladimir Vava presented a project of reviving one of the symbols of the city on the Begej River - Zrenjanin Beer. Aware of the importance that this brand has for the local identity, the city of Zrenjanin and Carlsberg Serbia joined forces and established cooperation that will make it possible for the Zrenjanin citizens to enjoy in the beer that will proudly carry the name and symbols of their beloved city. In addition to giving back Zrenjanin its beer, this cooperation aims to restore the brewery's tradition whereby two dinars from each sold bottle of new beer will be allocated for the construction of the craft brewery in Zrenjanin. In order for the new

beer to fully meet the taste expectations of its target consumers, all interested parties will be given the opportunity to vote for the best of the three offered beer recipes and the most attractive of the three label designs. The candidates that get the highest number of votes from the citizens of Zrenjanin will become a new trademark of Zrenjanin beer.

Direct Media

UNITED SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCE A NEW ERA OF REGIONAL MARKETING

In the presence of more than a thousand officials, the Direct Media system, which operates under United Group, marked the beginning of a new business development cycle, and announced its entry into the regional marketing as the next evolutionary phase.

With the new visual identity, DIRECT MEDIA United Solutions will continue to be the leader of the digital transformation in

the region, as well as the long-term leader in advertising, communications and media services in South East Europe in the new business era. "Last year we became part of United Media and United Group, the leading telecommunications and media corporations in this part of Europe that have been fully embracing the new technological era and innovating business on a daily basis. That is why we have a great privilege to embark on new growth with United Group, while at the same time, we are aware of the contribution that we will give to the development of the Group and the regional marketing in general," said Chief Operating Officer of DIRECT MEDIA United Solutions, Jovan Stojanović.

Serbian Minister, Mr. Goran Knežević and eight other individuals from public, business and political life were given the Brotherhood of St Uguzon Medal for their exceptional contribution to the promotion of cheese and cheese-making .The first session of the International Cheese Guild in Serbia, or 559th in total, was held in the premises of the French Embassy in Belgrade, at the initiative of Mlekoprodukt, a member of the Savencia Fromage & Dairy Group. On the occasion, the famous cheese master and President of the Guild, Roland Barthelemy came to Belgrade. The new members will continue expanding the cheese making and consuming tradition in the local market, thus ensuring a greater visibility of domestic products from this industry. "The Mlekoprodukt Company produces 7,000 tonnes of dairy products annually, of which cheeses make up a significant part, with the quantity constantly growing.

The presence of this renowned Guild in Serbia, which now has new members from this part of the world, is very important," said Andrej Beslać, General Manager of Mlekoprodukt. He also underlined that there were plans to open an official branch of the Association in Serbia in order to develop untapped potential of cheese-making in the region. At the event, the guests were served a selection of Serbian and French wines, as well as Mlekoprodukt’s assorted cheeses, such as Biser Selekta, Ile de France, Caprice des Dieux and Le Roustique.

WORKING MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF EU DELEGATION TO SERBIA

15 YEARS TOGETHER DM Drogerie Markt launched its operations in the Serbian market in 2004 with the goal enriching the needs of customers through a wide range of products and a pleasant atmosphere in their drugstores. 15 years later, dm has proven that it has succeeded in its mission.

The company’s range now numbers close to 14,000 products, 26 brands, over 300 products available exclusively in dm, and more than 400 dm Bio products which makes dm the brand with the largest range of organic food in Serbia. dm has also demonstrated its social responsibility by launching the dm Incubator project, supporting the Bottle Cap for a Smile campaign, and by giving days off to their employees so that they can engage as volunteers in socially responsible and ecological projects. dm’s accomplishments

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were also recognized by the Belgrade Assembly which gave the company the Belgrade Winner Award for the results achieved in 2017. The company sees this jubilee year as a perfect opportunity to focus even more what has set it apart from its competitors all these years, and has launched a campaign – 99 dm products for 99 dinars each.

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Representatives of the European Union Delegation to Serbia were guests at a working meeting organized by the Slovenian Business Club, and the German-Serbian, Swiss-Serbian and Italian-Serbian chambers of commerce. The Delegation presented its activities to business people at the meeting, followed up by a Q&A session with Mateja Norčič Štamcar, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation, and Yngve Engström, the Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation. They talked about Serbia’s progress in its EU bid and the opportunities of using EU funds in Serbia as support for bolstering the business and investment climate. Over 80 company representatives, members of the aforementioned chambers, attended the cocktail party afterwards which was held at the IN Hotel, Belgrade, which was also the event’s partner.

UniCredit

THE SIGNED INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT WITH UNI GLOBAL UNION

UniCredit has confirmed that it signed a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with UNI Global Union. The agreement is aimed at improving the dialogue between the two parties on human rights and fundamental labour rights, and it also validates the Group’s commitment to the highest international standards in this area. The agreement builds on previous declarations signed by the Bank with the UniCredit European Works Council (UEWC).

The GFA was signed by UniCredit CEO, Jean Pierre Mustier and the UNI Global Union General Secretary, Christy Hoffman at the UniCredit European Works Council’s ordinary meeting held on January 22nd, 2019. UniCredit CEO, Jean Pierre Mustier commented: "At UniCredit, we believe that to do well, we must also do good and always acting ethically is a core part of this. Our success depends on respect; an open culture which allows each and every one of our people to actively add value to our business.”

"DIGITIZATION OF ECONOMY AND STATE"

3rd Business Forum Serbia - Slovenia - held at Palace of Serbia on January 28, 2019. After the welcoming speech by the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, Marko Čadež and the President of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, Boštjan Gorjup, the Serbian and Slovenian presidents, Aleksandar Vučić and Borut Pahor respectively, also addressed the participants. Slovenian President, Borut Pahor underlined that the goal of his visit to Serbia was boosting the confidence and

mutual respect between the two countries.

His Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vučić said that the relations between the two countries were very important and that, in the last 10 years, the trade between Serbia and Slovenia had increased two and a half times. Three panels took place during the Forum. The central panel was dedicated to the topic "Digitization of Economy and State" while the topics of the other two panels were "Current Trends in the Development of a Tourist Offer - the Glamping Case" and “Circular Economy”.

Hellenic Business Association (HBA)

VASILOPITA CUTTING ANNUAL CELEBRATION

US TECHNOLOGY COMPANY NCR EXPANDS ITS OPERATIONS IN SERBIA NCR has been operating successfully in Serbia since 2011, as an employer that has constantly been increasing the size of its workforce, and offering a diverse portfolio of technological services for clients worldwide from Serbia. On January 29th Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić met with the representatives of NCR management during her official visit to the USA. The main focus was on NCR’s plans for expansion and beginning of works on a campus which will be NCR’s regional hub located in Belgrade, spanning 30,000 square metres and costing around $90 million to make. Stefan Lazarević, NCR GM for Serbia, said that, when NCR came to Serbia, the main idea was to provide the basic form of technical support and employ 300 to 600 people. Owing to the talented workforce, fluent in over 20 languages and having diverse IT skills and technical know-how, NCR now employs 3,100 people in Serbia, with a plan to have 3,600 employees by the end of this year and probably 4,200 after the campus is finalized in late 2020 or early 2021.

The Hellenic Business Association of Serbia (HBA) held its traditional annual event in honour of the traditional Vasilopita Pie Cutting that took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Belgrade. The event was attended by HBA’s members and friends, but also by representatives of the Greek Embassy. Ms. Selena Djordjević, Executive Officer of the HBA, and Mr. Zafiris Lampadaridis, Chairman of the

HBA’s Managing Board, addressed the guests, underlining that the Association celebrates 15 years of its operations in Serbia in 2019, while also talking about the importance of the strong presence of Greek companies in Serbia, as well as the HBA’s important role in presenting Greek business community in a manner worthy of its size and quality. Furthermore, the HBA officials wished the guests a lot of luck and good health this year. At the event, the HBA gave out awards to companies Isomat, TGI Group International and Junior KM Cards apropos the 10th anniversary of their membership in the Association.

VOJVODINA’S ECONOMIC POTENTIAL PRESENTED IN FRANCE The delegation of AP Vojvodina, led by the Head of the Vojvodinian Government, Igor Mirović, presented investment and economic potential of the AP Vojvodina on Thursday, January 17th, 2019, in the Central Chamber of Commerce of Paris, at a forum that brought together more than 50 business people from France. On the occasion, Mr. Mirović said that the aim of the working visit to France was to present Vojvodina’s potential to the French business community, and motivate them to do business in Serbia and Vojvodina. "This meeting was

jointly organized by the chambers of commerce of Vojvodina and Paris, with the support of the Val-d'Oise region. I am confident this visit and presenting our economic potential to the French business people will yield concrete results in the future," said Mr. Mirović.

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BUSINESS NEWS

DIPLOMACY & COMMERCE FROM FEBRUARY 2019 IN AUSTRIA After the great success in Serbia (launched in March 2016) and Croatia (launched in November 2017), the publisher of this prestigious business magazine, Color Media Communications (the leading event organizer in the region, with over 110 annual conferences and events) launches the monthly in the German language too, which will contain interviews and news for the political, diplomatic and business communities in Austria. Every issue of Diplomacy & Commerce will also exclusively feature integral articles from The Economist, written by leading columnists of this reputable magazine, with whom Diplomacy & Commerce has an excellent collaboration.

Also, the magazine will feature articles from renowned reporters who will cover topics related to business, finance, industry, development, politics and macro-economy.

TELENOR NETWORK SCORES “BEST IN TEST”

BY P3 INDEPENDENT MOBILE BENCHMARKING Telenor Network scores BEST IN TEST in first independent Mobile Benchmarking conducted by international company P3. This is the prestigious recognition for the quality of Telenor Network, especially since it is based on crowed sourcing method, which reflected real customer experience. “Our customer needs lead us in planning our Network development. Throughout the years, we have been working hard so that Telenor network provides excellent quality internet for all citizens in Serbia, in all parts of the country. This is the result of long term investment which enables our customers to have superior data experience,” said

Mike Michel, CEO Telenor Serbia.Recently, Telenor received another acknowledgment. RATEL, as main local regulatory body, conducted a benchmarking, testing network quality for all 3 operators for 2018.

According to results, Telenor has the best network, which means that had the highest results in categories related to quality. Telenor future plans include further growth of its infrastructure and capacities, following the increasing data needs and high quality standards.

BANCA INTESA EMPLOYEES RAISE RSD 1,400,000 FOR NURDOR

As part of the traditional New Year’s project Wrap a Gift, Make a Child Smile, Banca Intesa employees have raised almost RSD 1,400,000 for the National Association of Parents of Children with Cancer (NURDOR). By purchasing tickets for the New Year’s corporate event, close to 1,500 employees of Banca Intesa from all over Serbia participated in this charity campaign. The

Furthermore, Diplomacy & Commerce will provide a variety of useful information about local, regional and foreign investment opportunities, trends and changes in legislation, while offering a wealth of information. In every issue of Diplomacy & Commerce, we are going to present domestic and foreign investors, assembled in business associations and chambers of commerce. The magazine will also have a special addition called ‘Country in Focus’ that will be entirely dedicated to improving the communication between investors and economic and business communities in Austria. Through thematic and sectoral additions called FocusON, we will address the topics that are relevant to the economy and sectoral branches and have an impact on economic trends in Austria.

