July 28, 2020 - Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong believes that Croatia should introduce visas for digital nomads as soon as possible, following the example of Estonia.

The coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a halt. Most work was done from home, and meetings and conferences were held via online video platforms.

Even now, many workers around the world are still working remotely, which Split-based Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong sees as a massive opportunity for the Croatian economy.

Namely, Dutchman Jan Je Jong moved to Croatia 13 years ago and now calls Split home. He believes that Croatia should introduce visas for digital nomads as soon as possible, following the example of Estonia, which implemented them about a month ago.

"Digital nomads are people who can work remotely, are not tied to one place, and they only need internet access. They choose this way of working while traveling the world. With the coronavirus pandemic forcing many companies to allow telecommuting, the trend has accelerated.

Forecasts say that by 2035, there will be about a billion digital nomads in the world. I believe that digital nomad tourism is a huge opportunity for Croatia because it can turn it into a year-round destination," explains Jan.

He adds that Estonia was a hit in international media with its move because it was the first country to introduce a visa for digital nomads, thus inviting highly skilled and highly paid teleworkers to their country, where they would ultimately live for a while and spend their salaries.

Their example was quickly followed by countries such as Barbados and Georgia. It would be an excellent promotion for Croatia if they showed leadership in presenting a visa for digital nomads. Time is crucial in this and I suggest that we do not invent a circuit but take the Estonian model and apply it to us. For example, their conditions for obtaining a visa are proof that you can work remotely, you can only work for foreign companies and clients, i.e., non-Estonians, and the minimum monthly income should be 3,500 euros before taxes," says Jan.

With a visa, digital nomads from all over the world could legally come to Croatia and work for a maximum of one year, but also travel and enjoy the benefits of the state.

"The main advantage for Croatia is year-round tourism and the arrival of highly paid workers who would not take jobs and spend their salaries in Croatia. There are currently 50,000 digital nomads in Bali, which has a similar population as Croatia. If these figures could be achieved in Croatia, assuming that each nomad would spend about ten thousand kuna a month for living, i.e., renting an apartment and a car, groceries, going to the hairdresser and dentist, etc., they could reach 500 million kuna, which goes directly into the budget monthly.

Digital nomads would be important for Croatia in terms of marketing, because they would share their experiences, videos and photos with their friends, but also on social networks, which would be a free promotion," Jan points out, adding that this would be a great way to start 2021.

He explains that a visa is not required for citizens of the European Union, but that is why it is, for example, for citizens of the USA. Jan adds that digital nomads from America can now legally stay in Croatia for three months on a tourist visa, and they are not officially allowed to work, although many freelancers do so. He points out that if we offer digital nomads the legal basis to stay in the country for a maximum of 12 months and work, perhaps more and more global companies will allow their employees to do just that for a certain period of time.

"Remember my words. Soon this will no longer be so innovative, as I expect many countries to follow the example of Estonia. It would be amazing to see Croatia as a leader in this; let's not wait for it to become a global standard. This time, Croatia has the opportunity to be among the first. We have opened the borders for tourists, why not open them for highly paid digital nomads as well?" adds Jan.

A few days ago, on LinkedIn, Jan published an open letter to the Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, but he has not yet received a response.

"The support I received is simply amazing. I can say that people in Croatia and abroad liked the idea of visas for digital nomads. So far, I have not received an official response from the Prime Minister's Office, but my post on LinkedIn is full of messages from people around the world who want to know more about how they can come to Croatia to work and live for a limited period of time.

Everyone is interested in how this can be done, regarding taxes and residence permits. That is why a visa for digital nomads is important, in order to provide answers to all these questions," concluded Jan.

Source: Bankar.me

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July 28, 2020 - Krapanj is the lowest and smallest inhabited island in the Adriatic. Its highest altitude doesn't exceed 1.25 m and in the 1960s, with more than 1,500 inhabitants, it was the most densely populated island. It is located in the Sibenik archipelago and is 400 meters away from the mainland village of Brodarica. There is a small 'ferry' which takes you to the island in less than five minutes.

Although it is not such a popular tourist destination, Krapanj is the cradle of a centuries-old tradition of sponge and coral collecting, fishing, and diving.

Walking through the streets, I stumbled upon a beautifully decorated courtyard of the family museum of sea sponges, Spuga 2. Family Tanfara is one of the three families on the island that still hunt sea sponges.

"Currently, 106 inhabitants live on the island, of which three families - Tanfara, Milutin and Jaram, are still engaged in this 300-year-old business. There is no school for this, but it is passed on within the family. My husband, Roko, is the fourth generation in his family, and we hope that our children will continue our tradition“, says Milena Tanfara, who works in the museum, while her husband is on board.

