ZAGREB, December 4, 2020 - In Croatia there are big differences between the richest and poorest municipalities, with Medulin's revenue in the past two years amounting to the total revenue of the 25 poorest municipalities, while Zagreb's revenue exceeds the combined income of 120 cities, according to the Institute of Public Finance.

A newsletter on the budgets of municipalities, cities and counties in 2018 and 2019 shows that the average revenue in 2019 was HRK 225 million for counties, HRK 150 million for cities including Zagreb and HRK 93 million for those excluding Zagreb, and HRK 13 million for municipalities.

In 2019, 45% of local units ran a budget surplus (11 counties, 61 cities, 185 municipalities), down from 60% in 2018 (12 counties, 81 cities, 249 municipalities).

In 2019, the biggest surpluses were recorded by Varazdin County (HRK 24.4m), the City of Rijeka (HRK 69.6m) and Baska Voda Municipality (HRK 9.3m), while the biggest deficits were recorded by Virovitica-Podravina County (HRK 43.5m), the City of Zagreb (HRK 453.6 million) and Medulin Municipality (HRK 51.9m).

However, the number of municipalities and cities with higher per capita revenue increased, the bulk generating between HRK 3,000 and 6,000 in 2018 and 2019. The authors of the newsletter attribute this to the new fiscal equalisation system in force as of 2018.

In 2019, less than 11% of municipalities, only three cities (Duga Resa, Oroslavje, Donja Stubica) and every county generated less than HRK 3,000 in per capita revenue. In 2019, 54 cities or municipalities had a higher per capita revenue than the City of Zagreb (HRK 9.427).

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

December 5, 2020 - Instead of the 5th birthday celebrations they had planned, a wonderful thank you gesture for Croatia's healthcare heroes from Curry Bowl Zagreb.

The pandemic has caused havoc with the hospitality industry around the world, and the restaurant sector is no exception. With lockdowns, rigorous measures, restricted opening hours and the reluctance of customers to risk infection, it is not surprising that some restaurants have not opened at all this year. But in among all the doom and gloom, there is often a great story or two.

During the national lockdown earlier this year, we reported on Nikola Bozic from Djurina Hiza, the only restaurant in Croatia which actually hired more staff, as he moved his business model from serving in-house to a nationwide delivery service.  

And how about this great story, a wonderful gesture and thanks to the healthcare heroes at the frontline of fighting COVID-19 from a corner of Sri Lanka in the heart of Zagreb. 

It wasn't quite planned like this. Ever since Sri Lankan brothers Brian and Clement Seranatne did a tour of Europe together several years ago ahead of Clement's upcoming wedding, Zagreb has been their life. They decided to open the first-ever Sri Lankan restaurant in the capital, and Curry Bowl Zagreb became a reality on December 4, 2015. The restaurant offered authentic Sri Lankan flavours, with dishes adapted to te European palate. My colleague Marc Rowlands did an excellent in-depth piece on Curry Bowl Zagreb recently - check it out here. 

Five years later, there is plenty to celebrate after what has been an incredibly successful adventure. Curry Bowl Zagreb is now rated in the top 5 restaurants in the Croatian capital, and the business has expanded to include the opening of Curry Bowl on Obonjan in 2016, the Whole Wide World Hostel on Britanski Trg in Zagreb, and the official distributorship of Lion Beer in 2018. 2020 included plans to expand the Curry Bowl brand outside Croatia for the first time. 

So much to celebrate on December 4, 2020 after 5 phenomenal years. But... 2020. 

So the enterprising brothers came up with something VERY different than the 5-year birthday they had planned. With the restaurant closed for sit-down customers until at least December 21, they decided instead to mark the first five years with a wonderful gesture - a week of free, delicious Sri Lankan food for any frontline hospital worker showing their ID, as a small thanks for all their efforts. 

The generous offer will last a week, starting yesterday until December 10. In order to collect their meal, the hospital worker just needs to pick it up from the restaurant and show hospital ID. You can take a look at the menu here and contact them for more information. 

You can check out the brothers interviewed on national television in the video below, or check out more in Marc's article. 

ZAGREB, December 4, 2020 - Parliament on Friday amended the law on the protection of the population from infectious diseases, making it possible to fine those who do not comply with anti-COVID measures.

