July the 19th, 2021 - The voting process for the appearance of the brand new Croatian euro coin when the country joins the Eurozone has now drawn to a close, with a final choice to be made soon.

Croatia's planned Eurozone entry date is growing ever closer, which many have put to the back of their minds owing to more pressing circumstances surrounding the ongoing pandemic of late. The country's entry into the Eurozone comes with concerns for many, with others asking where the referendum on the matter was, not realising that all countries with the exception of Great Britain agreed to eventually sign up to the common currency when joining the European Union in the first place.

For others, no longer having the Croatian currency which is very sensitive to exchange rate fluctuations resulting in numerous issues when working with the euro, will come as a breath of fresh air and a fuller pocket. Others fear that the introduction of the Eurozone's currency will see prices rise, despite assurances that it won't happen. 

To make this serious matter a bit lighter and bring it directly to the public, voting on what the Croatian euro coin will look like took place, in which the public got to choose from several very Croatian coin designs.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the symbols for the Croatian euro coin will be chosen from the kuna, the map of Croatia, the Glagolitic alphabet, Dubrovnik and the Croatian coat of arms.

Almost 50,000 people voted for their favourites via the Croatian National Bank's official website. Some would like the Glagolitic alphabet because that was the very first Croatian script, some would like the map and the country's famous checkers because that symbol is the closest to them, but some also had new ideas, their own suggestions, writes Dnevnik.hr.

Additional proposals will also be taken into account, Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujcic confirmed. "The motive that was most often proposed will definitely be considered to be placed on the Croatian euro coin,'' Vujcic concluded.

By the end of the week, the Croatian National Bank's commission will choose the final symbols and which will be on which Croatian euro coin. They will then immediately announce a tender for artists who need to design the look of the coins themselves with the selected motifs.

For more, follow our dedicated lifestyle section.

July the 19th, 2021 - The wildly successful British-Iranian entrepreneur Ali Parsa is the face behind an enormous Prukljan investment, which the Croatian Government has, at its usual snail's pace, finally given the green light.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, one whole year after submitting the bid in the public tender of the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property, and as many as seven years after being included in the list of strategic projects, the Croatian Government finally gave the thumbs up to a bid from the only bidder who applied for the Prukljan project in Skradin. According to numerous announcements, the move should result in more than 300 million euros of investment.

The aforementioned tender is for the sale and concession of land near Prukljan Lake and the company Dalmatia sport and health resort, based in Split, whose first founder in 2007 was the Dutch company Wittens Praktijk. The former left the company to a new owner a year ago, and The Dalmatian Resort Croatia was also registered in that same country.

In the background of the Prukljan investment project, as a guarantor through his companies, stands Ali Parsa, a British-Iranian entrepreneur with a rich career as an investment banker, who took his place in this challenging scene as the founder of Babylon Health, a system that provides 24-hour healthcare and video messaging via a mobile app.

Parsa founded Babylon Health Ali Parsa back in 2013, and with a system used in more than 60 countries, it has enabled him to rank among the most influential and wealthy people in all of Britain, and that Northern European island nation isn't short when it comes to rich individuals.

Ali Parsa doesn't actually appear directly in the offer for the project of building a golf course, hotels and tourist villas, nor is he mentioned in the plans for the nautical port and wharf in Prukljan, but his name does come up for the Split company Dalmatia sport and health resort. This verification is one of the main reasons why the process of assessing the acceptability of a bid that met all the required conditions took so long.

It turned out to be a problem that instead of a letter of intent from a bank that had to meet exactly the prescribed criteria, a certificate from Nedbank Private World from the island of Jersey was submitted in regard to the existence of money for the project in the amount of 100 million kuna.

As stated in the explanation of the government's decision, the money is owned by a legal entity that is in some indefinite relationship with the investor, who can obtain the said financing.

“In addition to not being familiar with the regulations governing banking on the island of Jersey, and due to the importance of the project for both the local community and the Croatian economy as a whole, the State Attorney's Office of the Republic of Croatia was asked to comment on whether we can invite investors to submit letter of intent.

