Business

ZAGREB, February 14, 2019 - The Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday ruled that Croatia's legislation on retroactive invalidation of loans concluded with foreign lenders not authorised to provide credit services in that Member State is against the EU acquis if the legislation is not applied also on Croatian lenders. The Luxembourg-based court concludes "that EU law precludes legislation of a Member State under which credit agreements and other legal acts based on those agreements concluded with a lender which is established in a Member State other than that of the recipient of the service and which…

ZAGREB, February 13, 2019 - The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) executive directors have established that in 2018 Croatia continued its fourth year of positive economic growth as well as its fiscal consolidation albeit at a slower rate, and they also call for improving the business climate in Croatia and rationalisation of the public companies' sectors as well as improvements in bankruptcy legislation. "The economic expansion continues, driven primarily by private consumption and exports of goods and services," the IMF says in a press release after the conclusion of 2018 Article IV Consultation, on 8 February. The fund's Executive Directors welcome…

Engadet.com reports that the company specialized in contactless EV charging, WiTricity, has acquired their rival Qualcomm's wireless charging tech. Why would that be a piece of news appearing on the web-site covering Croatia in English language? Because of the founder of WiTricity, Croatian physicist turned innovator turned enterpreneur - Marin Soljačić. Born in Zagreb in 1974, after graduating from one of the most prestigious high-schools in Zagreb, the 15 Gimnazija (specializing in mathematics and natural sciences), Soljačić moved to the US, where he got the double undergraduate degree at the MIT (in physics and in electrical engineering). After that, he…

ZAGREB, February 13, 2019 - There are numerous possibilities for strengthening economic cooperation between Croatia and Montenegro, notably in the energy sector, transport, construction and tourism, it was said at a Croatian-Montenegrin business forum, held at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) in Zagreb on Wednesday. "Cooperation possibilities between Montenegro and Croatia have not been adequately used so far. Even though it has been growing, their trade is too modest considering their proximity to one another. But as evidenced by the presence of representatives of more than 100 companies at today's forum, opportunity always prevails over difficulty in the business…

ZAGREB, February 13 2019 - The chairman of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) parliamentary group, Branko Bačić, on Wednesday dismissed the opposition's claims that the proposed amendments to the INA Privatisation Act favoured the Hungarian energy group MOL to facilitate INA's privatisation, stressing that the purpose of the proposed amendments was to further protect national interests in the Croatian oil and gas company. "There is not a single provision in this bill that reduces the influence and importance of government representatives and members of INA's bodies. On the contrary, their influence and importance is strengthened. This position has been…

On 11 February, the application process for the fifth edition of PowerUp! begins. Participants have the chance to compete for the main prize of 50 000€ and the opportunity to develop their business on a global scale. The contest, organized by InnoEnergy, is the largest start-up competition in Central-Eastern Europe, including areas such as energy, mobility and smart technologies. The competition not only offers a promising financial prize, but also the opportunity to join InnoEnergy’s prestigious business accelerator. The Highway® program, aims to develop start-up projects and adapt them to the European market. Those who join the program can expect support…

February 13, 2019 - It’s always encouraging to hear about Croatia’s young innovators, and today, we have yet another story to bring you - this time, out of Split. Meet EazyOil.  EazyOil is an automated payment system for gas stations based on the automatic OCR number-plate recognition. The idea was borne by a team of four highly skilled engineers, including Josip Balić (hardware specialist), Matko Đipalo (experienced web developer), Filip Krišto (web and IoT developer), and Duje Roje (embedded developer), who were brought together after winning a ‘hackathon’ contest. It didn’t take long for these four innovators to realize that…

ZAGREB, February 13, 2019 - Without sufficient and qualified workers, there can be no successful tourism, which has seen a deficit in the labour force over the past few years and in order to attract and keep tourist workers, it is necessary to foremost increase their earnings so that they are more like those in neighbouring EU countries, which means that employers should be further unburdened, a conference on workers in tourism heard on Tuesday. The conference, organised by the Ministry of Tourism, the Večernji List daily and Poslovni Dnevnik business daily, brought together representatives of the tourism industry, consultants,…

ZAGREB, February 13, 2019 - Economy Minister Darko Horvat said on Tuesday that at the moment the government did not have a final decision as to whether Uljanik shipyard would go bankrupt or be bailed out, and described figures that are being mentioned in the media as the government's cost to restructure Uljanik as unverified. Asked what costs of Uljanik's restructure the state would consider realistic and acceptable, Horvat said that he would not bother to explain the figure of 10 billion kuna being mentioned in the media. He recalled that so far the state had issued and paid guarantees…

ZAGREB, February 12, 2019 - Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Tuesday that Croatia was not at risk of recession and that Croatia's economy would grow significantly more than 2% while the negative impact of other economies slowing down on Croatia's tourism could be buffered by raising the quality in that sector. Ćorić was replying to reporters outside Government House ahead of a meeting of coalition partners when asked about theories that another recession could occur on the global level in 2020 and whether Croatia should be concerned. He said that although there are some indications of a…