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USA & SERBIA COOPERATION BUILT ON A STRONG FOUNDATION

- 2020 -

Professor ZORANA MIHAJLOVIĆ, PhD Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure

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H.E. ANTHONY F. GODFREY U.S. Ambassador in Serbia

ZORAN PETROVIĆ President of AmCham Serbia and Director General of Raiffeisenbank

01 THE FIRST NATIONAL PARK Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, with parts in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world.

05 THE FIRST CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES Washington, D.C. didn't become the nation's capital until 1790. The first city to hold the title was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when the First Continental Congress met there in 1774.

06 NO OFFICIAL LANGUAGE Interestingly enough, the USA have no official language. But most of the individual states do have, and in many cases they have another official language apart from English. In Hawaii, Hawaiian is official, and in South Dakota, Sioux (Lakota, Nakota and Dakota). Alaska has 20 more indigenous official languages apart from English.

02 THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its "collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Fun Fact: the Library of Congress is keeping an archive of every tweet ever tweeted. Or not so much fun?

04 THE FIRST U.S. CITY TO

HOST THE OLYMPICS The United States didn't host the Olympic Games until the Summer Games in 1904. The city to receive the honor was St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis was the first non-European city to host the Games. Since then,

Lake Placid, New York; Los Angeles and Squaw

Valley, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and

Salt Lake City, Utah all hosted the Olympics.

07 DOLLAR – THE AMERICAN DOLLAR? Dollar is the American currency, but approximately two-thirds of the dollar bills are located outside of the USA, being the “world money”.

03 THE FLAT LA Los Angeles is not as “tall” as other large cities and sprawls for miles. One reason is that before 1957, there was a law against any building having more than 13 stories. They were afraid of earthquakes. City Hall, built in 1927, was the lone exception. It also had one of the most extensive tram (streetcar) networks in the world.

08 THE FIRST NATIONAL MONUMENT

Enacted in 1906, the American Antiquities Act established the protection of "natural and cultural resources" in the United States. President Theodore Roosevelt wasted no time and proclaimed four national monuments in that same year. The first of those was Devils Tower in Wyoming, famous for the Steven Spielberg’s film.

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|ECONOMY | THE GREATEST

From a colony to a metropolis

Talking about the US economy is like talking about The Rolling Stones. It’s hard to remember when did they become the No 1, and it is also hard to see what their impact is and when they’ll stop being the No 1. America has been the leader of the world economy since 1945, and which influence is so strong that we cannot possibly hide from it in a globalized world.

FROM COLONIAL FARMERS TO LEADERS

The question is whether the globalized world, as imagined by its creators, went hand-in-hand with America, or hand-in-hand with others who have managed to catch up to America. Let's leave that question to serious analysts. In any case, for 75 years, America has been the largest economy in the world, compared to which other large

economies looked like dwarfs. Bill Bryson said that as early as the 19th century, the British became aware of the fact that, thanks to its vast territory, America was capable of producing milk, corn, wheat, or any agricultural product cheaper and more efficiently. The two world wars that European allies fought on their territory, which caused Germany, Italy, France and Britain to suffer great destruction, while Ameri-

ca avoided the war on its territory altogether (Pearl Harbor aside), contributed to the US becoming the No 1. Of course, the readiness to quickly industrialize and implement all the achievements of the Industrial Revolution was the fuel during the 19th, 20th and 21st century that propelled the American economy to the very top of the world.

THE BIGGEST HITS OF THE U.S. ECONOMY

The economy of the United States is highly developed and mixed. It is the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and net wealth and the second-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It also has the world's eighth-highest per capita GDP (nominal) and the tenth-highest per capita GDP (PPP) in 2019. The U.S. has the most technologically powerful economy in the world and its firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances; especially in computers, pharmaceuticals, and medical, aerospace, and military equipment. The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is the world's foremost reserve currency, backed by its economy, its military, the petrodollar system and its linked eurodollar and large U.S. treasuries market. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are by far the world's largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trade volume.

HOW DOES AMERICA CONQUER TODAY?

Back in the day, America 'conquered' the world with its agricultural products. Although the U.S. was among the first countries to adopt the technolo

THE U.S. HAS BECOME THE NO 1 IN THE WORLD THANKS TO THE SPIRIT OF SMALL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND GREAT LEADERSHIP IN THE WORLD ECONOMY

gies from the British, today, America conquers the world with its capability to set new trends, like Silicon Valley.