Seventy-six MPs voted for and 53 against the amendments.

Parliament also tasked the government to report to it three times a year on the implementation of said law for the duration of the epidemic, with 77 votes for a conclusion to that effect moved by the ruling majority.

The government is expected to submit a report in January, June and September. Parliament rejected the opposition's amendments that the government report to parliament once a month on the implementation and effects of measures adopted under said law.

Two-thirds majority is necessary

The opposition insisted that the measures must be adopted by a two-thirds majority, with which the ruling HDZ disagreed.

We are in a state of emergency and Article 17 of the Constitution should be applied. We should and must have a two-thirds majority in parliament, said Tomislav Tomasevic of the Green-Left Bloc.

Branko Bacic (HDZ) said only the Constitution and constitutional laws were adopted with 101 votes, everything else with 76.

Arsen Bauk of the Social Democratic Party said the latest measures made mask-wearing mandatory and banned or restricted private gatherings.

It's time to admit that we are in a state of a big natural disaster from Article 17 of the Constitution, which requires a two-thirds majority, he added.

€65 fine for not wearing a mask

The amended law stipulates the obligation to wear a mask and bans or restricts public and private events and gatherings.

A person can be fined HRK 500 for not wearing a mask or wearing it improperly. Those organising a private party can be fined up to HRK 10,000, while the owner of a private property who organises or allows a private gathering can be fined from HRK 5,000 to 10,000.

Compliance with the measures will be overseen by police, civil protection, and state inspectors.

The government has reiterated a number of times that the point of the amendments is not fines but prevention and compliance with anti-COVID measures.

Offenders will first be cautioned, but if someone perseveres, they can be fined, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic has said, adding that the amendments will not give the police new powers and that no one will enter anyone's home, given that the home is protected by the Constitution.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

ZAGREB, December 4, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic thinks that all Croatian citizens should get vaccinated against COVID-19 and is himself ready to do so in public to show the importance of vaccination, his spokesman said on Friday.

"President Milanovic is of the view that everyone should get vaccinated. He counts on civil responsibility and awareness, and is himself ready to get vaccinated in public to show by example the importance of vaccination," presidential spokesman Nikola Jelic said in response to Hina's query.

Milanovic said on November 24 that, if necessary, he will be the first to get vaccinated because it is important that Croatian citizens understand that vaccination is good and necessary, and that in that way we protect ourselves collectively, Jelic recalled.

Earlier in the day, the members of the national COVID-19 response team also expressed their readiness to get vaccinated in public.

December 4, 2020 – Founders of Croatian IT companies Nanobit and Infobip are this year's best businessmen in Croatia. According to the choice of the Večernji list and Poslovni dnevnik readers, the businessmen of the year are Silvio and Roberto Kutić and Izabel Jelenić from Infobip, while according to the choice of the expert jury, this award goes to the founders of Nanobit Alan Sumina and Zoran Vučinić.

As Večernji.hr reports, the fifth selection for "Businessman and Economic Event of the Year" was held today, for the first time in the online edition.

The winners were chosen by the readers of Večernji list and Poslovni dnevnik, who decided to give this recognition to Silvija and Robert Kutić and Izabel Jelenić from the Croatian IT company Infobip, which is the first Croatian unicorn (worth more than a billion dollars).

'IT resistant to COVID'

At Infobip in Vodnjan, they are primarily engaged in mobile communication, and one of their clients is WhatsApp. It was founded in 2006, and the founders then had only two laptops and borrowed money from their parents. This year, a foreign investor invested 200 million dollars in Infobip, and today this company is the leader of the Croatian economy.

"We continue to work in order to develop as much as possible," said Silvio Kutić very briefly and clearly, and expressed satisfaction that he and other colleagues from the sector are a positive example from Croatia. Roberto Kutić added that this is an industry that was lucky because it is resistant to COVID, and Izabel Jelenić concluded that they still stick to their motto - they are just at the beginning and there is much more ahead of them.

Growth and competitiveness

For the best economic event of the year, readers chose the selling Nanobit's stake in the company to the Swedish giant Stillfront, and the founders of that company, Alan Sumina and Zoran Vučinić, were chosen as businessmen of the year by the expert jury. Nanobit is a gaming company that, like Infobip, was founded with only two laptops, but with a lot of will and perseverance.

