Mayor Nikola Dašić took part today in the international conference CORE Days 2025, held on 27- 28 November at the “Ložionica” venue in Belgrade, organized by NALED. This regional event brought together more than 50 distinguished speakers from Serbia and across the region - Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia, Greece, Romania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania.
Mayor Dašić spoke on the panel “Local Policies that Foster Social Inclusion,” dedicated to the role of local governments in advancing inclusion, strengthening social entrepreneurship, and creating an enabling environment for responsible business. In his remarks, he emphasized that the City of Kragujevac prioritizes two groups of citizens - young people without qualifications or work experience, and persons with disabilities - while also devoting special attention to women’s entrepreneurship.
These groups face limited opportunities to enter the labor market, which is a challenge both for them and for the City. We see the private sector as a key partner in mentoring, supporting social enterprises, and employing vulnerable groups, Dašić noted. He also presented a new three-year Social Entrepreneurship Support Program for 2026-2028, for which the City has allocated 10 million dinars. The program provides for the creation of a network of social entrepreneurs, mentoring schemes in cooperation with companies, support for participation in fairs, and the introduction of green and social criteria in public procurement.
We also discussed how we foster a favorable and stimulating environment for ‘green’ and socially responsible businesses – from public procurement that encourages inclusion to support through local incentives and capacity-building programs. I believe that this blend of economic development and social sensitivity creates the best conditions for sustainable growth, the Mayor said. He cited the mismatch between the needs of the local economy and the education system - namely, that young people often train for professions that do not match real labor-market demand - as one of the significant drivers of unemployment. The panel also highlighted good examples of cooperation between the City and the business community, such as Agromarket, Forma Ideale, Yanfeng, Milanović Industry, and Sunce Marinković, companies that for years have actively supported social enterprises and hired people from vulnerable groups.
The Mayor recalled that five years ago, 1,700 persons with disabilities were registered with the National Employment Service, and through joint programs with the City, 700 of them have since been given an opportunity to work. The new program, Dašić concluded, will help advance this policy and raise it to a higher, systemic level.
