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Retrospective 2014/2018

Constructive Support & Solutions

The Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia has in the last four years organised an entire series of different events, exhibitions, fairs, donations and other activities that provided excellent opportunities for members to share their knowledge and experience, and to network with their counterparts and potential business partners, becoming a platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences within the Nordic business community in Serbia

The aim of the Nordic Business Alliance is to promote Nordic values like innovation, openness, confidence and responsibility, and to transfer the business culture and knowhow of Nordic countries, finding constructive solutions to improve trade and help companies from the Nordic region to find potential partners in Serbia and vice versa.

The Alliance also aims to support newly established companies and to enhance investments and trade.

26TH JUNE 2014 – DRAGAN BJELOGRLIĆ: “MY WAY”

Dragan Bjelogrlić, a Serbian actor and producer, shared with our members and friends his path from being an actor to becoming a successful director and producer.

We spent several hours at the “SirOvina” wine cellar sipping wine from the Temet Winery in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere, listening to Mr Bjelogrlić’s stories illustrating the life and work of one of Serbia’s most successful actor-directors.

 

22ND DECEMBER 2014

The Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia provided the venue for Minister Željko Sertić and representatives of the Nordic Business Alliance to discuss conditions for encouraging foreign companies already present in Serbia to stay and reinvest.

 

 

18TH MARCH 2015

Dejan Nedić, the managing partner at FCB AFIRMA and member of the Board of Governors of the Nordic Business Alliance, spoke about new trends in the marketing and advertising domain.

The event, organised at the Life Design Hotel, provided an opportunity to learn something about top creative ideas, to meet representatives of companies awarded worldwide and to understand the FCB advertising network, which has recently undergo an exciting major change.

This retrospective on advertising, innovations in the field of advertising and examples of good practice provided participants with a fresh view on established conventions in the field of marketing.

The Nordic Business Alliance continues to bring together experts from various fields of business with the aim of improving the business environment through examples of good practices.

 

1ST JUNE 2015

The “Nordic Design and Innovation” exhibition was staged at Radisson Blu Old Mill Hotel. Visitors had an opportunity to check out the products and services of IKEA, Telenor, Volvo, DSV etc.

With representatives of the embassies of Sweden and Finland and Ministry of Economy present, speakers at the opening including H.E. Christer Asp, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Serbia, Ms Outi Isotalo, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Finland to Serbia, Mr Miloš Petrović, State secretary at the Ministry of the Economy of Serbia and Mr Andreja Pavlović, Executive Director of the Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia.

 

2ND JULY 2015

The Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia organised a corporate retreat for member companies at the Husqvarna premises in Stara Pazova.

 

7TH DECEMBER 2015

The Nordic Business Alliance held a working meeting with then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić.

This conference marked the beginning of long-term cooperation with the aim of exerting mutual effort to remove obstacles to doing business for Nordic companies and, by extension, the entire business community in Serbia. Besides the Prime Minister, the government members that we had the pleasure of hosting included Economy Minister Željko Sertić, Labour Minister Aleksandar Vulin, Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar and Belgrade Mayor Siniša Mali, as well as state secretaries and other representatives of relevant Ministries.

All Nordic Embassies in Belgrade had delegations present at the conference, with Swedish Ambassador H.E. Christer Asp and Finnish Ambassador H.E. Pertti Ikonen both personally attending the gathering.

 

21ST JANUARY 2016

The Nordic Business Alliance, in partnership with the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, organised the event “Enticing investments to Serbia – preconditions and legislative framework”. 

The main goal of which was to familiarise attendees with factors that influence investment decisions for them to better improve the legislative framework, in order to attract new investments and improve cooperation between Nordic companies operating in Serbia, the Government of Serbia and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

Speakers at the meeting included Vladimir Marinković, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Željko Sertić, Economy Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Dusan Vujović, Finance Minister of the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Arne Sanes Bjornstad, Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia, Jasmina Vignjević, President of the Board of Governors of the Nordic Business Alliance, and, as honorary guest speaker, Telenor Group President and CEO Sigve Brekke.

 

21ST MARCH 2016

A conference on digital banking, trade and commerce was held at Belgrade’s Crowne Plaza Hotel, organised by Adria Media Group and Newsweek Magazine.

The Nordic Business Alliance was one of the event’s partners and participants.

Alongside representatives of the ICT and banking sectors, this conference was focused on the end-users of modern services and proved useful to a wider audience.

 

6TH SEPTEMBER 2016

The Nordic Business Alliance, in partnership with the Embassy of Finland in Belgrade, organised a panel discussion with then Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić at the Finnish Ambassadorial Residence of His Excellency Pertti Ikonen, entitled “Nordic Innovative Business in Serbia”.

