In compliance with the Decision on polling stations abroad issued by the Electoral Commission of the Republic of Serbia pertinent to upcoming presidential elections and elections for the members of the national Assembly of the Republic of Serbia scheduled for April 03, 2022, polling station no. 53 has been opened at the Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia in New York City for the voters residing in the USA who when registering expressed their wish to vote either in New York or in Boston.

Due to time difference, the polling station at the Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia in New York City will be open on SATURDAY, April 02, 2022, from 07:00 AM to 08:00 PM local time.

To be able to vote, registered voters will need to present either a valid passport or a valid identity card issued by the Republic of Serbia.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic attended today in Geneva the signing of the Agreement on the Establishment of the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Serbia, the first of its kind in the Western Balkans.

The agreement was signed at the headquarters of that forum by Director of the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment Mihailo Jovanovic and Managing Director and Head of the Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Jeremy Jurgens.

The centre in Serbia will be the 16^th in the network of centres of the World Economic Forum in the world and the first in the region of the Western Balkans.

The new centre will start operating on 1 March and will function as a non-profit organisation and a platform for public-private partnership and cooperation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, while the focus of work will be on artificial intelligence and bioengineering.

This centre will work within the Serbian government’s Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment and will cooperate with scientific institutes, state institutions and the private sector.

The signing of this document was also attended by founder and Executive Director of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab and President of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende, with whom Brnabic had previously met.

Addressing the press, Brnabic pointed out that this agreement is the result of many years of joint work between Serbia and the World Economic Forum.

We started talking in 2018, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, then 2020 hampered us a bit, but we continued to plan in 2021 and here we are today, she said.

According to her, the centre will be focused on the development of artificial intelligence, biomedicine and biotechnology, and on the ways in which digitalisation can raise the productivity of companies and the entire economy.

This is what further leads to higher salaries, a better standard of living, as well as to an economy that is mainly based on knowledge, creativity and innovation, Brnabic emphasised.

Today, we have received great recognition for everything that Serbia has done in the field of digitalisation, development of high technologies and paradigm shift – from an economy that was based on labour-intensive investments to digital development.

That is why this agreement shows that Serbia has been recognised as one of the leaders in the economy and IT industry in the last six years, the Prime Minister pointed out and assessed that this is the announcement of the beginning of an even closer cooperation between Serbia and WEF.

She added that they will have a joint meeting with the 16 WEF centres for the fourth industrial revolution in the world every month, at which they will talk about what each of them is doing, since each has a different focus.

That is how we will hear what everyone is doing every month, learn from each other and I am sure that the centre in Belgrade will be one of the best, the Prime Minister said.

According to her, this gives us visibility, the opportunity to further establish Serbia as an investment destination, a country good for living and investing in new technologies and knowledge.

Jovanovic said that the ecosystem formed around the centre will use the infrastructure of the National Platform for the Development of Artificial Intelligence, the Centre for Genome Sequencing and the future bioeconomic centre – BIO4 Campus.

At the end of his visit to Chicago, where he spent the Christmas holidays with members of the Serbian diaspora, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Nikola Selakovic stated today that Serbia would deal more intensively with the needs of Serbs living outside the homeland.

"We came here not to ask anything from the members of the diaspora, but to hear from them what they expect from the motherland and what Serbia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region can do for them", Selakovic said.

According to him, one of the most numerous Serbian communities in the world lived in Chicago and its surroundings, which is connected by a very strong patriotic feeling and the Serbian Orthodox Church, which had been active in that area for more than a century.

“I was able to see that our people here have an extremely high potential. And that is what we have to work on much more in the future, on establishing even greater national unity, even stronger ties with the motherland - the Republic of Serbia, and to work much more on promoting what Serbia is today”, the Serbian Foreign Minister said.

On the second day of Christmas, Selakovic visited the oldest Serb organization in this part of the USA - the Serbian National Defense, talked to members of various associations of the Serbian people and participated in the celebration of the patron saint day of the Republic of Srpska.

Minister Selakovic pointed out that the visit to Chicago was also an invaluable opportunity to meet with representatives of the business community in this part of the United States, who have the desire and need to invest and increase their capital in different parts of the world.

Selakovic underlined that this was an opportunity to promote Serbia as one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and a country that is the absolute regional leader in attracting foreign investments.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Selaković told the Serbs in Chicago that the compatriots in the diaspora and the region are one of the absolute priorities for the state of Serbia and for him personally.

Minister Selakovic, who is spending the Christmas holidays with Serbs living in Chicago, spoke with representatives of associations, organizations and prominent individuals from the Serbian diaspora at the headquarters of the Serbian National Defense Council (SND).

In the conversation, he stated that Serbia's attitude towards the largest Serbian community outside the homeland, in the United States, went through different phases - from the persecution of people who had different views and different ideals through complete negligence to the time periods when some state officials visited the diaspora only to seek for help for themselves or for the people.

He also pointed out that Serbia has not had a Consul General in Chicago for eight years, whose duty is to meet with citizens, talk to them and to listen to them as there is a huge potential in the Serbian community in that city.

Saying that there will not be many of us if we divide, quarrel and do not understand each other, the Minister stated that last year he had about 400 meetings with foreign officials who were interested in how Serbia grew from a country with no perspective into what it is today, which, he said, it had succeeded through work and the creation of unity.

"After we managed to consolidate the situation at home, we can now turn to other things and our diaspora and expatriates take an important place in this context," Selaković said.

He also conveyed to the those gathered that President Aleksandar Vučić said that last year Serbia attracted more than four billion dollars of direct foreign investments, which is a record that surpassed the best 2019 so far. 

Minister Selaković said that he came to Chicago on Christmas, a holiday that is spent with the family and not visiting, because he was among his own people.

"I feel that way from the very first moment. I came to hear what you have to say, to hear what your troubles are, problems, how you see Serbia today and in what context and in which way it needs to pay more attention to you," the Minister said.

Welcoming the guests, the President of the SND in the USA, Dragan Vujosevic, said that this was a historic event since for the first time official representatives of the motherland met Serbs at the headquarters of this oldest Serbian association in the USA, which was founded by Mihajlo Pupin at the beginning of the last century.

The Consul General of Serbia in Chicago Damnjan Jovic said that the goal was to save Serbian organizations from extinction, to restore the old splendor and importance of SND and other associations.

The Director of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region Arnaud Gouillon pointed out that for him Christmas was a holiday when the family gathers and that since 2015, when he decided to be converted to Orthodox religion together with his daughter Milena, Christmas has been the Orthodox and spiritual holiday for him that he likes to celebrate where he feels more spiritual.

That is why, he said, he often celebrated Christmas in Kosovo and Metohija, in the Gracanica or Visoki Decani monasteries.

"When we celebrated Christmas, this time in the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Chicago, the feeling was the same as in Kosovo and Metohija, the feeling that we were all in a great sanctuary, even though this one was not in Serbia, but it was spiritually connected with the Serbian people" he underlined.

He also mentioned the famous scientist Mihajlo Pupin, the founder of the SND, saying that today the people who speak, think and dream in Serbian and live in the USA are his successors.

"Many other communities have blended into, but you are proof that the Serbian community, although well integrated, has not forgotten its roots. That's because Serbs, in addition to preserving their language, also have their Orthodox faith, Saintsavahood, the Kosovo Myth and associations that have been functioning and bringing together all people on this continent for decades," Gouillon said.