Legend has it that the people of Krapanj were taught to hunt sponges by a Greek from Crete named Fr. Antun at the beginning of the 18th century. There were two men in each ship: 'svicar', who caught the sponge with a spear and 'sijavac' who rowed. The prey was divided among themselves so that the  'svicar' was given half, the 'sijavac' a quarter and the ship a quarter. If the ship was from 'svicar', then two-thirds belonged to him and one to the 'sijavac'.

At first, the people of Krapanj were more involved in coral collecting, but then they transmitted knowledge to the inhabitants of the neighboring island of Zlarin, who today make coral jewelry.

"In the beginning, sponges were hunted with fishing spears, in diving suits weighing nearly a hundred pounds, but today it is mostly done with modern equipment. The greater the depth at which the sponge is located, the greater their quality is“, she explains.

Sponge hunting begins in May, or as the locals say, when crickets begin to be heard, and lasts until October. Winter is a break time for sponges to regenerate and reproduce. They are always taken out in the morning and usually, two to three dives are made. Because of a greedy desire for money, there is an illegal hunt of sponges done by people who are not familiar with the ecology of the sea. Sponges are extremely valued today, so in Croatia, the raw material is usually sold for 100 euros per kilogram.

"We hunt from the north to the south of the Adriatic and after collecting in an area, we don't go there for at least two years to let the fauna recover“, Milena adds.

Except as a decoration and souvenir, sponges are very useful in everyday life, for face and body care, washing and cleaning. Natural sponges are much more durable and of better quality than synthetic ones and they absorb liquid better. A sponge can last for years, but if used for cosmetic purposes, it is recommended for up to two years.

"Sponges need to be treated before use and the process takes 24 hours. We strive to maintain an ecological approach in processing, so we mostly use organic chemicals. I can't describe the whole process to you… it's a secret“, says Milena proudly.

This museum is the place where you can learn about the rich heritage of the island, see the old diving equipment, ancient daggers and sponges, and even more, the entrance is free!

"Our intention when opening this museum was to interest and educate people about this wonderful tradition, and if they want, they have the opportunity to buy souvenirs in our shop“, Milena concludes.

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July 28, 2020 - The head of the Istria County Civil Protection Headquarters, Dino Kozlevac, said on Monday in Pazin that there are almost 200,000 tourists in Istria, a total of almost 400,000 people, so there is a high probability of a stronger spread of the coronavirus, but that the system works flawlessly.

"There are almost 400,000 people in Istria currently. There is a high probability that the virus may spread even more strongly, but for now, the system is functioning flawlessly," Kozlevac said at a session of the Istrian County Assembly, as reported by Glas Istre.

He added that the situation is changing from day to day, which is why certain decisions were made on easing measures for the economy and tourism to the satisfaction of citizens, and that, given the new dynamics of the pandemic, preparations for autumn and winter have begun.

"All decisions of the County Civil Protection Headquarters are evaluated and made in agreement and cooperation with the prefect, mayors and chiefs. Although such information was leaked to the public, there were no breakthroughs in the health system. We are ready for worse situations because our system is complex," said Kozlevac.

The director of the Institute of Public Health of Istria County, Aleksandar Stojanovic, informed the county councilors that there are currently 110 people positive for the coronavirus in Istria and that 316 people are under self-isolation measures.

"Due to the milder clinical picture of patients, not all COVID-positive people are currently hospitalized. Asymptomatic people are treated at home, i.e., at-home treatment," said Stojanovic, adding that the system has recently been opened and that, accordingly, a large number of people, local and foreign, are moving through Istria County, which increases the risk of spreading the infection.

"Currently, the largest number of newly infected people come from the area of Umag, Buzet and Labin, and large gatherings are still our biggest problem. Based on daily reports, it can be seen that Istria County conducts a wide number of tests, i.e., that every fifth person tested in Croatia is from Istria. The tourism sector has calmed because, as far as new patients are concerned, a small number of infected tourists have been identified," Stojanovic concluded.

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July 28, 2020 - Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, was a guest on HTV's Dnevnik and said that intensive efforts were being made to limit gatherings from the autumn.

"We hope that the trend will be downward, we have already announced that the last week was downward, although we had a few peaks that bounced back from the average figure. We expect this trend to continue downward. This does not mean that we will have 10 cases tomorrow, but the trend will, in any case, be downward according to our research and model," said Krunoslav Capak on 24 Sata.