The State Attorney's Office responded positively and continued to act, and at the request of the Ministry, the investor submitted the requested letter of intent, by which the bank confirmed that it will issue a bank guarantee in the amount of 14 million euros, which is more than the requested 100 million kuna. Noting that the bidder submitted a valid bank guarantee for the seriousness of the bid, also in excess of the required amount, by more than 20 million kuna, it ended up being practically uncollectible due to the swift address of the Croatian National Bank, which doesn't deal with payment traffic from private persons.

The problem was solved by changing the swift address and switching to Hrvatska poštanska banka, thus eliminating the last problem of accepting an offer for one of the largest investments in Croatian tourism.

Along the shores of Prukljan Lake, on an area covering nearly 200 hectares, the Prukljan investment project foresees the building of a golf course with 18 holes, hotels and urban villas with a capacity of up to 1500 beds and at least four stars, as well as a nautical tourism port.

For this purpose, the state is selling a total of 54 hectares of and, for which the investor will pay 46 million kuna, of which 29 million kuna for 30 hectares of land is intended for the construction of a hotel with 1,500 beds, and 17 million for land for the construction of tourist villas.

For the construction of a golf course (18 + 9 holes) with all of the accompanying infrastructure, the Croatian Government has approved the establishment of building rights for a period of 99 years on 136 hectares of land, which the investor will pay 2.6 million kuna per year.

The investor was also granted a 50-year concession on the maritime domain for the purpose of the economic use of two beaches and the construction and use of a nautical tourism port, for which a fixed fee was determined per concessioned area, and variable at 2 percent of annual revenue and a gradual increase of 0.5 percent every five years.

The contract for the Prukljan investment project will be signed within three months at the latest, and the realisation will follow in the next five years.

From available sources in government circles, it has been unofficially learned that health tourism will be developed in Prukljan, which correlates with the background in this investment, as it regards the founder of Babylon Heath, but it is interesting that the Prukljan investment isn't being strongly promoted, which indicates the Government's caution regarding, among other things, the Croatian public's sensitivities about golf courses and the issues that have surrounded them thus far.

For more, follow our business section.

July the 19th, 2021 - There are plans in place and discussions being had about the construction of the largest Adriatic liquefied gas terminal in the the southern Dalmatian town of Ploce. A public hearing on the matter has been opened.

As Morski writes, Dubrovnik-Neretva County has opened a public debate on the Environmental Impact Study for the construction of a tanker berth for liquid cargo and liquefied petroleum gas terminals in the port of Ploce by the investor Adriatic Tank Terminal.

It is a joint company of the holding company Energija Naturalis and the global trader and logistician VTTI, founded with the idea to build the largest Adriatic liquefied gas terminal in the Port of Ploce. If the idea is accepted and goes ahead, it will be carried out in three different phases, and the value of the total investment currently stands at a massive 135 million euros, Jutarnji list reports.

In the first phase, completed back in 2016, Adriatic Tank Terminal built about 50 thousand cubic metres of new storage space in the Port of Ploce for so-called white derivatives such as motor fuels. Sending an Environmental Impact Study on the construction of a tanker berth for liquid cargo and liquefied petroleum gas is a step towards the realisation of the second phase of the investment, which envisages the construction of 200,000 cubic metres of oil storage and 60,000 cubic metres of liquefied petroleum gas storage space.

The third phase of the Adriatic liquefied gas terminal project refers to the very construction of additional storage capacity of at least 100 thousand cubic metres for petroleum products. It is estimated that the existing berth for cargo transshipment in the Port of Ploce cannot ensure the reception of larger ships and tankers at this moment in time.

Therefore, investors are planning on the construction of a brand new berth in the port that would allow the reception of ships up to 88 thousand tonnes of carrying capacity for petroleum products, or 58 thousand tonnes of carrying capacity for liquefied petroleum gas.

According to the decision made by Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the public debate on the Environmental Impact Study of the new Adriatic liquefied gas terminal in the Port of Ploce will last for one month, ending on August the 10th this year and with the central meeting being held in Ploce on July the 21st, 2021, during which the investors will present the project.

For more, follow our business section.

