Business
Monday, 27 January 2020
Online Platform Advertising Employment in Tourism and Hospitality Launched
ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - The Days of Jobs in Tourism events are being held in January in the three biggest Croatian cities, and in parallel the online version of this event is being organised throughout the month in a bid to attract more and more local people for various jobs during the forthcoming tourist season. The online platform called "Sezonac.hr" offers 180 advertisements for most in-demand occupations in the tourism and hospitality sectors, including waiters, receptionists, desk clerks, assistant hotel managers, jobs in cleaning and maintenance, kitchen workers, storage and logistics and so on. The MojPosao job search portal…
Monday, 27 January 2020
5 Years a Foreign Entrepreneur in Croatia: The Good, Bad & Ugly
January 27, 2020 - Life as a foreign entrepreneur in Croatia as so many local people are emigrating. Mirela Rus from Break Time reflects on the good, the bad, and the ugly of her first five years of doing business in Croatia. About five years ago, at the Days of Small Boatbuilding at Le Meridien Lav in Podstrana, I met a very nice Romanian couple with a stand selling nautical jewellery which they made themselves. They explained that this was their new business, and they planned to make it work so well that it would support their new life in…
Monday, 27 January 2020
Kerum Selling Famous Drnis Prosciutto Factory for 12 Million Kuna
The failed Kerum trade chain is selling off its property in the area of the inland Dalmatian town of Drnis, which once used to breed pigs for the well-known and widely adored Drnis prosciutto. As Novac/Tanja Gattin Zebic writes on the 26th of January, 2020, namely, the courts had their eye on a former pig farm belonging to the Split-based ''Mesopromet'', which was one of the largest meat industries in all of Dalmatia until the Homeland War in the 1990s. In the advertisement for sale it is named after its microlocation - the Miocic-Siveric pig farm. Today, this property in…
Saturday, 25 January 2020
Slovenian Company Petrol Not Hiding Investment Interest in Croatia
The new head of the Slovenian company Petrol confirmed that they are indeed looking at possible acquisitions. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 25th of January, 2020, the Slovenian company Petrol remains interested in investing and expanding into the markets of Southeastern Europe, including the Croatian market, even after the appointment of the new president of the board of directors, Nada Drobna Popovic, according to Slovenian media. She confirmed to Slovenian Radio that the company is interested in growing in Slovenia and across into other markets where it has been present so far, the most important of which is its…
Saturday, 25 January 2020
Use of Artificial Intelligence: Comparing Croatia with Other Countries' Strategies
January 25, 2020 - The AI revolution is upon us. How much is Croatia lagging behind, and are we going to do something about it? In my previous TCN article on Artificial Intelligence and Croatia, I mentioned that Croatia could engage in the following actions: What needs to be defined and followed by regulations is the following: Comprehensive public policy on AI for sustainable development Ensuring inclusion and equality in AI in education Preparing teachers for AI-powered education and preparing AI to understand education Some of the potential use cases for the AI in Education systems could be: Personalization - remedial…
Thursday, 23 January 2020
Croatia Increases Share of Renewable Energy in Consumption
ZAGREB, January 23, 2020 - Croatia increased the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption in 2018, joining the group of European Union member states that have surpassed their national 2020 binding targets, according to a report by the EU statistical office, Eurostat, released on Thursday. In 2018, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption reached 18.0% in the European Union, up from 17.5% in 2017 and more than double the share in 2004 (8.5%), the first year for which the data are available, Eurostat said. The increase in the share of renewables…
Thursday, 23 January 2020
Gross Foreign Debt to GDP Ratio 81%
ZAGREB, January 23, 2020 - At the end of the third quarter of 2019, Croatia's gross foreign debt to GDP ratio amounted to 80.9%, which is 1.7 percentage points less than at the end of 2018, Croatian National Bank (HNB) data indicate. In absolute numbers the debt increased by 1.3% compared with December 2018 and amounted to 43.3 billion euro at the end of September 2019. The HNB notes that the increase was impacted by cross-currency changes and other adjustments. Broken down by sector, the greatest portion of the debt (39%) can be attributed to other sectors or companies. The…
Thursday, 23 January 2020
Đuro Đaković Group Must Undergo Restructuring, Find Strategic Partner
ZAGREB, January 23, 2020 - Economy Minister Darko Horvat said on Thursday that the Đuro Đaković metal and mechanical engineering group, which is expected to receive today a loan in the amount of 150 million kuna, did have prospects but that it had to make a plan for its overhaul and find a strategic partner. Asked about the Slavonski Brod-based company, which Prime Minister Andrej Plenković is expected to visit today, Horvat told reporters after a meeting of the inner cabinet that the company would use the 150 million kuna loan to pay a part of its financial obligations. "...…
Thursday, 23 January 2020
RBA CEO Mueller Resigns in Wake of PR Agency Affair
ZAGREB, January 23, 2020 - Michael Mueller, the president of the management board of the Raiffeisen Bank (RBA), resigned on Wednesday in the wake of the negative perception in public regarding a tender to procure the services of a PR agency, the bank has reported. I am aware of the strong negative perception generated of Raiffeisen Bank and its management and I stress that the said document in no way reflects the intention of the bank's management. I have decided to resign in order to protect the bank's reputation, Mueller said. The press release notes that Andreas Gschwenter is Chief…
Thursday, 23 January 2020
Vodnjan's Infobip Plans to Employ 1000 New Workers on Global Level
When it comes to Croatian companies, there tends to be an enormous amounts of excellent ideas and promising businesses but the state tends to put up too much red tape for them to succeed. Croatia doesn't provide a business friendly atmosphere, nor does it handle investments well, and as for entrepreneurs, they often feel that their only hope is to leave. Infobip from Vodnjan, however, isn't one of them. We've written extensively about Infobip and how this company has beaten the odds and managed to grow to proportions I imagine not even its founder, Silvio Kutic, could have imagined. This…
Thursday, 23 January 2020
Turkey's Dogus Group Sells Off Marinas in Republic of Croatia
As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of January, 2020, Dogus Group, a Turkish company that is continuing the process of selling off its assets as part of its restructuring to get out of the financial issues that were caused by a significant drop in the Turkish lira, explained the move in detail. Although Dogus Group said midway through last year that their property sale process would not cover their portfolio in Croatia, they clearly found a good buyer, and CVC VII's CVC Capital Partners fully acquired all three Croatian marinas from D-Marin, Borik, Dalmatia and Mandalina. With the acquisition…
