Info Centre for Croatian Earthquake Damaged Property Owners Opened
March the 16th, 2021 - A new information centre for the owners of property damaged in the Croatian earthquake-dominated 2020 has been opened as conflicting and confusing information about who has the right to what continues to circulate.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the Reconstruction/Obnova Information Centre represents the joint information centre of the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property, the Reconstruction Fund and the Central State Office for Reconstruction and Housing.
The new centre will be open every working day, including Saturday and will be at the service of all those whose properties were affected by the Croatian earthquake, both that which occurred this time last year in Zagreb and the one which hit Petrinja in December. The new centre is located at Ulica kneza Mislava 2, and according to a statement from the relevant ministry led by Minister Darko Horvat, its opening coincides with a week of major decisions concerning citizens' rights as a phase that precedes the beginning of the process of organised construction or complete renovation.
All the preparatory activities that have been planned have been successfully implemented in the past (almost) one year, both in terms of adopting the legislative framework and structure of the Reconstruction Fund, and the staffing of a legal team consisting of a large number of employees of the Ministry itself, which will, through its engagement and decision-making, resolve specific rights in all cases of earthquake-damaged property.
This unique contact point in communication between residents and the administration was established to help those from the City of Zagreb and surrounding counties, whose properties were damaged in the Croatian earthquake of March 2020 or indeed others, by officials in one place who will provide advice and give people all of the necessary information related to the renewal process itself.
It is a procedure that begins with the submission of applications, includes the collection of all of the necessary documentation and everything related to the implementation process, and as they say, legal support within this centre will be provided by the Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb.
According to the records of Horvat´s department, the requests received so far exceed 3350, in relation to which a large series of decisions concerning citizens' rights can be expected this week.
"Now we´re entering the fourth process - organised construction and then complete reconstruction, not only of Zagreb but also of the four counties around it. Additionally, funds from the Solidarity Fund have arrived and the total amount of 5.1 billion kuna has been activated, public calls have also been announced,¨ explained Minister Darko Horvat.
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Swisscom Ventures Invests 12.5 Million Dollars in British-Croatian Startup
March the 16th, 2021 - Cognism, a British-Croatian startup has had a very handsome cash injection thanks to the VC fund of Switzerland´s largest telecom.
As Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes, the British-Croatian startup Cognism has received a 12.5 million US dollars in the form of an investment from the VC fund of Switzerland's largest telecom, Swisscom Ventures. This British-Croatian startup expects that the market in the USA will open up again in the next three months, and a similar thing could happen in the UK, but also in other markets across Europe. The last, hitherto known market value of Cognism was 503 million kuna or 72 million dollars. It is to be expected that that sum is bigger now, but the company has not yet commented on just how much bigger it is.
Cognism was launched back in 2015 by Zadar programmer Stjepan Buljat and former UBS financier James Isilay. In the meantime, this British-Croatian startup has become one of the fastest growing companies in the investment portfolio of South Central Ventures, the first Croatian VC fund.
Stjepan Buljat stated that they want to be ready for business expansion as soon as the lockdown is over.
"The US and the UK have already signalled that their lockdowns could be completed within the next three months and this offers a signal to everyone in business that they need to prepare for it, and we´d like to be ready, also at the at EU level,¨ explained Buljat.
Cognism has offices in Croatia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Macedonia and Germany. According to Latka, this startup is one of the 50 fastest growing software service providers in the whole world. Last year, according to Latka, Cognism achieved revenue growth of 130 percent and employs 189 professionals. The company has an open office in Zadar, and recently they created one here in Zagreb. Back in pre-pandemic 2019, it enjoyed 700,400 kuna in revenue in Croatia and employed eight IT professionals. Buljat says they now employ more than 20 people here in Croatia.
This British-Croatian startup has developed a cloud system that allows companies to use Internet technologies to improve their sales and marketing. This proved to be a hit in the pandemic, especially since many people worked from home and making business contacts was even harder than usual. Cognism states that they have more than a thousand customers in 30 countries.
