ZAGREB, 24 November, 2021 - Slavonia and Baranja have economy, employment and population growth trends but further development requires change so that the region's potential can be utilised even more, a conference called "The Croatia we need" heard in Osijek on Wednesday.
Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Nataša Tramišak said the absorption of EU funds had certainly contributed to those trends.
In the last six years, she said, 740 enterprise projects have been contracted in Slavonia and Baranja, helping to create 2,000 and retain 11,000 jobs.
Both European and national financing should be utilised, Tramišak added.
She announced that a 2021-27 regional industrial transition concept is being planned.
"We wish to create strategic chains of value, connect small, medium and big producers, exploit raw materials, manufacture products and put them on the brand market," she said, adding that such an approach would make Slavonia and Baranja a more attractive region.
Osijek-Baranja County head Ivan Anušić said that for Slavonia to develop better, it was necessary to change some laws so that agriculture could create added value "by processing what we produce, not only to function based on incentives."
He also underlined the need for a different approach to timber exploitation and the management of the Danube and Drava rivers.
