ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - A total of 1,031 building permits were issued in Croatia in October 2021, which is an increase of 12.1% compared with October 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) said on Monday.

By type of construction, 891 permits (86.4%) were issued for buildings and 140 permits (13.6%) were issued for other structures, such as roads, railways, pipelines, bridges, and sports grounds.

The number of building permits issued for buildings was 17.9% higher than in October last year, while the number of building permits issued for other structures was 14.6% lower.

The value of works envisaged by the building permits issued was HRK 2.98 billion, which is 1.8% less than in October 2020 when their value was HRK 3 billion.

The building permits issued in October 2021 provided for the construction of 1,809 apartments, which is 4% more than in the same month last year.

In the year to October 2021, a total of 8,725 building permits were issued, up by 13.8% year on year. The value of works envisaged by the permits issued was HRK 25.9 billion, an increase of 13.8%.

By type of construction, 7,401 permits were issued for the construction of buildings (+16.2%), while 1,324 permits were issued for other structures (+1.8%).

The building permits issued in the first ten months of 2021 envisaged the construction of 13,732 apartments (+17.3%).

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - People who think that the risk of COVID-19 is small are the most reluctant to get vaccinated, a study approved for publication in the Croatian Medical Journal shows.

The study, written by sociologists Dragan Bagić from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Adrijana Šuljok and Branko Ančić from the Institute for Social Research, is part of a project by the Croatian Science Foundation called "Resilience of Croatian society against the COVID-19 pandemic", the Jutarnji List daily wrote on Monday.

The purpose of the study was to establish who refuses to get vaccinated and why, and it was conducted on a sample of 765 respondents. It showed that over a third of the respondents hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The most frequent reason given is that the vaccine is not safe enough or effective. Some of the respondents said they prefer natural immunity, i.e. recovering from the disease over vaccination, while some of the hesitant respondents also expressed mistrust of vaccines in general.

The study showed that young respondents, women, people with lower educational qualifications, and those living in small towns are more inclined to hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated. Foreign studies have also shown similar findings.

"These are the groups that the vaccination campaign should focus on," Šuljok was quoted as saying. "It should be borne in mind that some of these people cannot be influenced and are less likely to change their opinion. Our study has also shown that respondents who expressed mistrust of science are more inclined to hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated," she added.

Šuljok said that the term "anti-vaxxers", used to denote the people who hesitate or refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19, is not appropriate because some of them are mistrustful of vaccines in general.

"By labeling all people, including those who are primarily afraid of the COVID-19 vaccine because it is new and has been developed quickly, as anti-vaxxers we are actually pushing them towards the group of real anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, which might have negative consequences through increased opposition to 'regular' vaccines," Šuljok said.

She said that the public health campaign has failed to get the message across to a section of the population about the danger of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and that this was partly due to conflicting messages from the government advisory council and the predominant public narrative that mostly elderly people and serious patients get seriously ill.

>For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - Croatia has registered 453 new coronavirus cases and 47 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus crisis response team reported on Monday.

Currently, there are 21,581 active cases in the country. Among them are 2,300 infected people receiving hospital treatment, including 326 who are on ventilators, and 20,029 persons are self-isolating.

To date, 654,655 people have been registered as having contracted the SARS CoV-2 virus, of whom 11,666 have died and 621,408 have recovered, including 3,926 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 3,580,821 people have so far been tested for the new virus, including 2,528 in the last 24 hours.

As of Sunday, 4,386,603 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, with 54.89 percent of the total population, or 65.42 percent of the adult population, having been vaccinated. A total of 2,227,358 people have received at least one dose and 2,039,788 have been fully vaccinated, which is 60.13 percent of the adult population.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

December 13, 2021 - Today, at 10:00, the Split Winter Tourism Roundtable was held on the initiative of Total Croatia News and was realized by the Caterers Association in Split and Jasmina Krušić of Chops Grill on the topic of extending the summer season through the month of November.

The roundtable was chaired by Michael Freer, a Brit with a Croatian address and director of the Digital Nomads Association of Croatia. All stakeholders shared their previous experiences and suggestions in which direction to act in order to continuously connect the summer season with Advent during this time.

Despite the complex issues, the roundtable was conducted in a constructive tone and resulted in a consensus on extending the season in Split. Designing a rich and recognizable offer in Dalmatia, with Split as the heart of the region, will be the first concrete task of the roundtable participants and their connected partners at the next meeting in January, to be announced. 

The round table was attended by: Ivica Puljak, Mayor of Split, Tonči Glavina, State Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Alijana Vukšić, Director of Split Tourist Board, Joško Stella, Director of Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board, Pero Bilas, Deputy Director of Split Airport, Joze Tomaš, President Split-Dalmatia County Chamber of Economy, Nataša Bušić, Secretary of the County Chamber for Tourism, Paul Bradbury, journalist and CEO of Total Croatia News, representatives of hotels (Nevena Antonini - Radisson Blu Split, Arnoud Zaalberg and Andrijana Mladina (Le Meridien Lav), Zoran Pejović (Paradox Hospitality), Marija Mustapić (Split hostels), Jelena Tabak (Split Association of Caterers), representatives of travel agencies, Ante Lacam (Intours MICE) and Ivana Durdov (Secret Dalmatia), and Jasmina Kruščić, caterer and host.