"I am especially pleased to see in whose company we are today. Neither Infinum, nor Infobip, nor Rimac Automobili, nor we did not exist 10-15 years ago or we were so small that we were not interesting to anyone. And today we are representatives not only of the IT industry but of the economy in Croatia in general. Moreover, we show that this is the 'healthiest' part of the Croatian industry that can grow at a rapid pace and be competitive in the global market," said Alan Sumina.

Nanobit made their first million on a fitness app and then started developing games. Today, after 12 years, it has 125 highly educated employees and their games are played monthly by more than 10 million active players worldwide.

"The gaming industry in Croatia is just beginning to develop and although it has experienced great changes in recent years, many times they have experienced it a bit frivolously. If nothing else, now at least that dilemma has been removed and the value of companies like Nanobit has been confirmed, but apart from us, there are many other companies and I think that in the next few years some of them will achieve greater success than us," said Alan Sumina.

Helping the private sector

For the economic event of the year, renowned journalists and editors who cover the economy, as well as leading economists and scientists from the field of economics, who formed the expert jury, evaluated the state aid for job preservation.

This year, the Croatian government will direct about 10 billion kunas to preserve jobs, which was one of the first and most concrete state measures aimed at companies and employees. One or more months of support were used by more than a hundred thousand employers for almost 600 thousand workers, and if there were no measures, tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs.

Andrej Plenković stated that they reacted quickly and decisively in this crisis. They showed how much state intervention was necessary in these circumstances, to help the private sector in the first place, and they will continue with the measures.

Building big world brands in Croatia

Mate Rimac, the founder of Rimac cars, Tomislav Car from Infinum, and Marin Pucar, the President of the Management Board of Podravka, were also nominated in the category for the businessman of the year. In the category of the economic event of the year, Croatia's entry into the European exchange rate mechanism, the growth of Infobip into the category of the unicorn, and the agreement on a new EU financial envelope were also in competition.

Although 2020 was full of challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, there were many achievements and inspirational stories.

"When it comes to this competition, we can conclude that this is a year in which there has been a big turn in the selection of the 'most successful'. These are no longer companies that started in the former state or the 90s. This is a year marked by 'some new kids', kids who started businesses with only two laptops, and today have multinational companies whose revenues are dizzying billions," said the editor-in-chief of Večernji list Dražen Klarić.

He concluded that 2020 showed that there are new, inspiring, and young entrepreneurs who are ready to invest here and build big world brands from Croatia.

To read more about business in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

December 4, 2020 - Croatian has a reputation for being a difficult language to learn. It doesn't have to be, you just need the right teacher or dialect. A look at Kiwi Croatian compared to Hvar dialect. 

One of my favourite all-time interviews on TCN was with the two fabulous Aussie Croat ladies behind Zinfandel, Brasserie on 7, Split Hostel and Charlie's Bar. Apart from documenting Korana and Maria's phenomenal story over the past almost 20 years in Split (which you can read here), one thing I remember about the interview was asking if they spoke Croatian before they moved to Croatia.

"We thought we did," they answered simultaneously, before bursting into laughter. 

I can imagine how shocked they must have been at the difference in Croatian spoken back in the Homeland compared to what they were exposed to back home. Over the years, I have spoken to many people from the Croatian diaspora. Some speak better Croatian than the majority here, others have just a few words, and the majority are somewhere in between. As such, there are different levels of Croatianness in the language spoken. 

I became aware of this first several years ago when I was recording our very popular YouTube series, Learning Croatian with the Guardian of the Hvar Dialects, Professor Frank John Dubokovich. 

The series became an instant hit after the first impromptu episode. As I explained last week, The Professor's iconic Dalmatian Grunt was watched over 50,000 times before YouTube removed the channel for reasons I can't figure out. Having found some of the lessons on the original camera recently, I am starting to repost them again - here is the article on the first - and the best - lesson of all. 

The Professor was born in New Zealand, where he lived for 8 years before his family moved back to Hvar. During the summer, he has several Kiwi visitors from his younger days, and The Professor suggested a lesson with his schoolfriend Michael, who is proficient in Kiwi Croatian.