Capak says this is a continuation of the first wave or tail of the epidemic.

"We have relaxed measures. Quarantine is excellent because it drastically reduces the transmission of coronavirus infection. However, when we started to relax the measures, the corona was economically and psychologically unsustainable, and with the relaxation of the measures it happened to us that the tail of the epidemic returned and that we have a larger number of infected," said Krunoslav Capak.

"Intensive consideration is being given to limiting gatherings from the autumn"

Krunsolav Capak points out that we have to get used to coexisting with the virus.

"We think that these figures are not excessive; we would like them to be less. We have to get used to the coronavirus being here. We need to learn the new normal; we need to work intensively on reduction. We do not intend to return the quarantine, nor anyone in the world," said Capak.

"Intensive thinking is being done to limit gatherings from the fall. Slovenia has a limit of 50. We had an excellent situation and we wanted to liberate the economy and social circumstances. We will not reduce that number now, but by prescribing stricter measures, by reporting gatherings where there are more than 100 people to the Civil Protection, which are then subject to the supervision of civil protection inspectors, we tried to put things in order," he added.

Measures for the Operation Storm Celebration

"We are in contact with the organizers and there was a meeting today. Definite decisions, figures and ways of maintaining it have not been made, but we have a framework. According to the measures we have prescribed, we hope that this will be a low-risk event. There will be far fewer people and side events, food and drink consumption," Capak said.

Self-isolation and politicians

"When determining self-isolation, it is important for a person to assess the situation. Assess what the nature of the contact was and whether or not there is a risk of transmitting the infection. There are certain circumstances in which a person who is in self-isolation can be allowed to perform a certain activity. Hrebak asked for testing and that finding needs to be analyzed; he got the opinion. I did not tell him to go to the session, but that he was not contagious," said Krunoslav Capak.

Criticism of President Zoran Milanovic on the decisions of the Headquarters

"I'm not a legal expert or a doctor. In the past, whenever there was a danger of infecting other people, we made decisions based on the laws passed by the Parliament. This is also the case with this Law on the Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases, which was passed in the Parliament, and we are guided by it in making decisions," said Capak.

"The goal of our decisions that we make is to protect the lives of citizens," concluded Capak.

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July 27, 2020 – The new website called Dorean Society is led by three young Croatian economic enthusiasts, Dorian Antešić, Filipa Topčić and Teodora Raguž from Faculty of Business and Economics in Rijeka. They aim to create a comprehensive place of courses, career topics, recommendations, reviews, and all information needed for Business and Economics students to have a successful career.

The website is completely in English because they plan to create a community of Business and Economics students worldwide. Also, they want to publish articles by international students, business people, and professors.

Therefore, as founder Dorian Antešić says, “students can have a look in the opportunities that lay all around the globe”.

Knowledge for today and tomorrow

At first, it was only Antešić who had this idea of helping other students, but soon he recruited his colleagues Filipa Topčić and Teodora Raguž from Faculty of Business and Economics in Rijeka to start working on the website.

The Student Council of the University in Rijeka helped them financially with, as Antešić calls it, the “seed” money.

Source: Pixabay

For now, they are researching general topics of needed skills for Business and Economics students, but their long-term plan is to do broader research, get involved in international projects, and even collaborate with universities and businesses.

“We are researching what these students need to know now and what they will need to know in the future,” says Antešić.

Lack of students’ interest

What made Antešić create a helpful website for students is the lack of motivation for studying Business and Economics. As he explains, a lot of them applied to these fields because they weren’t sure what to study and it made them very passive.

Just like a lot of other students in Croatia from different study fields, they are lost, they don’t know what to do after they graduate and “they aren’t very informed about their career options or development of their field in present and where it is going,” says Antešić.

Source: Pixabay

“Considering that Business and Economics students make up the biggest percentage of students, I think this needs to change. This high percentage of students who are lost, passive and unmotivated about their studies can be transformed into proactive students, who are willing to learn as much as possible about their studies, research what their interests might be, maybe even start their own company while they are studying,” Antešić points out.

Ambitious goals

On the other side, Antešić has been interested in finance, his field of study, for a long time. He was not like other students described above.

“Since the beginning of my university years, I was active in international organizations, writing, and leading projects. I knew what interests me in business, what I want to become (entrepreneur), and why,” Antešić confidently says.

The effort to share his motivation with other students by helping them seems very ambitious. Nonetheless, the Dorean Society’s efforts are directed to the schools and faculties too.

“We want to research what Business and Economics schools can do to give more value to students, how to make them more active on a class or other activities, and how to prepare for the present and future needs of the market and society overall,” explains Antešić.