The news and information for the business, political, and diplomatic audiences will be also published daily on the magazine’s official website www.diplomacyandcommerce.at

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employees had the opportunity to choose the organization which will receive the money donation. They voted for the money to go to NURDOR this year, where it will be used for expanding the capacities of accommodation for parents of children with cancer. This way, through their donations, the employees have demonstrated that the concept of unity and giving for the general good are very important parts of bank’s corporate culture. Banca Intesa has launched the Wrap a Gift, Make a Child Smile project in 2010, as a joint initiative by the employees, and since then, residents of chosen institutions for social and medical treatment of children have received thousands of presents and RSD 2,600,000 of financial aid.

FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE DUTCH-SERBIAN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION The Dutch-Serbian Business Association had its first General Assembly meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Belgrade. Since its establishment and the official start of operations on November 8th, marked by the reception at the residence of the Dutch ambassador, DSBA gathered around 30 members over a short period of time. In the introductory part of the Assembly, the Dutch Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Henk Van Den Dool, and reminded of the importance of the presence of Dutch companies in Serbia.

He also said that he felt as the DSBA’s ‘godfather’ in a way. The Ambassador wished for the Assembly to have a

constructive meeting, and a lot of success in the future work. After that, the agenda, which included, among other things, clearly defining the work of the Association and its bodies, the selection of the board of directors members and setting main goals for 2019, was discussed.

THREE YEARS ARE BEHIND US!

we would like to celebrate it with you On the Occasion of the 3rd Anniversary of the Diplomacy&Commerce magazine, we will present the “Diplomacy & Commerce Awards� to individuals, organisations and companies.

On 21st March we will all celebrate this anniversary together, along with the awarding of the

to those who have contributed the most to ensuring all of these themes have come to life, and left a trail.

INTERVIEW

Photos: Nebojša Babić Stylist: Goga Grubješić (Hugo Boss)

Violin is Life-time Partner for Artist Belgrade is constant inspiration and checkpoint that I need

STEFAN MILENKOVIĆ Violinist

He was only six years old when he performed as a soloist accompanied by an orchestra for the first time ever. Soon enough, it became clear to everyone that Serbia had a wunderkind.

Today, the planetary famous violinist Stefan Milenković is a virtuoso in his branch of art, and yet he manages to remain down-to-earth and frank. His concerts are always a special experience, particularly those that take place in his hometown of Belgrade.

After a long break, you returned to Kolarac in November last year. What were you feeling?

— Belgrade has always been a special challenge, an inspiration and a responsibility to me. Hence, I feel

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a certain pressure because people know that this is my home turf, in a way. Belgrade is my checkpoint, perpetual inspiration and control stop that I need. I view every single of my performances in Belgrade as an experience which, although not being always easy, is positive and necessary.

— Not only is classical music more important today, and has the same meaning, perception and reaction in people, but quite possibly is even more influential than before.

The value of classical music lies in its classicality – there is no need to change it and it is firmly resisting the vortex of changes around us.

I AM VERY PLEASED THAT I AM THE AMBASSADOR FOR THE SERBIA CREATES CAMPAIGN BECAUSE THE CAMPAIGN GIVES AN ADDITIONAL IMPETUS TO ARTISTS TO SUPPORT THEIR COUNTRY What importance does classical music have for people? Do they experience it the same way as the audiences from the times when this music was composed, or maybe people today listen to classic music with different ears, so to speak?

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Classical music provides audiences in concert halls with an opportunity to return again and again to something that is timeless.

Technology has contributed a lot to changes in many areas, but also to changes in people, namely how they consume it. This applies to

classical music too. But the very essence and effect of classical music remain unchanged, and are even more valuable today when things are changing maybe too fast.

Do you find the new classical music production and mixing of styles interesting? Do you sometimes engage in that? What is your favourite repertoire?

— It is only natural that styles mix, that we experiment and make breakthroughs in music – this is not a rigid science and it offers a lot of freedom and amplitude.

The composers that we consider today classical were innovators in their time, and their ideas did not appeal to everyone. This is normal and absolutely healthy. For instance, Shubert’s composition or Beethoven's symphony will not change, but it is interesting to see what is gained when two different thoughts and ideas come together.

I have also played jazz and electric violin, and I was open to various styles. I think that this is necessary and classical music will not lose anything because of it. Someone who has practiced their entire life in a classical way, has never experienced jazz, pop or rock and the energy of improvisation, loses a lot. It is beneficial for artists themselves to try something new. I love music and I love different things at different moments, just like the audience does. My repertoire includes practically everything, in terms of variety of styles, intensity, charge or intellectual effort. I find myself in different things, as an artist and as a person.

the contact with the audience, the organizers and the town itself is more personal. For me, every concert is something special in regard to my performance, the audience, the repertoire and the artist that I collaborate with at that specific moment. It is difficult to single out anything because, essentially, this is a process. I like to remember all concerts equally, as jewels that I collect. The concert that has left the strongest impression on me is still in the future.

You have recently been selected as one of the Serbian cultural ambassadors, as part of the Serbia Creates campaign which was initiated by the Serbian Prime Minister's Cabinet. The initiative was launched with the aim of raising the importance of Serbia's culture and creative industries in the world. How much does this mean to you, since you have been living in America for a number of years?

You spend close to 200 days touring every year. Do you still like that pace?

— I spend a lot of time on the road because of touring, but that aside, I am given an opportunity to enjoy myself, to feel the spirit of a certain city or country, however, not to the extent I would like it to. If I really like a place and I have no time to enjoy it properly at a given moment, then I make a mental note to come back to it.

You were quoted as saying that you liked new technology. How can technology help in your work as an educator? Is technology an advantage or a disadvantage compared to the time when you started learning how to play the violin?

— Technology is a strong force today which, like everything else, can be used in a positive or negative way. It can certainly have a positive impact on any branch. In classical music, technology gives you a new framework for demonstrating what you know – from video clips of one’s concerts to didactic videos that are very popular. Technology can be consumed excessively to.