A great lesson with Michael on Kiwi Croatian, Vivian in standard Croatian and The Professor in his inimitable Hvar dialects on important topics such as fishing, cooking, getting married, getting a job, and taking the kids for a walk. 

I think even I could master this Kiwi Croatian version. Perhaps there is hope. 

Learning Croatian? Here are 25 common mistakes foreign students make, and how to fix them.

December 4, 2020 – At today's press conference of the National Civil Protection Headquarters, Krunoslav Capak, director of the Croatian Institute for Public Health, presented the vaccination plan in Croatia.

Capak said that the EU had opened negotiations with six manufacturers in the first phase and that the first agreement Croatia had received was the AstraZeneca agreement. From this manufacturer, 3.6 million doses of vaccine were ordered, but due to the huge interest of other EU countries, Croatia received 2.7 million doses, so the remaining 900,000 doses were ordered from Johnson & Johnson.

After that, one million doses were ordered from Pfizer and Moderna, and 300,000 doses from CureVac.

"Croatia has ordered 5.6 million vaccine doses from various manufacturers, and we have received an offer from the company that will register it at the end of 2021. We will take smaller quantities from them in case this is a seasonal vaccine," Capak said.

Pfizer's vaccine could be registered by December 29, registration of the Moderna vaccine is expected in early January, so it is likely that these vaccines will be the first to be vaccinated in Croatia, as the Oxford (AstraZeneca) vaccine is expected later in the first quarter of next year, said Capak.

Vaccination free and voluntary, masks still mandatory

"We've made a vaccination plan. It has all the elements except the distribution date and quantity, that's what we don't know yet. Pfizer has announced that the first round that comes to us will contain 125,000 doses. If it's a quarterly delivery, we'll be able to vaccinate 62,500 people. If there is a monthly delivery, then we will be able to vaccinate 125,000 people," said Capak, adding that the priority people are the sick, people in health care, users and staff of nursing homes. After that, the vaccine will be offered to all other residents.

"We calculate that 5.6 million doses will be enough for everyone who wants to be vaccinated. The vaccine will be free and voluntary, it will not be mandatory. But it would be good to vaccinate as many people as possible; it provides us with collective immunity," said Capak, emphasizing that the era of not wearing masks will not begin with the vaccination itself.

"For a while, we will coexist with masks even though we have been vaccinated or got over it. When the numbers fall then we will reduce the obligation to wear masks," Capak said.

The importance of informing about vaccination

"All vaccines recommend two doses. The second dose follows three or four weeks after the first. In the implementation, we took a model of how we do it for the flu. The county public health institutes will vaccinate with the help of other colleagues," he says.

Also, Capak added that it is very important to inform citizens truthfully and accurately, so the Government will hold a series of expert conferences to promote the importance of vaccination.

"In the fight against anti-vaccines, it is important to accurately inform citizens, and we are already doing that. The government will run an additional campaign, there will be a series of professional and scientific conferences, experts will talk about the vaccine and effectiveness. We will promote the importance of vaccination through the media and other means of communication and we think it is very important to emphasize in this campaign that vaccination protects not only ourselves but also others. It is a matter of social responsibility and solidarity with those most vulnerable from a coronavirus infection,” Capak said.

He added that no one even talked about compulsory vaccination.

"I will definitely get vaccinated and I offer you to record it when the vaccine comes to Croatia," Capak promised reporters and was joined by other members Davor Bozinović, Alemka Markotić, and Vili Beroš.

"It is said that this is the fastest developed vaccine in history. That is true, but one should know the fact that from the beginning it was obvious that the cure would be difficult to find. Therefore, large funds were quickly invested in vaccine research and production," Capak said in the introduction of the conference.

Sources: Hina, Index.hr.

To read more news about coronavirus in Croatia, follow our dedicated page.

ZAGREB, December 4, 2020 - A total of 3,955 new coronavirus cases and 68 infection-related deaths have been confirmed in Croatia in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Friday morning.

The number of active cases currently stands at 24,190. It includes 2,427 patients receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19, of whom 262 are on ventilators.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 143,370 people have been infected with the novel virus, of whom 2,032 have died and 117,148 have recovered, including 3,639 in the last 24 hours.

Currently 59,417 people are in self-isolation. A total of 790,883 people have been tested to date, including 10,626 in the last 24 hours.