Envisaged as a platform for public-private dialogue, participants in the panel discussion presented to the Prime Minister actual challenges faced by our members and their business partners while doing business in Serbia.

The panellists included Ambassador Ikonen, Telenor Srbija CEO Ingeborg Ofsthus, Novo Nordisk CEO Predrag Radošević, Tikkurila CEO Algirdas Kupavicius, IKEA Regional Development Manager Vladislav Lalić, Chair of the Nordic Business Alliance Board, Jasmina Vignjević, and the Executive Director of the Nordic Business Alliance, Andreja Pavlović, who served as moderator of the discussion.

 

9TH NOVEMBER 2016

The Hellenic Business Association, Slovenian Business Club and Nordic Business Alliance jointly organised a “SPEED BUSINESS MEETING” event for their members at Belgrade’s Hyatt Regency Hotel.

This event’s concept provides participating companies with the opportunity to effectively present themselves, their services and their products to all event participants.

 

17TH NOVEMBER 2016

The Nordic Business Alliance and company Trizma, in partnership with the Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade, organised a lecture entitled “Beyond Budgeting” at the Norwegian ambassadorial residence.

The lecture was given by Bjarte Bogsnes, the creator of “Beyond Budgeting” and vice president of Statoil – the largest oil company in the Nordic region.

 

9TH DECEMBER 2016

The Nordic Business Alliance organised a visit to the city of Smederevo. The visit began with addresses delivered by Smederevo Mayor Dr Jasna Avramović, Swedish Ambassador to Serbia H.E. Jan Lundin and Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia Executive Director Andreja Pavlović.

The Director of Smederevo’s Free Trade Zone, Milica Mijatović, presented local investment capacities, examples of good practices and local conditions for doing business.

The free trade zone was also toured, while the visit culminated with the organising of a B2B event at which members had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with foreign investors and public companies in the city of Smederevo.

 

21ST DECEMBER 2016

The regular annual assembly of Nordic Business Alliance members was held at Belgrade’s Radisson BLU Old Mill Hotel. Alongside the submitting of reports to members, priorities were set that will guide the Nordic Business Alliance throughout the next calendar year.

Following the Assembly, members had an opportunity to summarise their positive impressions of the current year at a reception held in the spirit of the New Year holidays.

 

3RD APRIL 2017

A delegation of the Nordic Business Alliance, led by Norwegian Ambassador in Belgrade H.E. Arne Sannes Bjornstad, met with Niš Mayor Darko Bulatović and representatives of the city authorities to discuss possibilities for cooperation and local projects that could include the participation of members of the Nordic Business Alliance.

This was followed by a meeting between delegation members and representatives of companies that operate in Niš, both public enterprises and private companies, including foreign investors present in Niš.

 

6TH APRIL 2017

Representatives of Nordic Business Alliance member companies met with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia and the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce for a series of “quck business meetings” (Business Speed Meeting).

The event provided members of business associations with the opportunity to expand their contact network and establish a good base for future cooperation through this innovative format of informal meetings.

The Business Speed Meeting concept consists of a series of short ten-minute business meetings that aim to contribute to business development and the establishment of contacts between participants, present companies’ activities and establish business cooperation with some of the most successful domestic and international companies.

Over 40 participating members of the three chambers had the opportunity to speak one-to-one and consider potential models of cooperation.

 

20TH APRIL 2017

Belgrade’s Vizantija raft restaurant provided the venue for a large business gathering of eight European chambers of commerce present in Serbia.

The reception was attended by 250 people, including members of chambers, foreign and domestic businesspeople and managers.

This was the first and most important gathering to date of European chambers of commerce organised with the aim of networking members and strengthening cross-chamber cooperation.

The event was attended by members of the Hellenic Business Association, the French-Serbian and German-Serbian chambers of commerce, the Chamber of Italian-Serbian Businessmen, the Belgian-Serbian Business Association, the Slovenian and Croatian business clubs, as well as the Nordic Business Alliance.

This event is just the first in a series of joint events planned to be organised by representatives of the European economy in Serbia, which is the most prominent on the Serbian market, with the aim of promoting joint appearances, improving the business environment and supporting local institutions through transfers of the best European practises.

 

13TH JUNE 2017

The Nordic Business Alliance and the Centre for the Economy jointly organised a short presentation and workshop at Belgrade’s Saint Ten Hotel on 13th June 2017, aimed at better familiarising those interested with The Bullet Proof® Manager programme from CRESTCOM, one of the world’s leading business education systems, which is now available in Serbia.