Until the investment of Swisscom Ventures, this British-Croatian startup had attracted 28.9 million US dollars in investments, of which almost half were acheived last year, when they made their first acquisition in buying the German startup Mailtastic. With the purchase of Mailtastic, Cognism thus gained a marketing platform with email signatures and increased their number of employees to more than 200.
James Isilay, the CEO of Cognism, says Swisscom Ventures has indicated with this investment that they have grown into one of Europe’s largest data providers.
"This year we´re focused on growing our presence in the UK and across the rest of Europe, and our plan is to improve our products with additional functionalities and solutions we can offer globally. In addition, we will focus even more strongly to keep our data the most compliant at all levels,” stated Isilay.
Stefan Kuentz, a partner at Swisscom Ventures, pointed out that they want a leading player in this segment in Europe.
"Artificial intelligence is key to increasing salespeople productivity, even more so when people are working from home. Cognism is in a great position to become a leading company in Europe and we´re excited to be a part of that journey," Kuentz concluded.
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Croatian Supreme Court Confirms Prison Sentences for the Mamić Brothers, Vrbanović
March 15, 2021 - The Croatian Supreme Court has issued a final verdict, confirming prison sentences for the Mamić brothers, Damir Vrbanović, and tax collector Milan Pernar.
Namely, Zdravko Mamić was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. Zoran Mamić, who is preparing for the match against Tottenham on Thursday as the Dinamo coach, has had his sentence reduced by three months and will serve four years and eight months in prison.
Damir Vrbanović was given three years, and Pernar three years and two months, reduced from four years and two months. The verdict was overturned in only one part, which refers to the point where Zoran Mamić was charged with inciting the abuse of former tax collector Milan Pernar, for which a retrial was ordered.
Almost three years since the invalid verdict, it has now been passed and become final, which means that Zoran Mamić and Vrbanović should go to prison at some point soon. The situation is significantly more complicated with Zdravko Mamić, who fled to BiH in June 2018, because the country will not extradite him to Croatia. As an explanation, they stated that the criminal offense for which he was convicted in Croatia was not defined as a criminal offense in BiH.
In addition to being sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison, Zdravko Mamić must return HRK 52 million.
Zdravko Mamić was convicted on all counts of the indictment, and after the intervention of the Supreme Court, he was convicted on all counts except one.
Zoran Mamić and Milan Pernar were found guilty of reducing Mamić's tax liabilities and accepting bribes, and Zoran Mamić was also found guilty of giving bribes. Zdravko, Zoran Mamić, and Vrbanović are guilty of splitting the Dejan Lovren transfer and Zdravko Mamić for splitting the Luka Modrić transfer.
You can read the verdict in detail on the official website of the Supreme Court. According to the verdict, Dinamo was damaged by HRK 80 million.
Part of the court statement transmitted below:
"The second defendant, the executive vice-president and board member of the football club, and the fourth defendant, the general manager, and a board member, in agreement with the third defendant, falsely claimed that one player was entitled to half of the club's transfer fee. The player forwarded the money to the third defendant, who repaid the loans given to him by the club.
They thus damaged the football club by HRK 35,840,396.14 and obtained a profit of HRK 25,894,262.83 for the third defendant.
The fourth event concerns the conviction of another defendant, the executive vice-president and a member of the football club's board, for negligence over the club's property interests. He knew when one player left the club in 2008 that there was no contract under which half of the transfer amount should go to the player and half to the club. He subsequently untruthfully made an annex on the division of the transfer amount between the club and the player into equal parts, which he antedated. He thus created an apparent basis for the division of money. The money was paid from the club's account to the player's account, who then handed the money over to the other defendant and according to his instructions to members of his family. Thus, the second defendant obtained HRK 52,037,4335.73 for himself and damaged the football club by HRK 80,030,927.25."
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Croatian Agency for Medicinal Products and Devices Inspecting Documentation on Russian Vaccine
ZAGREB, 15 March, 2021 - The Croatian Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED) said on Monday that a preliminary inspection of documentation on the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was underway but that for the time being there would be no emergency imports of the vaccine.