There are generations of people who are growing in an environment where everything is instant

I LOVE MUSIC AND I LOVE DIFFERENT THINGS AT DIFFERENT MOMENTS, JUST LIKE THE AUDIENCE DOES and where attention span is quite short, and this is not good. It looks like a bubble that is bound to burst sooner or later. You should always have balance.

You were 12 years old when you performed for Ronald Reagan.

Today, you are playing the violin made by one of the greatest violin makers ever, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, which was made in 1783. Do you consider this an even greater success?

— I am extremely honoured to have been given an opportunity to play such violin because none of us can own something like this.

We are just the violin’s temporary guardians in its historical cycle.

The violin is a life-time partner for an artist. Your soul needs to reflect

in it and vice versa, the violin has to have a voice that moves you inside. If this happens, it’s a very strong combination that yields amazing results, and gives you the power to express yourself without any limitations. This is a phenomenal experience for an artist; to play such an instrument once in their life. And I have the honour to be a guardian of such violin which is really invaluable.

Which places in the world and concerts have left the strongest impression on you?

— As far as concerts go, that is a subjective feeling because sometimes a chock-full concert hall in a large city can leave a weaker impression than a smaller town which has more spirit and where

— I am very pleased that I am the ambassador for the Serbia Creates campaign because this is a very positive thing. If we look back at history, we can see that a lot of importance was attached to creativity and art, in addition to political power. There was an equal measure of all three in the zenith of each civilization and this is inseparable from the progress of any country. I am very pleased that Prime Minister Ana Brnabić has launched and supports this campaign and understands its importance. For the people like myself - and there are many more of us around the world, eager to support our country in that sense - this is an additional incentive to give back what I have learned out there and to transfer it to here; to support our Serbia. The majority of them are already doing this to a great extent, but now, it has all been elevated to a higher and more organized level and I am very happy to be a part of it.

I SET MYSELF NEW GOALS You have a harmonious marriage, a proliferous career and you have travelled the globe. One could say that this is all that an artist could possibly wish for. Do you have any wishes, or have set any challenges for 2019?

— I view my life and my career as a process.

Life is a challenge in itself, so you can look at everything as more or less successful. I enjoy the harmony of my life at the moment, and of course,

there are always challenges and obstacles regardless of one’s experience. I did set myself new goals and concerts for this year have been booked long in advance. I also have a few scheduled recordings and plans with my students. This is a rhythm that is consistently the same. I always look ahead and up, but without sudden and pronounced changes. Obstacles and challenges are an integral part of creativity, as I continue to think in new directions and move forward.

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CORPORATE

The Advantages Of Diversity The programmes are aimed at those who do not accept any compromise but strive only for the best – when it comes to their education

MARIJANA M. PRODANOVIĆ, PHD Vice-dean, Anglistics Study Programme, Singidunum University

We are proud of what we have achieved over two decades of hard work, especially of the fact that we provide our students, not only from our country and the region, but also those coming from many countries of the world, with education both in Serbian and English.

Is it still necessary for us to leave the country and opt for the universities around the world in search of quality study programmes taught in English?

— It no longer a requirement for us to leave Serbia, and go abroad in order for us to be able to acquire education and degree in English. Singidunum University offers a full range of accredited study programmes in English. No matter whether your aspirations are related to natural sciences, engineering and technology, social sciences or humanities and regardless of the fact whether you are just about to embark on your studies or to continue walking along your education path – via postgraduate studies, the options that used to be exclusively available abroad can now be found in our immediate neighborhood.

turalism but are also strongly supportive of the idea of multilingual individuals – from the early childhood. Being fully aware of the responsibilities our role carries, we provide our students with the opportunity to learn several foreign languages all throughout the course of their studies. Apart from the English language, as a lingua franca in the modern world, the knowledge of which we continuously polish, Singidunum University students can also become fluent in e.g. French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and many others – what can, once they have become active participant on labour market, make them stand out from the fierce competition they might come across.

Who are the Sigidunum University English-taught study programmes aimed at?

— In the wide spectrum of Eng-

In what way are studying a foreign language and studying in a foreign language related concepts?

— Foreign language learning is frequently associated with studying in a foreign language - although these are two different phenomena. On one hand, studying a foreign language, almost unavoidably,

SINGIDUNUM UNIVERSITY OFFERS A FULL RANGE OF ACCREDITED STUDY PROGRAMMES IN ENGLISH

Multilingualism and multiculturalism as an imperative of the modern world – in what way does Singidunum University respond to these phenomena?

— Contemporary social trends do not only approve of multicul-

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lish-taught study programmes, offered at Singidunum University, one can choose from e.g. the field of economics, tourism and hospitality, food economics, English studies, data science, computing, information technologies and many others. Singidunum University English-taught study programmes do not only allow individuals to work in the best possible conditions, and with teaching resources that follow contemporary trends in their respective fields, but also to learn about the benefits of a multicultural environment. As such, our study programmes bring young people from all over the world together, which helps them broaden their horizons, both as future experts in their chosen fields, as well as global citizens who recognize, value and benefit from all the advantages of diversity.

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implies one’s interest in its most diverse traits and layers - such as: lexicon, grammar, phonological system, morphological features and many other details that distinguish between knowing a language and knowing about that language itself. On the other hand, studying in a foreign language is the study of a selected field (e.g. economics, IT, tourism) in a foreign language as the language in which the courses are taught. At Singidunum University, we enable both education of future experts in the field of English, as well as experts in relation to other fields that have acquired knowledge in English as a foreign language.

What can be the next step after studying in English?

— Regardless of whether you are studying English or choosing to acquire a degree in relation to another field taught in English, the structure, content, or rather the nature of the studies represents a guaranteed path leading to diverse possibilities. Not only do the acquired skills and knowledge represent an entrance to the world labour market, but they also provide a pathway for continuing education and training at higher education institutes around the world at the same time.

What do you pride yourself on the most? What are your aspirations? What is the future of studying in English in this country?