July the 19th, 2021 - Some big changes have occurred since the new Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic took over at the helm of the post-Bandic capital. Just how do other Croatian cities compared to Zagreb's impressive 29 social programmes?

As Marina Klepo/Novac writes, stabilising the capital city's finances will be difficult without interfering with the acquired rights and expenditures planned by the former government in the amount of 12.8 billion kuna. As salaries and material expenditures make up almost 70 percent of the city's budget, it's understandable that the greatest savings can be achieved here. However, other items are not negligible, including compensation to citizens, for which Zagreb is particularly famous when compared to other Croatian cities.

In a statement about social sensitivity, Zagreb's city authorities state that in the 2021-2025 strategy, Zagreb has as many as 29 social protection programmes, which is "significantly higher than the average for cities or larger cities". According to European Union (EU) survey carried out on social programmes in the country, Croatian cities have an average of 7.9 programmes and municipalities have around 4.8.

As such, Zagreb accounts for about 56 percent of all costs of local social protection units, with special emphasis placed on care for pensioners, people with disabilities, children and families. However, of all the programmes, the most expensive is the one intended for parents-educators, which was used by 4,767 people in Zagreb last year and amounted to 4,912 kuna.

It accounts for more than half of all expenditures for social services in the total amount of 877 million kuna. The most numerous are the beneficiaries of the ZET ticket exemption, standing at the high figure of 63,858, followed by disability allowance (14,288) and retirement benefits (7062).

Experts have long warned of the essence of one problem: that residents of wealthier communities should not enjoy greater social protection than those in less developed areas of the country. In the analytical basis for the National Development Strategy until 2030, the World Bank recalls the problem of double inequality, both in an economic and social sense.

In order to improve the system, a number of recommendations has been given. Although decentralisation of the system is desirable because it allows for greater proximity to benefit beneficiaries, equitable regional accessibility would imply a precise assessment of available resources at all levels of government and a clear setting of priorities. This, in turn, implies the designation of services and persons at the city, county and state levels who would continuously exchange relevant data, so that social benefits are received by those who really need them, according to harmonised criteria.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

July 18, 2021 - Sport may not be one of the things one associates with the Croatian capital, but there is plenty to discover - a look at Zagreb's sporting credentials.

Did you know that Usain Bolt smashed the 100 metres meet record in Zagreb with a run of 9.85 seconds a decade ago?

The longer I live in Croatia, the less I seem to know, and that applies to Zagreb in particular. The more time I spend there, the more layers it reveals to me. 

The summer of sport is upon us, with Euro 2020 behind us and Tokyo 2020 about to begin. It got me thinking about Zagreb as a sporting destination, and a little research showed me just what a diverse sporting calendar the city boasts, with world-class events in a number of disciplines all year round.

Bolt's lightning run in 2011 at the IAAF World Challenge Boris Hanzekovic Memorial was one of the more memorable athletic achievements at Croatia's oldest sporting event, which turns 70 this year. Named after one of Croatia's top sportsmen, Boris Hanzekovic's signature event, the 110m hurdles is commemorated each year, as a wealth of Olympic medal winners, world champions, and other top sporting personalities compete each year in the Croatian capital. 

Looking for symbols of Olympic excellence? Look no further than the Sinkovic brothers, Martin and Valent, Zagreb natives, the siblings took the 2016 Olympic gold in Rio in the Men's Double Skulls, to add to a 2012 silver in London and a number of World Championship medals. Zagreb's rowing tradition pre-dates the Sinkovic brothers by more than a century with the founding of the First Rowing and Fishing Society back in 1872. These days, the rowing focus on the city is on Lake Jarun, which is home to a 2 km rowing trail considered to be among the best in the world. The Croatian Open Regatta in early July opens the season of regattas on Jarun, and international events that have been held there include the Military World Games, the World Student Championships, the World Junior Championships, and in 2021 Zagreb has, for the first time in history, hosted the World Rowing Cup.

{youtube}KJXVKdQrxlY{youtube}

Zagreb is also home to the world's oldest competition for another Olympic sport - figure skating. The Golden Pirouette was initiated in 1967. By the time the event celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, it had attracted competitors from 50 countries on five continents, with the 50th edition attracting the world and European champion, Olympic bronze medallist, and European runner up. Golden Pirouette takes place during Advent in Zagreb, a perfect time to visit. 

