Belgrade-Chicago Sister City Relationship Brings Dawn of a New Era in Serbia Diaspora Relations
The establishment of a Sister City relationship with a US city with a strong Serbian Diaspora was a top priority when USAID first began working with the City of Belgrade in February 2005.
Such a relationship forms a key part of the city's policy agenda to foster economic growth through the strengthening of international trade and recognizes the cultural significance of such ties.
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| Mayor Daley (left) and Mayor Bogdanovic (right) shake hands after signing the Sister City Agreement |
Recognizing the importance of such an initiative, Belgrade Mayor Nenad Bogdanovic and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, signed a Sister City Agreement between the two cities in early June. The signing ceremony took place in Chicago's Cultural Center before a large audience of the Serbian Diaspora community, as well as the local media and other interested citizens.
The agreement reflects the dream of many Serbs living in Chicago, as well as their relatives
and business associates in Serbia, to see Belgrade and Chicago (the home of one of the largest concentrations of Serbian Diaspora in the United States) become sister cities. Its signing follows four months of planning and negotiations between the cities of Belgrade and Chicago, facilitated by the USAID-funded Serbia Local Government Reform Program (SLGRP).
The signing of the Sister City agreement was also accompanied by a USAID-sponsored study tour by Belgrade's mayor, city manager, city architect, deputy secretary of finance, and the director of the department responsible for coordinating Belgrade's communal enterprises. The tour provided a chance for the first face-to-face contact between the two city leaders and offered
an excellent opportunity for representatives from both cities to exchange their experiences, discuss common problems and their solutions, and establish a foundation for future cooperation.
The tour also provided the Belgrade delegation with the chance to learn more about some of the most successful practices used in Chicago in the areas of city management, information technology, planning, finance, and citizen relations, which could potentially be replicated in Belgrade. The delegation was particularly interested in Chicago's 311 Call Center, a centralized, telephone-based complaint and task-routing system that eases the citizens' access to municipal services by creating a single point of contact with the city, and facilitates information gathering and performance monitoring by city managers. Belgrade was so inspired by this practice that it now intends to establish a new information/call center for itself and will work with SLGRP on its planning and implementation over the next few months.
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