HALMED today received documentation from the Health Ministry on the Russian vaccine and a team of ten HALMED experts in individual areas are conducting a preliminary inspection of the documentation to determine if the delivered documents comply with what had been requested.
The agency said that so far there had been no requests for emergency imports of the Russian vaccine and that there would not be any procedures of that kind for the time being.
HALMED will thoroughly inspect the documents forwarded by the Health Ministry and if necessary, request additional documents from the producer to ensure readiness for emergency imports should the need for them arise, the agency said.
The Russian vaccine is currently also being evaluated by the European Medicines Agency.
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KBC Rijeka Hospital Obtains 12 New Ventilators
ZAGREB, 15 March 2021 - The Rijeka Clinical Hospital Centre on Monday received 12 new ventilators that were procured by the Health Ministry with the use of EU funds.
The hospital's director, Alen Ružić, thanked the ministry, government and European Commission for the valuable equipment, underscoring that it would significantly improve working conditions at the hospital and contribute to better patient care as well as improving the quality of treatment.
The ventilators will be put to use immediately in various wards at the hospital but primarily to relieve the work of the respiratory centre with COVID-19 patients, in ICU, and at neurology and pediatric wards. The hospital now has about 60 ventilators which are sufficient to cover the current number of patients.
Health Ministry State-Secretary Željko Plazonić, who chairs the KBC Rijeka steering board, said the ventilators were obtained through a procurement process conducted by the European Commission. They are part of a contingent of 169 ventilators procured for COVID-19 wards in health institutions throughout Croatia. The price of each ventilator is €24,000, Plazonić added.
Answering reporters' questions, Ružić said that due to the new wave of COVID-19 the hospital's level of preparedness had been increased and if need be it would be prepared to open a new COVID ward that would be separated from other wards. He added that due to the increased number of COVID-19 patients, the number of other non-urgent surgical procedures would be partially reduced.
Croatia Sees 28.8% Increase in Weekly Number of New Coronavirus Cases
ZAGREB, 15 March, 2021 - The number of new coronavirus cases in Croatia has increased by 28.8% on a weekly level as steps are being taken to ensure a fairer distribution of vaccines at EU level, the national coronavirus response team told a press conference on Monday.
"In the past week have had 4,566 new cases, with the weekly number of cases increasing by 28.8%. The incidence rate is 198.4, the lowest being in Istria and the highest in the Dubrovnik area," Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) director Krunoslav Capak said.
Increasing presence of the British variant
The results of sequencing of 355 samples have shown that the British variant of the coronavirus was found in 204 samples, the Czech variant was detected in 45 samples and the South African variant in four. Two people infected with the South African variant were travelling from Mexico to Croatia via Turkey, and two persons have been infected in Croatia.
As for vaccination against COVID-19, Capak said that initial talks had been conducted with a Chinese pharmaceutical company and that more information about the Chinese vaccine and results of clinical studies would be made available in subsequent stages of the talks.
Capak said that Pfizer was expected to deliver 23,000 doses of its vaccine weekly this month, while AstraZenica was to have delivered a million doses in the first quarter of the year, but failed to do so.
"While other countries ordered the maximum number of doses from manufacturers, we did not and that's why we have a shortfall. We are taking steps to ensure a fairer distribution or a correction for those who have been short-changed by AstraZeneca," he said.
As for vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the HZJZ estimates that fewer than 30% of people in Croatia have refused this vaccine, contrary to media reports, Capak said.
EU legislation must be complied with in vaccine procurement
Health Minister Vili Beroš said that Croatia did not want to close its door to alternative ways of vaccine procurement, including the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, but stressed that EU legislation must be complied with.
"If EMA (the European Medicines Agency) refuses the Russian vaccine, I doubt that anyone, even HALMED (the Croatian Agency for Medicines and Medicinal Products), will decide otherwise. ... We are awaiting EMA's reply to the letter from our prime minister," Beroš said.
Speaking of problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Beroš cited a World Health Organisation report saying that over 280 million people across the globe have been administered this vaccine and that there are no indicators suggesting that this vaccine is responsible for severe disorders or deaths.
