Nis Maternity Hospital: 100 Million Euros, Ready by 2029
Serbia's president announced construction of a new maternity hospital building in Nis, worth about 100 million euros with equipment. The first patients will move in during 2029.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited Nis today to inspect the site where a new building for the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University Clinical Center Nis (UKC Nis) will be constructed. The building’s value, as he announced on site, is about 10 billion dinars, which the president translated into 100 million euros including equipment.
“To put it in terms people understand, that’s 100 million euros, with equipment,” Vucic said during the visit, adding that Nis could not have built such a facility on its own even in a hundred years.
According to available sources, the visit was also attended by UKC Nis director Milan Lazarevic and Darko Glisic. The exact time of the president’s arrival in Nis and the order of his visits that day were not precisely announced, so this article does not list them.
Who Is Building It and How Long Will It Take
Vucic specifically emphasized that the project was designed by a domestic company and that most of the construction work will go to Serbian companies.
“It’s fortunate that 70 to 80 million euros will go to our companies,” the president said, adding that some of that money will flow back into Serbia’s budget through taxes.
According to him, construction should take about two and a half years, with the first patients expected to enter the new building in 2029. The president was specific about the standard the building needs to meet.
“There will be a maximum of two expectant mothers per bathroom,” Vucic said, without going into further technical detail about the project.
Money Is Also Going to a Student Dormitory
Vucic also mentioned another investment in the city on this occasion: funding for student housing.
“For the student dormitory alone, we gave 10 million euros,” the president specified.
Ahead of the site visit, in a statement to Informer carried by b92, Vucic announced the completion of the second phase of the Science and Technology Park in Nis along with the future maternity hospital, describing both projects as major news for the city.
“We finished the second phase of the Science and Technology Park, and I think that’s huge news for the people of Nis,” Vucic said, adding: “What will make them even happier is the construction of the maternity hospital: it will be new, for the whole south of Serbia.”
Wages and Employment in the City
The president placed the maternity hospital construction within a broader picture of economic trends in Nis. According to him, the average salary in the city rose from 328 euros in 2012 to about 999 euros today, while the number of unemployed people has more than halved, from about 36,000 to about 15,000.
The figures on employment do not match down to the last digit across sources. According to one statement, the number of formally employed workers rose from about 70,000 to about 90,000, while another statement from the same day cited 2013 as the starting year, with a current figure of 91,000 employed. The difference falls within rounding, but the two sources do not carry the same number.
Another Hospital, Same Formula
The Nis announcement is not the first this summer in which the president has revealed the value of a new healthcare facility on site. The value of the hospital in Subotica was presented the same way earlier, estimated at 90 million euros, along with an announcement that the new facility would create about 200 jobs. Based on the figures given, the Nis maternity hospital is a somewhat more expensive investment, with a different purpose: equipping a maternity ward rather than serving general hospital functions.
The president emphasized that the new maternity hospital, once completed, should serve the entire south of Serbia, not just Nis.