The event was organised with the aim of ensuring that relevant business experiences, examples of good practice and success stories are heard in Serbia, along with the possibility for many ideas to be applied to daily operations immediately.

 

21ST SEPTEMBER 2017

Innovation, education and sustainability were the three keywords of the seminar “Sustainable and Innovative Business”, organised jointly by the Finnish Embassy and Suomi Finland 100 partner companies, with the support of the Nordic Business Alliance.

The goal of this business event was to share experiences of the sustainable and innovative operations practised by Finnish companies and their distributors in their activities.

 

28TH SEPTEMBER 2017

A 30-member Nordic delegation, led by the Ambassador of Finland and including representatives of the Nordic Embassies and Nordic companies operating in Serbia, visited Novi Sad and was welcomed to the city by Zdravko Jelušić, president of the city assembly, and Igor Mirović, First Minister of the Vojvodina Provincial Government, after which a meeting was also organised with Nikola Žeželj, Director of the Development Agency of Vojvodina and, finally, also a meeting with Boško Vučurević, President of the Vojvodina Chamber of Commerce. The last working segment was a B2B session with companies from Vojvodina.

 

31ST OCTOBER 2017

Last October saw the Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade and the Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia hold a panel discussion with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić and experts from various fields, at which discussions revolved around the digital transformation process, public procurements and education for the future.

 

 

23RD MARCH 2018

The Nordic Business Alliance organised celebrations of Nordic Day, together with Nordic colleagues.

Nordic Day is dedicated to inter-governmental and inter-parliamentarian cooperation in northern Europe, which marks one of the oldest and most comprehensive regional cooperation initiatives.

 

 

18TH APRIL 2018

The Embassy of Finland in Belgrade organised its annual get-together for Team Finland member companies.

The aim of this event was to present the Embassy’s activities in 2018 while attending companies had an opportunity to share their plans and choose activities in which they want to participate.

The Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia also presented its activities to be implemented in cooperation with the Embassy.

 

9TH MAY 2018

A Nordic delegation led by the Finnish Ambassador and representatives of the Nordic Business Alliance visited the city of Kragujevac.

The delegation included representatives of Nordic Embassies and Nordic companies doing business in Serbia.

 

 

31ST MAY 2018

The Finnish Ambassador to Belgrade spoke to TV station N1 about the roundtable event “Public Procurement – the Nordic Experience”, jointly organised in Belgrade by the embassies of Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, together with the Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia.

You can check out the interview in its entirety here.

 

31ST MAY 2018

The embassies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, together with the Nordic Business Alliance in Serbia, organised a seminar entitled “Public Procurement – Nordic Experiences” at the Finnish ambassadorial residence in Belgrade.

The seminar is a continuation of the public-private dialogue conducted between Nordic companies and institutions with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and is aimed at providing a forum for defining conclusions on joint efforts towards further improvements in the domain of public procurement in Serbia.

Experts from Denmark and Sweden presented examples of good practices from these countries in the field of public procurement. Morten Kure Ringor of the Danish Public Procurement Organisation pointed out this institution’s contribution to savings in the public sector, amounting to more than 130 million euros annually. Ola Anderson, director of the Swedish Development Agency in Serbia, pointed out that Serbia, through the improvement of public procurement processes, also has the opportunity to create a better business environment.

Sweden also supports Serbia’s reform efforts in the field of public procurement within the project “Improving mechanisms of responsibility in the field of public finances”, which is worth 1.9 million euros.

 

27TH SEPTEMBER 2018

The seminar ‘Power of Collaboration in Fintech from Finland’ was held at the Finnish ambassadorial residence in Belgrade and introduced the latest fintech solutions from Finland, while encouraging collaboration with local financial institutions.

Presentations were given by Antti Kosunen, Chairman of the Board at Nestholma Fintech, Elina Mattila, Director of the Mobey Forum, Ivana Pešić, Managing Director of company House Eleven, and Andreja Pavlović, Executive director of the Nordic Business Alliance.

Finnish fintech companies, which are the leaders in this field, have started planning their future activities together with local banks, insurance companies, the government, public organisations and other relevant stakeholders in Serbia.

 

9TH NOVEMBER 2018

The Nordic Business Alliance, together with Nordic embassies, held a conference entitled “NorDig” at the Yugoslav Cinematheque Film Archives, with the event opened by Serbian Government Minister Branko Ružić.

In dialogue with representatives of Serbian institutions and companies, four Nordic experts familiarised us with experiences in the field of digitalising public sector systems and services.

From origins to future plans, they addressed everything from the digitalisation of the entire public administration to specific tax issues and cybersecurity.

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