— On a daily basis, we offer our students education that responds to the demands of modern society and trends in science and technology by focusing on the future. We believe that study programmes in English will consolidate their position in the local sphere of higher education and will thus continue to carefully follow and respond to current demands; as well as to set new goals in order to enable our students to fully maximize their potential.

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ECONOMY

Text: ŽIKICA MILOŠEVIĆ

Social Equality is Liberalism It is not anticapitalist Liberals are in crisis, both in economics and in politics. The Economist has pledged that economists of the world should endeavour to restore confidence in the liberal economy, since the magazine itself, when it was founded, advocated abolition of the grain tax, which made people hungry.

But at the core of all this was the idea that if we reduce obstacles to trade, the living standard will improve and launching new business will be easier with company owners and their workers earning more, as well as having to deal with an increasing number of created needs which, in turn, will create the need for new products and services. Of course, this was so blown out of proportion and has metastasized over time that imperial capitalism caused the First World War which ended exactly 100 years ago in the devastated Europe and part of the world. As the wise Lord Kaynes once said, his Keynesianism was not motivated by the fact that the Communists wanted capitalism to collapse - on the contrary, he was a great fan of capitalism and wanted to suppress revolutionary movements that would have emerged with the implementation of Keynesianism and social justice. Well, these very revolutionary movements happened when social justice disappeared and imperial capitalism reared its head. Several years before Lord Keynes, Bosmarck also had to defend himself from similar accusations. He introduced health and pension insurance and had to stand ground against attacks from opposition parties which accused him of becoming a Socialist. Bosmarck also said that, by doing what he did, he actually prevented revolutions. Truth be told, the almost perfect social systems in Germany and Scandinavia contributed to the fact that there have never been serious revolutions in these Protestant egalitarian countries.

Although liberalism, in its true spirit, is very important in the context of the removal of protectionist measures, and bolstering the entrepreneurial spirit. The Liberals now have to solve the problem with right-wingers and protection-

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PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL

ists taking the place of liberalism only because people are hungry for answers how to improve their living standard. Back in the day, the Liberals had managed to boost the living standard of ordinary people, but today they take the side of the rich and are surprised to see that people voted Trump, known for his penchant for sanctions,

embargoes, taxes and economic wars. Ordinary people do not care about libveralism or fascism. They are interested in living their lives.

As one British woman said, when asked why did she vote for Brexit when Brexit would reduce Britain's GDP:“That’s your GDP, not mine!“ Bull's eye! Or, in translation, where am I in all of this?!

ORDINARY PEOPLE ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN BETTER LIVES FOR THEMSELVES. IDEAS HOLD NO IMPORTANCE IN TODAY’S DAY AND AGE AND FLAG COLOURS HAVE BECOME IRRELEVANT, 101 YEARS AFTER THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION IN PETROGRAD

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We might have a solution to this problem. Senator Bernie Sanders, the former candidate for president of the United States, and Yanis Varoufakis, co-founder of DiEM25, have appealed to the progressives from around the world to form an international movement with the aim of fighting the growing authoritarianism that Donald Trump represents.

In the first of a series of exchanges published in the renowned British newspaper The Guardian, both figures describe the urgent need to found a "progressive International" that mobilizes people around the world around a vision of prosperity, security and dignity.

"While the rich continue to enrich themselves, the rest work more and more hours in exchange for ever lower wages and fear for the future of their children," Sanders warns, "authoritarian movements take advantage of these concerns, and they create scapegoats in order to confront the citizens among themselves. " For his part, Varoufakis explains: "Our generation will be remembered for the triumphal march of a Nationalist International that emerged from the sewers of financial capitalism.

Let us fight so that it is also remembered for having given birth to a mobilization that challenged this threat, it depends on the will of the progressives in the United States, in the European Union, in the United Kingdom and in countries like Mexico, India and South Africa, forge a Progressive International."

Are we going to succeed in making Liberals go back to their roots and work on benefitting ordinary people to live better and create new economy, new income and new needs? Or are the Liberals still going to take the side of the wealthy and by doing so, bury themselves even deeper?

Ordinary people are only interested in better lives for themselves. Ideas hold no importance in today’s day and age and flag colours have become irrelevant, 101 years after the October Revolution in Petrograd.

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INTERVIEW

Interviewer: MARIJA MILOŠEVIĆ

IHC Vojvodina has a Potential to Become a Great Club Again Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances and the fire that happened in 2009, the club hit the rough patch. When, two years ago, the club formed a new team, everything changed for better

NEMANJA VUČUREVIĆ Captain of Vojvodina Ice Hockey Club (IHC Vojvodina)

Ice is a surface that the member of the Vojvodina Ice Hockey Club, Nemanja Vučurević feels the safest on, while the ice rink at Novi Sad's SPENS is the place where he relives his childhood dream on a daily basis. We are talking to Nemanja about the life of hockey players in Serbia and the current atmosphere at IHC Vojvodina.

countries. Now, I am back where it all initially happened.

What is IHC Vojvodina’s position in Serbia in relation to other hockey clubs here?

— ‘Vojvodina’ has always been deemed as a great club in Serbia,

ICE RINKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO US 6 OR 7 MONTHS A YEAR. BUT EVEN THIS IS NOT ENOUGH AND THOSE SERBIAN HOCKEY CLUBS THAT TAKE THEMSELVES SERIOUSLY SHOULD HAVE AN ICE RINK AVAILABLE TO THEM THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

When and how did you develop the love for ice hockey?

— My father was a hockey player.

I was only four years old when I stepped onto the ice for the first time, here, at ‘Vojvodina’, for which I played until I turned 17 years old. After that, I left for abroad where I spent the next 10 years playing for various clubs and

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Slovenia and Croatia. Last year, our results slipped a little from what we had hoped for, but things are better now. We are committed players who have serious ambitions and we expect to achieve better results with each new season.

but, due to a series of unfortunate circumstances and the fire that happened in 2009, the club hit the rough patch. When, two years ago, the club formed a new team, everything changed for better.