Golden Pirouette is not the only international figure skating competition to be held in the city. The Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy was inaugurated in 2001 and has been held each year ever since. Recognises by the International Skating Federation (ISU), more than 40 teams from 10 countries take part. 

{youtube}kEjfJWHPCLo{/youtube}

September sees judo fans from all over the world descend on the city, as the most important International Judo Federation in the region takes place. The annual IJF Judo Grand Prix Zagreb competition has been taking place annually since 2013, attracting world-class competitors from over 40 countries. More than 600 competitors take part, and the competition is broadcast in 109 countries. 

Karate will become an Olympic sport for the first time at Tokyo 2020, and perhaps the future Olympic champion has already demonstrated his/her skills in Croatia. Karate has a long tradition in Zagreb dating back to the 1950s. Today there are an impressive 36 clubs in the city (and 180 in all Croatia), with women's karate just as active and successful as the men's. Many of them come together for the annual Zagreb Karate Fest, which is composed of two parts. The Zagreb Open Championship is an open karate championship for all ages, while the TOP 10 for Women has received the accolade as the greatest karate competition for women in the world. It brings together 10 medal winners from the World and European Championships to compete against each other. There is also a popular encounter between the Croatian national women's team and a world national team. 

Wrestling fans will be looking forward to Tokyo, and many will have had their focus on Zagreb in January for the annual Grand Prix Zagreb, which has attracted some of the world's top wrestlers each year since its inauguration in 2014. This wrestling event in the Greco-Roman style is livestreamed around the world and has grown in popularity each year. So much so that it has had to move location to accommodate the increased interest. It is now held in Hall II of Dom Sportova.  

How many capital cities do you know that hae their own World Ski Cup event? Zagreb is unique in the EU as a capital city where you can ski just minutes from the capital. And where you can ski, you can compete. Croatia has a world-class skiiing pedigree thanks to the antics of Janica and Ivica Kostelic, of course, and some of the world's best make their way to Zagreb in early January for the Snow Queen Trophy, the women's slalom race of the World Ski Cup. It is one of the most popular races on the calendar for participants due to its proxmity to the city, huge support (some 15 - 20,000 fans make it the most popular World Ski Cup event), and the outstanding local hospitality. The Snow Queeen Trophy has been a popular Zagreb sporting event since 2005. 

No city with sporting aspirations would be complete without its own marathon, of course, and Zagreb is no exception. From modest beginnings in 1992 when just 70 runners took part, the Zagreb Marathon now attracts a truly international field of more than 1,000 runners. Due to its elevation, which is no more than 5 metres, it is also one of the fastest marathons in the world, taking partcipants on a picturesque jounrney through the beautiful streets of the city. Zagreb Marathon records are held by two Kenyans, Stellah Jepngetich Barosio (2:30:15) and her compatriot Wycliffe Kipkorir Biwot (2:09:55), who achieved his record fourth victory at the Zagreb event with this result. 

Not every competitive sport makes it to the Olympics, and Zagreb is home to other world-class events which will not be represented in Tokyo. This year saw the arrival of the World Rally Championship. which was held in the city for the first time, thereby putting the Croatian capital very firmly on the world rally map.  The 4-day event covered some 1,300 km, starting and finishing in the city, with 22 special stages, including an indoor race at Zagreb Fair. 

And while the WRC might attract the global headlines, it is only building on an established Zagreb rallying tradition, as local fans will tell you each September. The INA Delta Rally first took place as the Croatia Rally and Croatia Delta Rally in 1974. When in 1992 it received tthe status of a European Championship rally race, it became the first international sports event organised by Croatian organizers in any sport after the independence of the Republic of Croatia.

Tokyo 2020 will soon be upon us, inspiring millions of people around the world. But you do not have to travel to Japan to witness sporting excellence, as Zagreb has excellent opportunities to see the world's sporting elite compete in any number of disciplines. 

Learn more about Zagreb in the TC Zagreb in a Page guide.