As for thromboembolic incidents, Beroš said that nine patients with thrombosis or pulmonary embolism are hospitalised in Croatia daily and many of them die. "There can be a connection between such cases and vaccination, but it is important that medical professionals set clear criteria in ruling out or confirming the connection between vaccination and an unwanted event."
Increased vaccine deliveries announced
The head of the national coronavirus response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said that all EU member states were dissatisfied with the pace of vaccine delivery, adding that optimistic news was coming from Brussels about resumption of AstraZeneca vaccine deliveries. In addition, Pfizer has increased production of its vaccine, which will improve countries' vaccine supplies, he added.
Božinović dismissed speculation that Croatia would have been better off had it entered into direct negotiations with vaccine manufacturers, bypassing the European Commission. "All member states have authorised the Commission to negotiate, and I think that's the only right way."
He said he was confident that the Commission would emerge from this difficult situation with new experience because the health policy was not part of the EU's integrated policy. It has turned out that only with a common, solidarity-based approach can the EU deal with the pandemic, he noted.
Božinović said that the EU was gathering information about the capacity of each member state for vaccine production, stressing the need for investment in public healthcare, science and research.
"The manufacture and delivery of vaccines should be stepped up, and the world should not be taken by surprise by an outbreak of a new pandemic in the future," Božinović said.
Substantial decline in mortality among elderly people after vaccination
The director of Zagreb's Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotić, underlined the importance of vaccination for elderly people, saying that a substantial decline in COVID-19-related deaths among elderly people after vaccination had been observed across the EU.
Plenković: Croatia Expects to Join Eurozone and Schengen in 3 Years
ZAGREB, 15 March, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in an interview with the Politico news website published on Monday that it was reasonable to expect that Croatia would enter the eurozone and the Schengen area by the second half of 2024.
"The idea is to do both — accession to Schengen and the eurozone — by the end of this government’s term, so the second half of 2024," Plenković said. "It’s tough, but reasonable."
The European Commission said in 2019 that Croatia had fulfilled all the technical requirements for entry into the Schengen passport-free travel zone, and this should now be endorsed by other member states. Romania and Bulgaria have been waiting for this to happen for years.
In mid-2020 Croatia was admitted to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), a key step towards eurozone membership.
Plenković said that because of the coronavirus crisis the eurozone members could be expected to continue suspending their own rules for fiscal discipline, while those on the path to join the euro could not rely on "such easy self-help tricks."
He expressed regret that Croatia had "stepped away from consolidation and sound public finances" to limit the economic damage of the crisis.
Plenković said that his government would pursue two goals: "Using the recovery fund, the EU budget and private investment to generate growth. And the other one: Go back to the framework of 2017-2019, when my government achieved a budget surplus."
The prime minister said he believed Croatia would be able to spend the first euro from the EU recovery fund at the beginning of next year, adding that it was a complicated process. "Unless it’s helicopter money, it’s very difficult and complex. You need a plan, a project, verification, tender, implementation, documentation. If it goes faster, we’ll gladly spend it, but if I’m realistic …"
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Croatia's Coronavirus Update: 129 New Cases, Eight Deaths, 583 Recoveries
ZAGREB, 15 March 2021 - Of 2,563 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia in the last 24 hours, 129, that is 5%, have returned positive, and currently there are 4,342 active cases, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Monday.
Of those active cases, 874 are hospitalised patients, including 72 patients placed on ventilators.
Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia reported its first registered case of the infection with the novel virus, there have been 5,685 deaths linked to this disease, including eight fatalities in the last 24 hours.
To date, 1,431,342 people have been tested for SARS-CoV-2, and 251,174 have turned out to be positive. Of them, 241,147 have recovered so far, including 583 recoveries in the last 24 hours.
Currently, 17,840 people are self-isolating.
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Croatia Ranks 13th in Global Ranking for Sustainable Tourism and Travel
ZAGREB, 15 March 2021 - In terms of sustainable tourism standards and green transformation for the travel industry recovery in 2020, Croatia comes 13th on the global ranking covering 99 countries, according to a report released by the Euromonitor International provider of strategic market research.