Total Croatia News will be publishing the in-depth minutes of the meeting soon and will be following the story in the coming weeks and months. 

For more on travel in Split, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

December the 13th, 2021 - Croatian vaccination tourism, which might sound quite amusing for many considering the relatively unimpressive vaccination rate of the domicile population, is going well for the nationals of the Russian federation who are arriving on special flights.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, among the countries chosen by the Russians in which to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus is the Republic of Croatia, which fully enabled the vaccination of foreign, non resident nationals since mid-July. The media have already written about Russian citizens in queues at vaccination points, and the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) recently confirmed to Novi list that they are coming in an organised manner. Croatian vaccination tourism is actually very much a thing.

''This topic has been current for more than two months now and the CNTB Office is in constant contact with travel organisers, as well as a number of agencies and individual tourists who are interested in this form of tourism. These are mostly three-day arrangements, ie two nights, and in almost 95 percent of cases people are arriving in Zagreb. In Russia, the most active are the Russian Express and PAKS, which offer fully organised arrangements, but there are also a large number of agencies that organise these special tours to Croatia,'' they stated.

Tourists are offered plane tickets, hotel accommodation, excursions around Zagreb and its surroundings, as well as a tour of the Plitvice lakes, as well as various lunches and dinners in restaurants. Vaccination is usually done immediately on the first day or possibly the day after arrival. As the Russians mostly want to be vaccinated with Pfizer (Comirnaty), the vast majority return to Zagreb after three weeks to receive their second doses. By being vaccinated with an EU approved vaccine, these Russians can then get EU covid certificates.

In addition, at the end of December, Aeroflot will introduce daily direct flights to Zagreb, and Russian travel organisers will offer arrangements related to Advent and the New Year in Croatia, according to the CNTB. From other markets, they say, no increased interest is noticeable.

For more, check out our dedicated travel section.

December the 13th, 2021 - The Croatian parliament has three significant decisions to make before they break up for a month this week, with the conclusion of their autumn sessions set to take place on Wednesday.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian Parliament, which will conclude its regular autumn session on Wednesday this week, will discuss the final text of a law on preventing conflicts of interest today, which the opposition finds a number of objections to which should be rejected by the parliamentary majority and the government.

''With this law, we're making the procedure for determining conflicts of interest more quickly, more transparently, and to make the law more transparent,'' emphasised Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

The opposition insists that the new law will "euthanise", and reduce the work of the Commission for Deciding on Conflicts of Interest to the level of an ordinary bureaucratic body.

''This isn't true, we 'e expanding and strengthening the competencies of the Commission, it remains an important and independent anti-corruption body with extended powers to new taxpayers, with new mechanisms,'' said State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Josip Salapic.

"This is one of our conditions and plans for the NPOO, and with this law we'll be able to meet one of the important criteria according to the European Commission," he said.

The new law, he says, will significantly expand the circle of taxpayers, with a thousand new ones added, more than 7,000 taxpayers will be required to submit a report on their assets, with property cards needing to be submitted once a year. Data on assets will have to be submitted by the presidents of the management boards of companies owned by the state and local self-government units, directors of healthcare institutions, HRT, HAKOM, the Fund for the Reconstruction of the City of Zagreb, etc.

The law extends the "cooling-off period" from 12 to 18 months after the term of office, during which officials will not be able to be appointed to management positions in companies with which they have been in business or supervised. Proceedings before the Commission should then be faster, and instead of three steps being involved, there will only be two, the initiating of proceedings and then decisions on the existence or non-existence of any conflicts of interest.

If the Croatian Parliaments votes in favour, this will toughen the fines, so instead of the previous 2,000 kuna, the Commission will be able to impose a minimum fine of 4,000 kuna, while the maximum penalty remains 40,000 kuna.

"We're increasing the limit of sanctions for violating the provisions of the law by one hundred percent, they can charge not only what one salary is worth, but also other property, ie income," said the Prime Minister, who also referred to the opposition's criticism of the current Article 5 of the law.

"The issue is the current Article 5 of the law, ie the principles of operation, regardless of the number of articles which are changing, the principles remain, no one deletes them, no one touches them," he stressed and said that the Commission will be able to apply them judgments of the High Administrative Court, in accordance with this law.

''With the proposed law, we've fulfilled all the preconditions from the Rule of Law Report published by the European Commission, and we'll also have fulfilled the recommendations of GRECO,'' the Prime Minister pointed out.

On Monday, Croatian Parliament will also discuss the Final Bill on the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), which will abolish membership fees for more than 95 percent of enterprises, and transform the Chamber into an efficient service aimed at business owners.

The membership fee model is divided into three groups by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, and the first will be exempt from paying membership fees. This group will include members who do not exceed two of the three criteria - their total active income does not exceed 7.5 million kuna, total annual income 15 million kuna, and the number of employees doesn't exceed 50.

