53rd International HVAC&R
Congress nd Exhibition 

International relations of SMEITS

The international relations of SMEITS started when DMEITS changed its name to SMEITS in the 1960s. That was the time when Yugoslavia i.e. Serbia was the country of much better opportunities in regard to political freedom and living standard than the Eastern Block countries, such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia or Poland. SMEITS concluded the first international cooperation contracts in 1962 with the Hungarian ETE (Hungarian Society of Mechanical Engineers and Technicians) and in 1963 with the Polish Union of Engineers and Technicians. It is interesting that the cooperation initiatives came from the representatives of the organizations of engineers and technicians of these two countries, by the announcement of their delegations visits to Belgrade.

The cooperation contracts signed between SMEITS and the Hungarian and Polish organizations provided regular group visits and participation of one country’s experts in the professional meetings of the other country; mutual visits of official representatives from the national union every year in Belgrade, Budapest and Warsaw; exchange of publications, technical papers and books; visits to large industrial facilities in all three countries; experts from one country visited and participated in symposiums and seminars held in the other country, etc.

During the 1960s, the relations between SMEITS and organizations and technical staffs in Hungary and Poland were regular and increasingly improved, but at the beginning of 1970s they became weaker, although they never stopped. The relations became weaker due to democratization in the Eastern Block countries, with their opening to the world and expanding their contacts with the countries behind the “Iron Curtain”.

However, only at the beginning of 1970s, the newly established Serbian HVAC&R Society within SMEITS, introduced in its programme contacts with the developed countries for the purpose of advancement of the thermal engineering, which comprised many disciplines of mechanical engineering. Since 1972, on its regular HVAC&R congresses held in December, the Society has had dozens of participants and authors from the western countries from whom we have had a lot of things to learn: the USA, Germany, France, the UK and others.

In the first half of the 1970s, the representatives of the Serbian HVAC&R Society, which has been a part of SMEITS since its establishment, signed the cooperation contracts with similar organizations in Europe and the USA and joined the international organizations. SMEITS became a full-time member of REHVA (Federation of European Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) , a joining member of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), IIR (International Institute of Refrigeration), an international organization with the seat in Paris (the Serbian delegation was a co-founder of this organization in 1908) and other.

At the time of the 140th anniversary of the engineering organizations in Serbia, SMEITS may summarize its international relations as follows:

• dozens of official visits of the representatives of professional organizations from many countries to Belgrade and visits of Serbian experts to the organizations abroad in the period from the 1960s until today.
• At the end of 1977, together with IIR, SMEITS organized the world conference on refrigeration and air-conditioning in Belgrade
• In 1989 the Serbian HVAC&R Society and the Society of Engineers and Technicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina organized the world congress on thermal engineering – CLIMA 2000 in Sarajevo.
• In the period from 1972 to 2007, the representatives of SMEITS were officially elected in the administrative bodies and scientific and professional boards and committees of many European and American organizations (the Chairman of the Serbian HVAC&R Society, prof. dr. Branislav Todorović was the president of REHVA for many years, a member of the Board of Directors of ASHRAE, which has over 60,000 members on all the continents, etc.).
• The scientific and professional journal “KGH” and “Procesna Tehnika” (the latter was published until 2005) were regularly exchanged with 14 journals from 14 countries; at least one third of the authors whose papers and articles are published in these journals are famous scientists and professionals from Europe, Asia, the USA.
• The most active member organizations of SMEITS do their best to establish a regular cooperation with foreign associations who have longer tradition in development of mechanical and electrical engineering. Well organized and very active, the Serbian Illumination Society, a member of SMEITS, has for many years had an outstanding position in the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). In addition to this fruitful and continuous cooperation, this Society holds professional meetings with their fellow illumination societies from Europe at least once a year. Several dozens of experts from domestic companies take part in these meetings.
• SMEITS and the Serbian HVAC&R Society received many medals, diplomas, letters of gratitude, recognitions from their fellow organizations in Poland, Hungary, Sweden, the USA, Germany, France, etc. These recognitions were awarded to the organization as well as to its individual members who acted on behalf of the organization.

At the end of this short review of the professional relations of SMEITS with mechanical and electrical engineers and technicians from foreign countries, we may say that our colleague become increasingly familiar with scientific and professional accomplishments and advancements. The world of science and engineering goes beyond the state, linguistic and ideological boundaries and we are approaching this world using every possible opportunity to learn the results that lead to the progress and to master the skills conditioned by such progress.

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