Within the Forum for Social Innovations that was held on April 22 in Belgrade, the previous work of “Academy of Business Skills” for non-profit organizations was presented. As a result of this initiative, there was a gathering of the first community of business professionals from the biggest companies that operate in Serbia, who donate their knowledge and skills, and in this way help organizations which promote goals that are of social benefit.

From April 17 to 22, at Bor Lake, the XXVIII National Conference “Processing and Energy in Agriculture” was held, traditionally organized by the PTEP (National Society for Processing and Energy in Agriculture), where papers dealing with current problems in this field were presented.

At this gathering, representatives of domestic agriculture, centers for drying and storing agricultural products, seed centers, the food industry, fodder manufacturers, and also equipment manufacturers and designing companies were present.

Thanks to the favorable weather conditions - air temperature, but also the soil temperature, which, in the beginning of the first ten days of April, three days in a row, stabilized at 12 degrees in the soil planting layer (5-7cm), agricultural producers all over Vojvodina began to sow thermophilic plant species in the second ten days: soybean, sunflower and corn, depending on the region.

A German economic delegation, that has been interested in applying renewable energy sources to industry, paid a visit to Sojaprotein , a member of the Victoria Group. On this occasion, Sojaprotein’s power plant was visited by Vlastimir Stojanović as a member of the German Economic Delegation in Serbia, and Zlatko Jovanović, representative of the German company A.P. Bioenergietechnik Gmbh.

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia has published a report on the current macroeconomic developments containing a list of the top 15 exporters in the period January – February 2016, according to the Customs Administration data.

As a part of the project of the bilateral cooperation between Serbia and China, called “Soybean for Human Consumption”, on March 23, the Chinese delegation were given a tour of the Sojaprotein factory and the SP Laboratory which operate within the Victoria Group. The project was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia and the Ministry of Science of the Republic of China in order to establish cooperation and exchange experiences in applying soybean to the food industry.

The conference on the “Trends and strategies in the supply of GMO-free proteins and food products in Europe” was held in Sarajevo on March 17 and 18, 2016. It was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina in association with the German Organization for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), in the scope of the “High-quality, GMO-free soya from the Danube region” project.

On Saturday, March 19, private homes, office buildings, institutions, famous sites around the world will turn off their lights at 20:30 for one hour in the local time zone as a part of the ”Earth Hour” initiative organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Victoria Group will also join the initiative this year encouraging its employees to take part and turn off the lights for one hour.

The 23rd Kopaonik Business Forum was held on Kopaonik Mountain from March 8 to 10. It gathered more than 800 businessmen and women from the country and the region, representatives of the Government of Serbia, economic analysts, and international experts. This year’s gathering, dubbed “Catching up and convergence with leading trends: How to fix up the main fractures of the system”, featured 20 panels on the current economic topics.

At the 38th Tourism Fair, held in Belgrade between February 18 and 21, Bečej municipality presented its tourist offers at the exhibit stand of Destination Management Company Danube (DMC Danube). Local tourist and catering offers, gastronomy, culture, tradition, history, and sport were presented, and the emphasis was on a proper and healthy diet and its presence at the catering facilities in Bečej municipality, all under the motto “Feel the life by the river canal banks”.