Now, ‘Vojvodina’ plays in the International Hockey League (IHL) with

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How does it feel to belong to a team that is nurturing and building the club’s spirit and reputation literary from the ashes?

— It is a very special feeling, somewhat personal too. And this sentiment is something you don’t feel when you play for other clubs. At

the time when things went downhill for IHC Vojvodina, hockey in Serbia also shared the same destiny with the league, which had been excellent previously, completely falling apart. Now, things are picking up, both for IHC Vojvodina and domestic hockey in general. I am very happy because of that.

IHC Vojvodina was a state champion seven times. Do you think that the current team can win the eight title and thus make hockey history for the club?

— We had a slightly weaker start, until our team was rounded off and we had some new players from abroad. I think that now we have a lot of potential. Realistically speaking, I cannot claim that we are the favourite to win the championship, but we are going to constantly work on improving our team. We do hope that, next year, we are going to become a strong competition to other teams.

How interested are the citizens of Novi Sad in hockey? What needs to be done in order for our fellow citizens to come more frequently to hockey games and cheer for you?

— Novi Sad really loves hockey and we always had audience here.

Last season, when we had two or three consecutive wins, we had up to 1,500 spectators. Bear in mind that our ice arena takes up to 2,000 people the most. I think that we need to work on marketing more because people in Novi Sad are not sufficiently informed of the fact that good hockey is being played again here. The fact remains that hockey is a very attractive sport so every game is not only a game, but a spectacle in itself.

IHC Vojvodina also has a hockey school that has been attracting more and more children yearon-year. Is that the right way to introduce hockey to children?

Do you think that hockey is more popular now then when you were a child?

— I think that it was more popular when I was a child, but what I am noticing now is that the same atmosphere is making a comeback.

The kids are great, they train hard, and they love hockey. The general idea is to create a system where the main team is the role model for younger players thus generating a healthy, sporty energy.

Some claim that ice hockey is a pretty aggressive sport. Is this a common prejudice? How dangerous it is to play hockey?

— That’s what laypeople think of hockey. Yes, truth be told, it is aggressive but there are various safety codes in place that protect the players. We are protected from head to toe, so even when we are hit, it doesn’t hurt much. We are taught how to take hits, and in hockey, the only hit that is allowed is body on body. Everything else is considered a foul. Ice hock-

eters, i.e. not only physical ability but also psychological readiness, ability to react and speed, ice hockey is the second toughest sport in the world. It is an explosive sport and it all boils down to 40 seconds of maximum power.

This is a sport that requires from you to give it 100%. When you are on the ice, there is no time to rest, and your energy consumption is unbelievable.

Many hockey players in Serbia complain about bad training

ICE HOCKEY IS THE SECOND TOUGHEST SPORT IN THE WORLD. IT IS AN EXPLOSIVE SPORT AND IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO 40 SECONDS OF MAXIMUM POWER. THIS IS A SPORT THAT REQUIRES FROM YOU TO GIVE IT 100% ey is a fast sport. It is actually the fastest team game in the world.

You need to be very cautious and make fast decisions. Yes, injuries happen in hockey, but they do in other sports too.

They also say that hockey, after boxing, is the most difficult sport to play. How much mental and physical strength to you need to play a game from start to finish?

— That is absolutely correct. According to numerous researches that take into account all param-

conditions which are far from ideal considering that they can use ice rinks only four or five months a year. What is the situation like in IHC Vojvodina regarding this and is there any room for improvement?

— Yes, you are right. The only difference is that ice rinks are now available to us 6 or 7 months a year.

But even this is not enough and those Serbian hockey clubs that take themselves seriously should have an ice rink available to them throughout the year. This is neces-

sary for proper development of both players and the sport itself. Can you imagine athletes from other sports training for six months, and then not training for the remaining six?

If this happens, you miss out on continuity and your fitness level drops. This is big problem because ice hockey is a very expensive sport.

However, I think the country and the Serbian Ice Hockey Federation are doing something to rectify this situation. I hope for the best.

Bearing in mind that you were born in Novi Sad, do you consider IHC Vojvodina as your second home? Should athletes not get emotional about their clubs and treat them just like a stopover?

— I definitely feel it is my second home. It’s always going to be like that. Maybe the club is a stopover for me only temporarily, I cannot tell you that for sure. But what I can tell you is that I really like it here. We have a great atmosphere and a good programme for this season. We work really well and IHC Vojvodina definitely has enough potential to regain its glory.

What life lessons did you learn from playing hockey?

— First and foremost, I was taught what the real sporting culture and discipline mean. Of course, there is a lot of fun included too and this is a parametre that should not be neglected.

TEAM AHEAD OF INDIVIDUALS Do you think that, in order to achieve team work, the players should spend time together off the rink too, and get to know, understand and support each other? Are there any team anecdotes that you would like to share with our readers?

— You are absolutely right. We function as a big family throughout the year, and we are also good

friends. It happens often that coaches do not even want the best player in their team if he cannot fit well with other teammates. They say sometimes that it's better to have a worse player and a good team. The team is always ahead of an individual. As far as anecdotes go, hockey players are known for their sense of humour. But let’s leave the anecdotes for the next time.

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MY TRAVEL STORY

Text: OLIVER SAROV

Fascinating Country That Will Change Your Perspective

Valley of the Stars - Queshm Island

Seeing images of Iran’s magnificent mosques, Persian gardens, and the former Shah’s extraordinary palaces on television and knowing first-hand about the genuine hospitality and warmth of the Iranian people, visiting Iran was something I knew I wanted to experience ‘Persia’, ‘Iran’, ‘Isfahan’, ‘Shiraz’; names that conjure up the promise of endless desert landscapes, lush green hills, sapphire colored mosques, succulent food and the most fragrant rice you will ever taste. Names that carry with them millennia of culture, history and civilization. Yet, Iran, at least in the past few decades, also conjures up a range of negative connotations; images of angry mobs, news reports of human rights abuses and sharia law.

