Business

As Gordana Grgas/Novac writes on the 8th of April, 2019, if there was a European tender held solely to attract Chinese investment, the champion would certainly be Great Britain, followed by Germany, and then immediately by Italy and France. Croatia might not be anywhere near the top of China's European ''wish list'', but despite that, the Chinese interest just keeps on coming... The countries which make up Central and Eastern Europe are low on the aforementioned European scale, even though with China, at least since the year 2012, they have enjoyed a special relationship through the China + 16 initiative,…

ZAGREB, April 8, 2019 - Croatia's HEP national electricity provider on Monday presented a new investment cycle in solar power plants valued at 750 million kuna with the first investments to be made in the Kaštelir, Cres, Vis and Vrlika Jug plants with a total power of 11.6 megawatts (MW) and a value of 80 million kuna. HEP management board chair Frane Barbarić said that under the big investment scheme the company would invest 750 million kuna by 2023 or 150 million kuna a year for that purpose. Of the four above-mentioned facilities, the Sabadin plant, which will now be…

ZAGREB, April 8, 2019 - The Sustainable Development of Croatia (ORaH) party and the European Green Party (EGP) said on Monday they would insist on full transparency of the financing and construction of an LNG terminal on Krk island so that it does not jeopardise Croatian citizens' standard of living as well as the health and livelihood of the people of the Kvarner coastal region, notably the people of Krk. The two parties held a press conference after Thomas Waitz, a member of the European Parliament and of the EGP executive committee, visited the northern Adriatic island to establish the…

ZAGREB, April 7, 2019 - Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Žalac, who toured the "Croatian Islands Products" fair in Zagreb's Ban Jelačić Square, said that her ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture planned to open a store in Zagreb with domestic island products. The fair, featuring products from Croatian islands, is being held between March 27 and April 7 with 29 producers exhibiting their products from Vis, Lastovo, Brač, Korcula, Krk, Hvar, Prvić, Rab, Dugi Otok, Pag, Rava, Cres, Ugljan and the Pelješac peninsula. The aim of the fair is to promote products that carry the "Croatian Island…

Chinese-Croatian relations grow ever closer as the Chinese expand their business empire in Dalmatia, not merely stopping at Pelješac bridge. The Chinese are now setting their sights on a vehicle factory in southern Croatia. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of April, 2019, an army of unemployed people, almost three thousand of them in total who are registered at the employment centres in Metković and Ploče in the Neretva region, received the news with understandably huge enthusiasm. The Chinese will re-launch the Neretva valley, Slobodna Dalmacija writes, breathing life back into a part of Dalmatia that really needs it.…

At the beginning of April 2019, the Ministry of Economy launched a new website dedicated to investors - Invest Croatia. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of April, 2019, Invest Croatia is available in both Croatian and English language and contains an abundance of useful and necessary information for the preparation and eventual realisation of investment projects in the Republic of Croatia, from general macroeconomic indicators, all the way to the examination of entrepreneurial zones and a list of available incentives for investors. After making a decision or selecting Croatia for the realisation of an investment plan, the next step…

ZAGREB, April 6, 2019 - Of all the tourists arriving in Croatia, 12.5% do so solely for the culture, and Croatia is full of excellent combinations of culture and tourism, Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli said on Friday at a panel on cultural heritage and the development of tourism. The panel was held in Miljana Castle in Krapina-Zagorje County and was attended, among others by Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek, Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, and Slovenian Economic Development and Technology Minister Zdravko Počivalšek. Obuljen Koržinek said the development of culture was a driver of tourism, notably in small communities. She highlighted…

CLEVELAND, April 4, 2019 – The Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP) hosted medical professionals from the United States and Croatia at a business meeting to advance the agenda of the ACAP Medical Task Force at a gathering on Saturday, March 30, 2019.   This event marks the third in-person meeting for the ACAP Medical Tourism Task Force. The initiative was launched in 2016 to identify opportunities for businesses and professionals to create relationships and open dialogue with organizations and entities in Croatia involved in the growing healthcare sector of medical tourism.  “It’s amazing to see the talent and excellence…

''ECA has never been supported by the Croatian administration even though we have linked the islands and the coast without the use of one kuna of state money,'' says D. Thiele, the representative of German investors who were shoved from pillar to post in an attempt to get the seaplane project off the ground again. As Sasa Paparella/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of April, 2019, two and a half years after inspectors of the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency (HACZ) grounded all four of ECA's airplanes for allegedly endangering flight safety back in August 2016, European Coastal Airlines (ECA) and…

Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia slowed down to 3.1 percent in 2018, and it is predicted to fall to 2.1 percent in 2019 due to a slower rate of global growth and uncertain prospects. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of April, 2019, the Croatian economy continued to grow at a rate of 2.6 percent in 2018, while in the forthcoming period from 2019-2021 moderate growth is expected at an average rate of 2.5 percent, according to the World Bank's most recent report on the latest economic trends in Europe and Central Asia (N1). The countries of…