Dorian Antešić, founder of the Dorean Society website / Source: Private archive

“My belief is also that improved financial knowledge makes people less manipulated by politicians and they become more active in civic life. They know the connection between what they pay in taxes and what service they get for that money. This is a huge problem in Croatia since people think that we have ‘free’ services like healthcare, education, pension. These services cost a lot of money and the benefit we get in return is not appropriate,” Antešić thinks.

The importance of financial literacy

Even though the website is intended for students of Business and Economics, other students can also find it interesting as the content will be of use to everyone.

“We will talk about skills that are useful to every student and every person in general, like financial management. They will have the opportunity to learn more about personal finances, how to earn more money, how to spend it efficiently, save it and invest,” explains Antešić.

One of their objectives is the increase in financial literacy among people, especially young people. Antešić considers financial literacy important for every person because everyone is dealing with money daily.

“Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively apply various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. It helps individuals make better long-term life decisions and makes them financially sustainable,” explains Antešić, adding that people need to know how to manage money more efficiently.

Source: Pixabay

ZAGREB, July 27, 2020 - Croatia's health and IT sectors have developed and on Monday presented the Croatian version of the Stop COVID-19 app which uses temporary and anonymous data to inform users about exposure to coronavirus.

The app is available for Android and Apple mobile phones and uses Bluetooth technology.

The success of the app is based on the conscientious and solidary participation of citizens, said Health Minister Vili Beros.

After the pandemic is over, it will no longer be possible to use the app, which is secure and uses temporary and anonymous data.

The app's cross-border interoperability has also been ensured.

The app was designed under a government decision by the APIS IT agency for support to information systems and technologies.

"All data exchanged between two devices, i.e. two persons, is recorded only on mobile devices," said Sasa Bilic, chairman of APIS IT's management board.

Every user is informed anonymously that they have been in contact with infected persons sometime over the past 14 days. Users will be notified by text if the contact has been high, medium or low risk based on precisely defined parameters.

"We took distance into account. A text about a high risk is when a person has been two meters away for more than 15 minutes over the past 48 hours," said epidemiologist Tomislav Benjak.

The user will receive a text saying they have been in high-risk contact, to stay home and contact their family doctor. Texts about medium and low-risk contacts are created similarly.

A dozen EU member states (Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Ireland, France, and Hungary) have designed mobile apps to track contacts and inform users about exposure to COVID-19.

Bozinovic: App is secure, has all the necessary certificates

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who heads the national COVID-19 response team, said the Stop COVID-19 app had all the necessary certificates.

"The European Commission said the health authorities in each member state should manage the app. Simply put, it's communication between two mobile phones. The person who possibly receives a text that they have been near an infected person doesn't know who this person is, and the infected person can activate the app only if they want to," he told press.

No third party can know anything about that communication, he said. "It couldn't be more secure. After all, the app has all the necessary certificates."

ZAGREB, July 27, 2020 - In the last 24 hours there have been five new cases of infection with COVID-19 along the Croatian Adriatic coast, and this is the safest destination for guests from the European Union in the Mediterranean region, the Croatian Association of Tourism (HUT) stated on Monday.

From the area from Istria to the southernmost Croatian city of Dubrovnik, there are about 1.4 million inhabitants, and statistics show that there are only 0.357 newly diagnosed cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the coastal region, HUT explains.

If one takes into consideration that there are also an estimated 700,000 guests vacationing in the Croatian coastal region, the situation can be depicted in more favourable figures: 0.238 new cases per 100,000 people.

HUT has recently launched the Corona Region Tracker which shows that COVID incidence along the whole coast is declining.

ZAGREB, July 27, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Monday responded to President Zoran Milanovic's accusations that the national COVID-19 response team was a counter-constitutional body, calling it repetition and recycling of topics.

"We already resolved this story in parliament. A repetition, recycling of topics," he told the press ahead of a meeting of his HDZ party's Presidency when asked to comment on Milanovic's statement.

Plenkovic said he did not know what the Constitutional Court would say in assessing if the laws whereby the team has been given powers to restrict fundamental rights and freedoms are in line with the constitution and if some of the team's decisions are in line with the constitution and the law.

Plenkovic said he had his opinion on that. Asked why this topic was being raised again, he urged the press to ask "him (Milanovic) and them."

"We are doing everything both constitutionally and legally, good both for health and the economy. That's the key difference between those who work to protect citizens' health, to ensure salaries, elections, a stable government, European funding and economic recovery, and those who complain," the prime minister said.