This article will certainly not be an analysis of the political history or present of Iran, the geopolitics of the Middle East, or an essay on human rights. What it will be is the subjective impression of a traveler, visiting a country and experiencing a culture he has been fascinated with since he can remember.

Growing up in the Netherlands exposed me to different cultures at a

very young age. Apart from the mix of Serbian and Dutch culture I call my own, spending four years in a refugee center and growing up in a multicultural society there were also whiffs, pinches and dabs of Turkish, Armenian, Russian, Somali, Arabic, African, Filipino and others. None, however, left a bigger impression on me than Persian culture.

In fact, lubia polow, an Iranian

VISITING IRAN WAS SOMETHING I KNEW I WANTED TO EXPERIENCE, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME BEING SOMETHING, I THOUGHT WAS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN ANY TIME SOON rice dish and tahdiq; the crispy rice that is created at the bottom of the pot during the cooking process, are among my all-time favorite foods. What’s more, I consider them a childhood comfort food – odd for a Dutch-Serbian

Traditional Iranian Food which strongy features rice, saffron, fruit and marinated lamb

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guy, who grew up in Limburg…

Seeing images of Iran’s magnificent mosques, Persian gardens, and the former Shah’s extraordinary palaces on television and knowing first-hand about the genuine hospitality and warmth of the Iranian people, visiting Iran was something I knew I wanted to experience, while at the same time being something I thought was not

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going to happen any time soon.

Luckily, it did. And it was everything I expected and more.

One of the most asked questions when I told friends where I was going was ‘’is it safe?’’ and ‘’why are you going to Iran’’? The

first question has a very simple answer; yes – very. If you feel safe in Serbia, you will feel safe in Iran as a tourist, if not more so (traffic excluded!). Walking through any of the cities busy streets felt like taking a stroll through Dorćol, with the addition of friendly locals occasionally approaching you to bid you a ‘’whereyoufrom’’ and a sincere ‘’welcome to Iran’’ with a smile before continuing minding their own business. Iranians are a friendly, proud and open people with very distinct values, culture and mannerisms from their neighbors in the Middle East.

As to why? Imagine a modern, safe and clean country with efficient and functional public transportation, incredibly friendly people, delicious food, out-ofworldly landscapes, majestic structures and the heritage of one of the world’s most ancient civilizations. Add to that a tranquil

Naqsh-e Rustam (Necropolis), where four of the most well known Traditional Iranian accommodation, featuring an inner court Persian Emperors are buried in tombs carved into the mountain yard and a water feature

Nasir al-Molk Mosque (also known as the Pink Mosque) in Shiraz

vibe that is created by local Iranian families having tea and snacks in the shade of one of the many green spaces dotted around Iran’s cities, or people enjoying a watermelon smoothie while sitting on a carpet in one of the many trendy bars, located in a shaded courtyard centered around a water feature cooling people down from the desert heat. Sound interesting?

Now add to that the fact that you will be one of the relatively few foreign tourists (but certainly not the only), due to, well, a lot of people asking the two questions I mentioned before. That means that you’ll hardly ever stand in a line for a museum and be able to see many of the majestic sites as they should be seen – serene and quiet, without hordes of sandal-and-sock tourists that have become almost inescapable in modern travelling!

A relatively short five-hour flight takes you from Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport via Istanbul. Our trip took us to Teheran, Yazd, and the ruins of Persepolis, Shiraz, Isfahan and two islands in the Persian Gulf called Qeshm and Hormuz in thirteen days.

Teheran’s hipster restaurants, Yazd’s adobe old town dotted with wind catchers and Zoroastrian towers of silence, Persepolis’s ancient grandeur, Shiraz’s intricate and breathtaking mosques, Isfahan’s relaxed vibe and bustling Christian (Armenian) quarter and the Persian Gulf’s desert islands all left an impression so awe-inspiring, exotic and yet so familiar that it is difficult to put into words.

Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations and has a history spanning more than five millennia, during most of which it was known as the Persian Empire – a state that stretched from the Balkans to the Indus Valley and comprised nearly half the world’s population. That does not escape you while you are there. The country breaths history

Hormuz Island, known for its many different types and colours of sand

and being able to see the tombs of men like Cyrus the Great, an emperor mentioned in the Old Testament, Xerxes I, who fought the Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae and the ruins of Persepolis, a city infamously raised to the ground by Alexander the Great, among countless other historical sites makes visiting Iran a must for anyone interested in human history, rivaling and perhaps exceeding the likes of Italy and Greece.

Due to its history and geographical position at the center of the Silk Road, Iran has been as influenced by other cultures as it has influenced others. Its’ ethnic make-up of Persians, Turkmen, Arabs, Turks, Jews, Armenians and

Iranian desert landscape

other ethnicities make Iran a rich tapestry of languages, customs, foods and traditions.

We, for the most part, visited Central Iran, the epicenter and cradle of Persian culture. To me, a soft-spoken, melodic language and a sophistication and attention to detail that you can see, taste and smell characterize Persian culture.

Saffron infused…well…everything, rose petal tea, intricate tilework, tapestries and glass inlays and a distinct love for poetry and relaxation coupled with ubiquitous water features, fountains and gardens, combined with an almost inherent elegance that Persians carry themselves with, particularly the women, all come together to

Typical Persian geometric mosque dome clad with inlayed tiles

TEHERAN’S HIPSTER RESTAURANTS AND QESHM’S VALLEY OF THE STARS LEFT AN IMPRESSION SO AWE-INSPIRING, EXOTIC AND YET SO FAMILIAR THAT IT IS DIFFICULT TO PUT INTO WORDS

A Zoroastrian ''Tower of Silence'', which is where Zoroastrian would traditionally send their dead to the afterlife

give you an almost overwhelming feeling of experiencing an ancient culture’s hedonism and sophisticated way of enjoying of life.

