Members of Government
Goran Vesic
Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure
Born in 1969 in Krusevac and grew up in Maribor, Slovenia, and in Kraljevo. He finished primary school and grammar school in Kraljevo and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. He was an intern of the Robert Schuman European Foundation in the European Commission and the European Parliament in 1999.
From February to September 1997, Vesic was a member of the Executive Board of the Belgrade City Assembly, and from 1996 to 2000, a member of the Belgrade City Assembly. He was a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia from 2000 to 2003, from 2001 to 2002 the President of the Administrative Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, from 2001 to 2003 an adviser to the Federal Minister of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Deputy Chairman of the Defence and Security Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, and Advisor to the Minister of Defence of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 to 2004.
He was a member of the Commission for the division of military property between Serbia and Montenegro after the break-up of the FR Yugoslavia and the creation of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in the period from 2003 to 2004.
From 2004 to 2008, he held the position of councillor of the Vracar City Municipality Assembly. He was the secretary of the Temporary Authority of the City of Belgrade appointed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia in the period from November 2013 to April 2014. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce from 2013 to 2014. Vesic was elected as a member of the Belgrade City Assembly in the elections held in 2014, 2018 and 2022. From 2014 to 2018, he was the City Manager of the City of Belgrade, and from 2018 to 2022, he held the position of Deputy Mayor of the City of Belgrade.
From 1994 to 1997, he was the head of the Cabinet of the President of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic. He participated in the election campaigns in Montenegro from 1997 to 2000, as well as in the election campaign in Republika Srpska in 1997. After 2004, he actively participated in election campaigns in Slovenia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
In the period from 1984 to 1988, he was a member of the ensemble of the Kraljevo Theater. From 1985 to 1988, he worked as a journalist for the newspaper "Ibarske Novosti" from Kraljevo and editor of the youth programme on Radio Kraljevo. In the period from 1988 to 1989, while he was serving military service, he worked in the military aviation newspaper "Army Wings". From 1990 to 1994, he was a journalist for the newspaper "Demokratija", and from 1992 to 1993, he was the deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Student".
He was the President of the Organizing Committee of the X Belgrade Marathon in 1997 and the XXVII Belgrade Marathon in 2014, as well as the president of the Honorary Committee of the XXXV Belgrade Marathon in 2022.
He was the President of the Honorary Committee of the final Euroleague basketball tournament in Belgrade in 2022. Vesic was a member of the presidency of the Belgrade Basketball Association from 2005 to 2007. Since 2014, he has been the president of the Organizing Committee of the Belgrade Jazz Festival.
He considers the protection of national identity to be particularly important for every politician, so he initiated the adoption of a decision by the Belgrade City Assembly on a five percent discount on the payment of company tax for all legal entities that use the Cyrillic alphabet in their company name. At his suggestion, Belgrade was given monuments to Borislav Pekic, Despot Stefan Lazarevic and Aleksandar Derok. The construction of monuments to Branko Pesic, Milos Crnjanski, Mesa Selimovic, Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, Vasko Popa and American President Woodrow Wilson are in progress. He decided that Belgrade should accept a donation from Russia and erect a monument to the last Russian emperor, Nikolai Romanov. At his proposal, streets in Belgrade were given the names of Blagoje Jovovic, Queen Draga Obrenovic, Prince Pavle Karadjordjevic, Princess Julija Obrenovic, Princess Olivera, American President Woodrow Wilson, former American Ambassador to Belgrade John Kennan, Major Aleksandar Misic, Koca Popovic, Peko Dapcevic, Soviet Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin and Soviet General Vladimir Zhdanov, and Byzantine emperors Justinian and Herakleios. He is particularly proud of his role in the reconstruction of the Sava Square and the installation of the monument to Stefan Nemanja at the suggestion of President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic.
At his suggestion, the City of Belgrade and the Library of the City of Belgrade established the Belgrade Winner award for the best novel written in the Serbian language and the "Dusan Radovic" award for the best work of children's literature. He is an honorary member of the Writers' Association of Serbia. He initiated the establishment of the Foundation for Children and Youth of Belgrade "Gnezdo" and the Foundation for Young Talent of the City of Belgrade.
He is the President of the Organizing Committee of the "Days of Freedom" event from 2018 to 2022, within which, on his initiative, the joint celebration of 20 October, the day when Belgrade was liberated in World War II, and 1 November, the day when Belgrade was liberated in the First World War, began for the first time.
He was the editor of the Serbian edition of the book by former American President Barack Obama "The Audacity of Hope" in 2008. He is a regular columnist for the daily "Politika". He published three books and one brochure. The book about Belgrade, which was published in 2019, was published in two editions and translated into English, Russian and Chinese. "Book about Belgrade 2" was published in 2022 and was translated into English. He published the book "Varos Beogradska" in 2021 and "Guide for political communication with voters" published by the Foundation for the Serbian People and State in 2021. Based on his “Book about Belgrade“, a documentary TV series "Belgrade Stories" was filmed in 2021, of which he is the screenwriter.
He was the chairman of the Board of Directors of the public utility company "Gradsko Zelenilo" from 1997 to 1999, of the Board of Directors of the public utility company "Gradske Pijace" from 2000 to 2002, and of the Board of Directors of the public company "Ada Ciganlija" from 2002 to 2006. He was a member of the Management Board of the broker-dealer company "AB Invest" from 1997 to 2000, and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Yugoslav river shipping company from 2001 to 2005.
He was the Executive Director of Wireless media d.o.o. from 2004 to 2008, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the company International communication partners from 2008 to 2014.
He is the winner of the Saint Sava Award in 2018 for his contribution to science and education in the Republic of Serbia.
He was the Vice President of the Commission for the Memorial Centre "Staro Sajmiste" in the period from 2014 to 2018 and is one of the authors of the Law on the memorial centre "Staro Sajmiste". On his proposal, the Assembly of the City of Belgrade established 10 May as the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust Victims in Belgrade. He is the initiator of the cooperation between the Historical Archive of Belgrade and the World Holocaust Memorial Centre "Yad Vashem" and the Holocaust Memorial Museum from Washington.
In 2018, Vesic received the Charter "Jozef Zamboki presents to the citizens of Belgrade and Serbia", awarded by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel for his outstanding contribution to the strengthening of interstate relations and cultural ties between the two countries.
In the elections for the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, which were held on 3 April 2022, he was elected as a deputy.
He is a member of the Presidency and Main Board of the Serbian Progressive Party.
