On April 9th, at the Jugoslovenska Kinoteka in Uzun Mirkova 9, the Diplomacy & Commerce magazine will be celebrating its 8th anniversary at the DIPLOMACY&COMMERCE AWARDS 2024 and rewarding those who left a mark in society with their actions. In anticipation of the event we discussed with representatives of NIS a.d., about their last-year experiences as laureates, the work they’ve done in the post-award period and their vision of synergy between communities and businesses.
How much do awards like this mean to you as a company?
For many years, our company has recognized the importance of supporting and strengthening the community in which we operate. Investing in key projects that contribute to the development of the local community is not only an obligation, but also a privilege and an opportunity to strengthen the society of which we are a part. This engagement further motivates us to continue providing a significant contribution to the improvement of the quality of life in our environment. In this, we see the key importance of the awards and recognitions we have received in the field of socially responsible business. Only within the framework of the “Communities Together” program, which is aimed at strengthening the key pillars of social development in the local communities where NIS operates, the company has so far invested more than 1.7 billion dinars in the implementation of more than 1,100 projects aimed at development of science and education, public health and social protection, environmental protection, culture and sports. We are proud to point out that work for the benefit of the community remains our strategic commitment in the coming years, with a focus on young people as the bearers of development, which is in line with our slogan “Future in Action”.
What else have you done in the area for which you won the award in the past 12 months?
We are very pleased that the NIS company received the Diplomacy&Commerce award for the best socially responsible campaign “Let new hopes be born”, which we carried out in order to contribute to increasing the visibility of a topic that is of national importance and which is also one of the key challenges faced by our society meets, and that is to support the increase in the birth rate. For this purpose, NIS invested RSD 118.5 million through the “Communities Together” program alone, with the aim of improving the conditions for the work of health institutions in the field of reproductive health and providing support to couples in the process of in vitro fertilization. We are very pleased to have supported 40 health institutions in more than 30 cities and municipalities in our country within this campaign, and the campaign itself was initiated within the “Communities Together” program, which the company has been implementing for 15 years in cooperation with partner cities and municipalities. We continued to invest in the development and improvement of the quality of life of the community in which we work and live, so we dedicated our jubilee, 15th in a row, “Communities Together” competition to education and science, since each program cycle, and therefore annual public competition, dedicated to another topic within the support areas defined by the Program. We define the area of support after conducting an analysis of national priorities, surveys of local governments and research results on a nationally representative sample. So last year, in cooperation with partners from local self-governments and the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation and the Ministry of Education, we selected 54 projects in the implementation of which the company NIS invested a record 144.5 million dinars. These significant projects, which are implemented in 13 cities and municipalities where the company operates, aim to, on the one hand, provide a contribution to the modernization of the teaching process and infrastructure of primary and secondary schools, and on the other hand, to contribute to the improvement of the infrastructural and innovation capacities of scientific institutions , in order for male and female scientists to develop their scientific potential.
How do you see the synergy between business and community?
We believe that the key to long-term sustainability and stable operations of a company lies precisely in the successful synergy of good business achievements and commitment to the progress of the community in which we live and work. This is the formula we applied in previous years as well, and the fact that NIS is today one of the most important companies in Serbia, with the largest donations to the community in which it operates, speaks for itself. Through various socially responsible projects, we have invested more than 12 billion dinars in the community since 2009, including significant support for the projects of the Government of the Republic of Serbia in 2023. Also, more than 4 billion euros have been invested in the development of NIS since 2009, while our company has invested more than 900 million euros in environmental projects alone. Today, among other things, we can boast that we have one of the most modern refineries, as well as one of the largest retail networks in the Balkans. We believe that in 2024, our company will continue to implement an ambitious investment program in all business segments. As before, we align our business goals with the goals of sustainable development, and investments in socially responsible business remain one of our priorities in the future as well.
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