In somewhat of a contrast to that gentle sophistication are the islands of Qeshm and Hormuz.

Desert islands in the Persian Gulf the oppressive heat of which hits you like a ton of bricks on exiting the airplane. The rough and rugged desert terrain, different smells and mostly Arabic population is in quite a contrast to the gentle water features, gardens and soft-spoken Persian vibe in central Iran. There is definitely no poetry and rose water tea there.

Once you are past the first impression of being away from your shaded inner courtyard, fountains and rosepettals however and your body acclimatizes to the oppressing heat, the friendliness of the locals and riding in the back of the ubiquitous Toyota pick-up trucks through the fantastical desert landscapes quickly exchanges a sense of discomfort for a sense of amazement.

Qeshm’s ‘’Valley of the Stars’’, a mesmerizing maze of canyons the locals say were created when the stars fell from the sky, and Hormuz island, also known as the ‘’Rainbow Island’’ for its seventy-two colors of sand, are fascinating micro cosmos that perfectly depict Iran’s diversity and magic.

Thirteen days in Iran not only fulfilled a life-long desire; it also reaffirmed the fact that a country’s culture and people are separate matters from its politics, a matter the people of the Balkans are painfully familiar with. In fact, if we were only to travel to countries the politics of which we agreed with, we would be hard pressed to find destinations.

Iran is a fascinating country that will change your perspective on travelling into the ‘’unknown’’ and on the ability to feel completely at home in a culture wildly different and yet incredibly similar to your own!

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KOLARAC

Concert hall

CALENDAR & NEWS

BELGRADE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

08

FEB

20:00

ASCENSION 3

CONCERT PROGRAMME February 2019

Grand Hall of the Kolarac Foundation

Conductor: Howard Griffiths Soloist: Dorian, member of the Vienna Boys Choir Choir Obilić Artistic Society Branko Krsmanović

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FEB

20:00

WISDOM 3

Grand Hall of the Kolarac Foundation

Conductor: Leo McFall Soloist: Saša Mirković, viola

Sunday, 10th at 11.00 Concert Hall

Thursday, 21. at 18.00 Music Gallery

Una Stanić, violin Irena Josifoska, cello Production: Music Centre Admission free

Ensemble „Renaissance” Production: Music Centre Admission free

Yiting Wang Solo Recital Production: Global Intercultural Performing Arts Cast, GIPAK Admission free

Sunday, 24th at 20.00 Concert Hall

CYCLE: KOLARAC PODIUM OF CHAMBER MUSIC

Tuesday, 12th at 20.00 Concert Hall

ZORANPREDIN, VOCAL & LAČNI FRANC

LEVEL UP CONCERT SEASON

Production: Muzikon Music Association

Wednesday, 13.at 20.00 Concert Hall

Friday, 22ndat 20.00 Concert Hall

AUTHOR’S EVENING

Sunday, 17th at 11.00 Concert Hall

CYCLE: KOLARAC PODIUM OF CHAMBER MUSIC

Sebastian Caspar, violin Nikola Djurica, clarinet Jelena Stojković, piano Production: Music Centre Admission free Sunday, 16th at 20.00 Concert Hall

HANDEL: ACIS AND GALATEA

Tuesday, 19th at 18.00 Music Gallery

WINNERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL VOICE COMPETITION “LAZAR JOVANOVIC” Production: Music Centre Admission free

Wednesday, 20th at 18.00 Music Gallery

CYCLE: MUSIC WORKSHOP

Production: Music Centre Admission free

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Thursday, 21. at 20.00 Concert Hall

Anja Rupel as a guest Production: Kolarac Studio Art

NemanjaBogunović, guitar& Strings Attached & Cd Promotion

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”TRIPLE KEYBOARDS” ON TWO HANDS

BELGRADE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA/ WISDOM

Conductor: Leo McFall Soloist: Saša Mirković, viola Progrmme: F. Mendelssohn, D. Jovanović, E. Elgar Production: Belgrade Philharmonic More information 011.2630744 Saturday, 23rd at 11.00 Concert Hall

SMALL SCHOOL OF BONTON/ HOW TO LISTEN TO THE CONCERT

Programme: Peter and the Wolf/ Music Fairy Host: Miloš Milovanović Novi Sad Wind Quintet Production: Music Centre Admission free Saturday, 23rd at 20.00 Concert Hall

YOUTH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA BORISLAVPAŠĆAN

Conductor: Djordje Pavlović Production: Nova Rasia Monday, 25th at 18.00 Music Gallery

ITALIAN CULTURAL CENTRE?

Monday, 25th at 20.00 Concert Hall

ST.PETERSBURG DAYS

Tuesday, 26th at 20.00 Concert Hall

ST. SIMEON’S DAY ACADEMY

Free tickets /Dobročinstvo Wednesday, 27th at 18.00 Music Gallery

PRODUCTION: MUSIC CENTRE

Piano Duo Marija Godjevac& Borko Milojković Admission free Wednesday, 27th at 20.00 Concert Hall

STEINWAY & SONS CONCERT SEASON

YevgenySudbin Programme: Scarlatti, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin

YOUTH'S CULTURALARTISTIC GROUP "MILOMIR PETROVIC"

Thursday, 28th at 20.00 Concert Hall

Sunday, 24th at 11.00 Concert Hall

Oleg Kireyev, saxspohone Vasil Hadžimanov, piano Production: The Cultural Initiatives

Folk-dance Ensemble Free tickets

PIANO TRIO

Ivan Bašić, piano

THE BESTRUSSIAN JAZZ & BALKAN FUSIONS

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