Business

Croatian companies are often forced to deal with cruel bureaucracy and draconian laws governing that red tape. Many would-be entrepreneurs sadly end up with a bitter taste left in their mouths after an attempt to get their ideas of the ground here in Croatia, but not everything is quite so bleak. Meet Orqa, a Croatian startup from the Eastern Croatian city of Osijek, which is the fastest growing Croatian Kickstarter campaign so far. As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of June, 2019, this Osijek-based startup Orqa has enjoyed the fastest growing Kickstarter campaign in the Republic of Croatia to…

There has been much talk of late about the potential fate of the enfeebled Uljanik shipyard, as well as the 3 Maj shipyard, and what the future might hold for Croatian shipbuilding as a whole. It seems that any potential boost that a Chinese investment could have brought to this ailing industry has been lost. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 21st of June, 2019, Minister Darko Horvat has admitted that there is no serious interest whatsoever from the Chinese in investing in Uljanik in Pula, or the 3 Maj shipyard in Rijeka, delivering a damaging blow to any remaining…

ZAGREB, June 20, 2019 - Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Marić on Wednesday announced a fourth round of tax cuts in accordance with the country's fiscal capacity, saying that each previous round had benefited citizens, businesses and the government budget itself. Speaking in an interview with the RTL commercial television channel, Marić said that the task force set up for this purpose in 2016 would meet within the next few days to exchange opinions, adding that a public consultation would be held during the summer break to present new measures aimed at relieving the tax burden on businesses. "We have been…

ZAGREB, June 20, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković met with European Commissioner for Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon and discussed Croatia's preparations to enter the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) and the eurozone. The ERM II is a sort of waiting room for entry into the eurozone and each country has to remain in it for at least two years. During a recent visit to Croatia outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Croatia was completely prepared to join the ERM II mechanism soon. The European Central Bank decides on whether…

ZAGREB, June 19, 2019 - The state-owned roads operator Hrvatske Ceste (HC) plans to invest 2.6 billion kuna in road construction and maintenance this year, while the Hrvatske Autoceste (HAC) motorways company will invest 627 million kuna for the same purpose, Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. HC will invest 942 million kuna, or 37 percent of the planned amount, in road construction using EU funds, 640 million kuna or 25 percent in road construction using own funds, 548 million kuna or 21 percent in reconstruction and maintenance, and 423 million…

June the 19th, 2019 - Travelling is a lot of fun, and often you won’t think about issues that might happen when you’re planning your vacation. One of the most inconvenient things that can happen is definitely when your flight to a destination is cancelled, delayed or you're denied boarding. Meet ClaimDon. A situation like this directly affects your holiday or business and makes you lose time in a place you did not plan to stay and spend money on expenses like unplanned accommodation, transfers, food, or a new ticket. To protect passengers, the European Commission (EC) introduced regulation 261/2004. The regulation is set on…

ZAGREB, June 19, 2019 - Croatian Energy and Environment Protection Minister Tomislav Ćorić and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday agreed on setting up a working group tasked with analysing the potential cooperation on the gas markets of the two neighbouring countries. After their talks in Zagreb on Wednesday morning, Ćorić said that they had discussed the possibilities of developing cooperation between the Croatian and Hungarian gas markets. We have agreed on establishing a working group consisting of Croatian and Hungarian experts and in the coming months it will analyse potential pros and cons of such form of cooperation,…

ZAGREB, June 19, 2019 - Croatian Labour and Pension System Minister Marko Pavić said on Tuesday that the government would on Wednesday allow the issuance of 2,000 more work permits for foreign workers in the tourist industry plus an additional 1,000 work permits for foreigners in the construction sector. Pavić said in an interview with the RTL commercial broadcaster that as soon as recently employers urged the government to allow the employment of 5,000 more foreign workers, the government responded that they should exhaust the hiring possibilities in the country. In this context, Pavić mentioned that out of 1,600 local…

ZAGREB, June 18, 2019 - The Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on Tuesday organised a conference called "Can Croatia make it without foreign workers?" which heard that Croatia needs a no-quota model for the import of labour, that 500,000 left the country over the past decade and that the able-bodied population will drop by one million by 2051. According to projections, the number of able-bodied persons will drop from 2.8 million today to 1.8 million in 30 years or so and today it is clear that demographic changes will restrict GDP growth, said Anđelko Akrap, a professor at the Zagreb…

Despite numerous moves being attempted to be made by Croatia's government and the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), there's sadly bad press for Croatia's economy as countries like Romania put better measures in place. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of June, 2019, according to Eurostat, Slovakia is the third highest country on the list in terms of wage and salary increases (around 9 percent), with Slovenia, the Baltic countries and the Czech Republic, where salaries have risen by about 8 percent a year, gaining on it. For the past year, Romania has increased its average salaries by as much…