Euromonitor International has developed the new Sustainable Travel Index to assesses 99 country destinations "through the lens of environmental, social and economic sustainability, country risk as well as sustainable tourism demand, transport and lodging."
"66.4% of consumers globally want to have a positive impact on the environment through their daily actions in 2021,"according to a new report ‘Top Countries for Sustainable Tourism', released by the global market research company Euromonitor International at ITB Berlin.
The ranking is topped by developed European countries: Sweden ranks first, while Finland, Austria, Estonia and Norway make top five.
Also, Slovakia, Iceland, Latvia, France, Slovenia, Switzerland and Latvia are above Croatia. Croatia fares better than the Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal that are the other entries to make top 20.
"Sweden is a pioneer in lifecycle assessment research which is critical to understand the full impact of consumer behaviour and consumption patterns," Caroline Bremner, head of travel at Euromonitor International, was quoted as saying. The country is highly engaged with the Sustainable Development Goals and preserves the Arctic ice and permafrost to help stop climate change, aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2045.
Other countries also show good progress in sustainable transport and lodging. Just outside the top 20 – featuring other European countries for the most part, such as Germany and France – we find New Zealand, Bolivia and Canada, says Euromonitor International.
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Croatian Taekwondo Queen Jelena Vukas Opens Gym for Kids
March the 15th, 2021 - Croatian taekwondo fighter Jelena Vukas has decided to turn her attention to exercise for children in the form of the first kids´ gym in Croatia.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, after completing her formal college education and enduring being in the office for a full ten days, taekwondo fighter Jelena Vukas decided to continue "living the sport" she loves, which she kicked off by entering the often choppy waters of entrepreneurship.
In addition to running the Orion club, which she took over last year, she now runs the Taekwondo playroom Mali borci (Little fighters), and this project has recently been expanded with the opening of the first Croatian children's gym in Sesvete near Zagreb.
“The Little Fighters Gym project unites my love for children and sport, taekwondo, which has always been the centre of my life. After we recently expanded the space of the club, the idea came to my mind to offer our youngest participants something fun and useful. It’s not like a real gym for adults with real weights, because kids are not allowed to work with them, but only with their own body.
But if the weights are made of styrofoam, and help them to make doing exercise more fun and learn to perform movements properly, then that's another story," explained 31-year-old Jelena Vukas, who has an impressive 15 years of taekwondo competition, from 1999 to 2014, behind her.
She is a multiple Croatian champion, the winner of medals from numerous international competitions, a member of the national team, a bronze medalist from the World Junior Championships in Vietnam in 2006, and a coach from 2011 until today. By formal education, Jelena is an agronomist.
Namely, as she was very active in taekwondo, she once decided that the Faculty of Kinesiology, although a seemingly logical choice for athletes, would take away too much energy that she needed to use for training.
Therefore, she enrolled in agronomy, which was close to home, and she finished it, but she never worked in the profession.
"After college, I got a job that meant staying in the office, but after 10 days I quit, and very quickly realised that this is not life for me, that I need sport," revealed Jelena Vukas, who also finished sports college, a taekwondo coaching programme, and holds both European and world coaching licenses. There are about 90 active members in Orion.
The idea of the new gym, into which a second group is now enrolling, came in part from frustration with the poor quality of training for children that can be seen in many clubs, which often discourages children from all sporting activities and turns training into torture.
"So many talents fail, the children simply give up. One of the results is that the wrong movements are learned from an early age, the way of performing exercises, which is partially corrected in our playrooms. Sports programmes for such young children are challenging because classic training quickly becomes boring for them, they need a quick change of exercises, lots of colours and games.
When I realised that there are also ‘gym’ devices on the market for children, a bike, a treadmill, punching bags… I was thrilled. I got something myself, something was donated to me by friends, and we made something ourselves - say styrofoam weights. So far, I´ve invested a total of around 10 thousand kuna, but there are still plans yet," concluded Jelena Vukas.
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