According to the Serbian Economist, Serbia’s preparations for the international specialized exhibition EXPO 2027 in Belgrade are accompanied by discussions about the scale of investments and their comparability with the effect of similar events in the world. The exhibition is scheduled to open on May 15, 2027 and close on August 15, 2027.
Serbian authorities earlier presented the “Leap into the Future – Serbia 2027” program, including 323 projects across the country, the total amount of which was estimated at €17.8 billion, with Finance Minister Sinisa Mali emphasizing that the direct costs of the exhibition itself will amount to about €1.2 billion, while the remaining amounts relate to broader infrastructure and development initiatives.
Separately, the EXPO 2027 orgs point out that the “EXPO project cost” in their interpretation is estimated at around €1.29 billion and includes the exhibition site and a number of related facilities and communications (including transport and engineering components), rather than the national investment program as a whole.
In parallel, the project is already reflected in the budget architecture. In the budget for 2026 adopted by Serbia, the Serbian Economist allocates the largest single item of capex for EXPO 2027 – 47.5 billion dinars.
Comparison with the experience of other exhibitions usually shows that direct revenues rarely offset the total bill, and the key is the “legacy” – infrastructure, tourist flows, business connections and reuse of facilities. For example, World Expo 2010 in Shanghai attracted about 73 million visitors and Expo 2015 in Milan about 21.5 million, while Expo 2020 Dubai reported 24.1 million visits. For Belgrade, as a specialized exhibition, the expected scale is lower: the official resource of EXPO 2027 states expectations of “more than 4 million” visitors.
In the Serbian case, the key question is how effectively the costs will be “landed” in the long-term economy: the utilization of the new exhibition infrastructure after August 2027, the impact on tourism and urban development, as well as the ability to contain budget risks and avoid underutilization of facilities.
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According to Serbian Economist, the first Belgrade Film Festival (Beograd Film Festival, BFF) will be held in the Serbian capital from January 30 to February 6, 2026, which the organizers are positioning as a new platform for screening notable world premieres and festival films. The main venue will be the mts Dvorana cinema in the center of Belgrade.
The festival will open with a special screening of Jim Jarmusch’s new film Father Mother Sister Brother, and the program also includes other high-profile works, such as Fatih Akin’s Amrum and François Ozon’s Stranac (The Stranger) by François Ozon, which will be presented to the Belgrade audience as part of the BFF.
The concept of the festival is to combine auteur cinema, festival hits, and new works by masters in one program, making Belgrade one of the stops on the European festival calendar.
According to published information, festival films are being screened at mts Dvorana in the usual cinema format, with tickets sold at the cinema box office and online (including eFinity).
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The Serbian Economist reports that Prindon Sadrija, the husband of Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, called on Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to move the Trump Hotel project to Pristina, which his organization had previously rejected in Belgrade.
Sadrija wrote on social network X that the withdrawal from the Belgrade project confirms the thesis that “significant projects should unite, not divide,” and suggested “moving this idea to Pristina” with the transformation of the capital’s Grand Hotel into Trump Hotel.
The statement came amid reports that Affinity Global Development, linked to Kushner, has withdrawn from plans to build a hotel and residential complex on the site of the former General Staff building in downtown Belgrade, which was damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing and has been the subject of public controversy over memory preservation and cultural heritage status.
The company notified the decision to withdraw from the project after months of protests and amid a legal scandal surrounding the removal of the site’s protected status, for which the Serbian prosecutor’s office sought to prosecute a number of officials.
In Serbian statements, the losses are estimated at “at least 750 million euros” – a figure that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and representatives of the ruling party have voiced, linking the investor’s withdrawal to the pressure of protesters.
At the same time, earlier publications on the parameters of the project estimated the investment at about $500 million.
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As Serbian Economist reports, the first Ukrainian Literature Festival organized by the Ukrainian Center “Triglav” in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in Serbia took place in the Serbian capital.
The event united Ukrainian writers, translators, literary critics and Serbian fans of Ukrainian culture.
According to the organizers, the goal of the festival is to popularize modern Ukrainian literature abroad and develop cultural dialogue between Ukraine and Serbia.
The festival included readings by Ukrainian authors, presentations of translations into Serbian, panel discussions and meetings with translators working on adapting works by Ukrainian writers for local audiences.
New translations of Ukrainian works into Serbian were presented during the festival. Serbian publishers emphasized that interest in Ukrainian culture has grown significantly after 2022.
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As Serbian Economist reports, Belgrade’s preparations for EXPO 2027 are gaining momentum: the authorities and investors are actively modernizing the hotel infrastructure. The most notable project is the reconstruction of the Hotel Slavija, which has been authorized by the Serbian Ministry of Construction for a complete renovation.
The hotel, built 63 years ago and long considered a symbol of Belgrade hospitality, after the completion of the reconstruction at the end of 2026, will receive the category of “four stars” and will offer 465 rooms.
According to the hotel association HORES, there are now 120 hotels with about 8 thousand rooms in Belgrade, and by the exhibition they will be 20 more, adding about 2 thousand more accommodations. Private apartments will also play a significant role.
HORES Director Gjorge Genov stressed the need to organize shuttle transport between Belgrade and neighboring cities (Novi Sad, Šabac) in order to use additional accommodation reserves.
EXPO organizers said that more than 120 countries, including the world’s largest economies, have already confirmed their participation in Belgrade:
– China;
– Germany;
– France;
– Italy;
– Turkey.
The total number of participants is expected to exceed 130 countries.
EXPO 2027, which will last 93 days, will be the largest international event in the history of modern Serbia. For the hotel and tourism sector, it is a chance to reach new service standards and attract long-term investments.
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Israeli deep-tech company NextSilicon has officially opened a new research and development center in Belgrade, Serbia.
The center is located in B23 Office Park, occupying approximately 1,200 m² on the 8th floor. It already employs more than 70 engineers and developers, with plans to hire about 50 more people by the end of 2026.
According to founder and CEO Elad Raz, the Serbian team is already having a significant impact on the company’s key technologies. “Serbia has exceeded expectations in terms of engineering talent and work culture,” he said.
The new center expands NextSilicon’s capabilities in high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence, including the development of the Maverick-2 product.
NextSilicon, founded in 2017, specializes in solutions for HPC and AI. Globally, the company has R&D centers and divisions in Israel, the US, Germany, Switzerland, and India. Its flagship product is the Maverick-2 chip, an Intelligent Compute Accelerator (ICA) focused on AI and HPC tasks. The company has a total of over 350 employees.