If the old technologies discontinue, this leads to devastated regions, such as Rust Belt or Detroit, once one of the most contemporary cities in America, which in turn, results in political up

heavals in the election. Economic freedom provided by the private sector is a central feature of the U.S. economy which allows the private sector to make most economic decisions in determining the direction and scope of what the U.S. economy produces. This is exacerbated by the relatively low level of regulation and government involvement, as well as the judicial system that generally protects property rights and enforces contracts. As a result, there are 29.6 million small businesses in the United States today, 30% of the world's millionaires, 40% of the world's billionaires, as well as 139 of the world's 500 largest companies. Most firms in America are small businesses, not corporations. The U.S. has become the No 1 in the world thanks to the spirit of small entrepreneurship and great leadership in the world economy, which are the two pillars of the American economy.

|CURRENCY | THE U.S. DOLLAR IS THE CURRENCY MOST USED

IN INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS AND

IS THE WORLD'S FOREMOST RESERVE CURRENCY

|ECONOMY | GOOGLE MANAGEMENT

…and how it changed the world

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Films like “Hackers” from the 1990s showed the world, in a somewhat naïve way, that computer programmers are people who do not tolerate harsh discipline, who never grow up and who need creativity to make a discovery. All of this often happens through playing, socializing and innovation by way of atypical discipline, or rather on the verge of disorder.

FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY IS ONE OF GOOGLE’S MOTTOS, AND IT HAS PREVALENCE OVER THE COMPANY’S STRATEGY

In fact, what matters in the IT busi ness is performance. Performance metrics are often very strict, especially when it comes to coding. However, many artists have said that IT people are the most similar to artists. The inspiration for a revolutionary solution that will surpass the competition can come suddenly, and found out of the workplace. Once the performance metrics are executed, we conclude

that the solution is excellent. Thinking outside the box is becoming a mantra of modern business, and it is especial ly felt in creative business, such as the IT, as depicted in the comedy “The In ternship” (2013).

There are some successful tactics. One of them is big companies having game rooms. Once a developer becomes fed up with the work, they can go to a game room, have fun or just plump themselves down on lazy bags, play pool or pinball machines or whatever the particular game room has. This allows developers to reset and continue working more creatively, without having to constantly stare at the computer. This also builds security and self-confidence within the group.

The concept of psychological safety

was common to all successful groups at Google. That is, in each group each participant is free to contribute equally (in whatever way works the best for the team) and each individual is sensitive to others’ feelings. Freedom and flex ibility is one of Google’s mottos, and it has prevalence over the company’s

THE CONCEPT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY WAS COMMON TO ALL SUCCESSFUL GROUPS AT GOOGLE

strategy. It is, in fact, the company's strategy. Job applications to work at Google are said to number 2.5 million a year. The company believes that a positive environment will attract talent and instil loyalty – an approach that is born of the competitive Silicon Valley setting of its headquarters. Also, reorganizations are avoided as 50% of employees never understand why reorganization is necessary. Passion projects are very important; not everything has to be a pre-set paid goal and task. Goog le allows its employees to spend 20% of their time working together on passion projects that they believe would benefit Google. The development of Google News and Gmail are two examples of successful projects that emerged from that 20%.

|TECHNOLOGY | SILICON VALLEY by Žikica Milošević

The Technology Capital of the World

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Everyone has probably heard of the term "Silicon Valley", but not everyone can show it on the map. Silicon Valley is located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern California, the most cosmo politan part of the Golden State.

Many people also don't know that San Jose is the 10th biggest city in America, and the third wealthiest city in the world (per capita), after Zurich and Oslo. The word “silicon” in “Silicon Valley” comes from the fact that a large number of innovators have based their production of semiconductors and silicon from which transistors and integrated circuits are made in the valley. Today, the valley is home to over 30 compa nies that have made the Fortune 1000 list. There are also thousands of start up companies here, which cannot imagine a better place to flourish in. As

SILICON VALLEY STILL REMAINS THE GOAL OF EVERY IT PROFESSIONAL AND THE PLACE THAT WILL DETERMINE OUR LIVES IN THE YEARS TO COME

much as a third of the investment capital in the entire United States is concentrated in Silicon Valley. Integrated circuits, microprocessors and microcomputers (the forerunner of today’s PC) all originate from there.

This is not a coincidence since the first radio station with a regular pro gramme in the United States was founded in San Jose in 1909. In 1939, a business practice called welfare cap italism emerged, where pensions, social welfare and other benefits were consolidated, and the idea of social solidarity was cemented. Ever since, these practices have been a must in high-tech companies, which are becoming higher and more tech as

time passes. Stanford University Park played a major role in this. Hewlett-Packard was one of the first residents in the park, while their early tenants also included Eastman Kodak, General Electric and Lockheed. It became clear that America would become the world's major power because of science and technology, and that San Jose would become the cen tre of the world, with similar clusters worldwide being named after it.

Today, it is difficult to count the number of companies in Silicon Valley that are known across the globe and that dictate the technological pace. These include Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Intel, Netflix, Nvidia, Oracle, PayPal, Twit

ter, Google... Aherton, a town in Silicon Valley, is the most expensive place to live in in the entire US. While the most expensive cars line up parking lots in the valley and hundreds of thousands

of IT workers dictate our present and future day and night, Silicon Valley still remains the goal of every IT professional and the place that will determine our lives in the years to come.

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