This week, Croatian Parliament should also appoint three members of the HRT Supervisory Board, because the mandates of the president of the Supervisory Board, Mladen Cutura, deputy Maja Martinovic and member Morana Palikovic Gruden expire on December the 15th this year.

The Media Committee has determined the list of 11 candidates who do meet the conditions from the competition, namely Zoran Barac, Pasko Bilic, Zdravko Kedzo, Marijo Kraljevic, Silvija Luks-Kalogjera, Luka Madjeric, Antun Paveskovic, Maja Pleskalt, Marko Primorac, Damir Rudes and Alan -Stjepko Soric.

After voting on all the discussed points on Wednesday, Croatian Parliament will go on a one-month break, they sat almost continuously this autumn, the only exception being the week in which the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Vukovar and Skabrnja was marked.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

December the 13th, 2021 - Croatian fruit has been found to contain traces of a banned pesticide which has come as a shock to domestic growers and distributors.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, ,andarin plantations are no longer as busy as they have been in the past three months, with only a few pickers still picking the last Croatian fruit of this year.

Antonio Albanezi from Ploce in the Neretva valley is finally finishing the harvest, he is satisfied, he says - with both the harvest and the price he got for his produce.

''It goes to the market for three kuna without any problems, and the purchases are a bit more rigorous and people are taking only the first class fruit,'' says Dubravko Srsen from Trn. A few days ago, however, traces of an illicit pesticide were found in a small consignment of Croatian fruit which had made its way to neighbouring Slovenia. Agronomist Robert Doko commented on the situation:

''What I heard is that it is the active substance chlorpyrifos which was found in the Croatian fruit, which went out of use a year and a half ago,'' said Doko.

''We can talk about traces of pesticides in production, it isn't so dangerous for consumers either, but in any case we should pay attention to make sure things like that don't happen,'' added Niko Kapovic, an agricultural and economic analyst for HRT.

Neretva mandarins are almost an ecological product because the biggest pest for producers, the Mediterranean fruit fly, has been controlled in a completely ecological way for ten years now. This makes the discovery of a banned substance on Croatian fruit all the more concerning and indeed confusing as it would be in absolutely nobody's interest to be caught using it.

All Croatian manufacturers and purchasers agree that such incidents should be completely eliminated, mostly because the famous and much loved Neretva mandarin is mostly sold outside of the borders of the Republic of Croatia.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

December the 13th, 2021 - Croatian cash loans are attractive to many, and there has been a very strong jump in comparison to this time last year.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the aforementioned strong jump in Croatian cash loans speaks in favour of the growing demand of people for non-purpose cash loans, which was recently discussed by the Croatian National Bank, and in the context of expectations of the increased contribution of personal consumption to GDP growth in the last quarter of 2021.

It may also point to a rise in consumer optimism in November this year compared to the same month last year. Banks have decided to meet the increased demand, so there is almost no bank that isn't highlighting this offer of a cash loan in its promotional campaigns and on its website.

In part, this is an expected increase in consumption for the pre-festive period, but as times are unusual, trends which would otherwise be typical for this time of year are being closely monitored.

These days, Croatian banks are really bombarding the public with advertisements for "affordable and quick cash", with interest rates that have never been lower for this type of product, but are still at levels that make this product profitable for banks, even in the face of rising inflation, Novi list writes.

In addition to the fact that some people are now spending more of the cash they saved during lockdown, some people are also taking out non-purpose Croatian cash loans to buy anything and everything, including various consumer goods, and they're probably also patching up their household budgets in conditions of rising prices.

Some banks have confirmed that people, when it comes to cash loans, continue to demand kuna and not the single currency, despite the fact that the euro is likely to be introduced in early 2023. Admittedly, the maturity of "cash" loans of course implies a shorter period than housing loans do, but they are approved for a period longer than one year.

It turns out that Croatian cash loans, which continue to grow at a slower rate than housing loans do (due to government incentives and real estate investments), are clearly accelerating as we head towards the end of the year, and banks are still expecting their "boom" in December.

Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ) also confirmed that in the past period there has been a continuous interest in Croatian cash loans, and that "kuna loans still predominate". OTP banka says that they are continuously recording positive trends in regard to Croatian cash loans, and in the last quarter there has been a slight increase in demand, which, they say, is expected for this time of year, and given the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic and its astounding impact on personal consumption.

In the currency structure, kuna loans are still the most represented, according to OTP, and RBA has been recording an increase in non-purpose loans to people throughout 2021.

They say that the demand for kuna loans is usually higher compared to loans with a currency clause in euros, but in the last quarter there was an increase in non-purpose loans with a clause in euros, probably due to the country edging ever closer to Eurozone entry.

Addiko Bank says that "the end of the year is focused on consumption, gifts and family for consumers, and less on solving financing and investment planning, so that the demand for loans is seasonally the weakest compared to the rest of the year."

For more, check out our dedicated business section.