Business

With the firm support of the Croatian Trade Union, since the 1st of January this year, Konzum increased the salaries of its employees by a net amount of 350 kuna. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of February, 2019, this wage increase from Konzum refers to employees who are being paid on the basis of coefficiency and will be paid permanently, in addition to their usual monthly salaries, in an amount that is entirely non-taxable, starting with the first such salary from January this year. "I'm glad to start this year with some good news for our employees. Their…

ZAGREB, February 1, 2019 - The EU28 unemployment rate in December 2018 remained the lowest rate recorded since the start of the European Union monthly unemployment series in January 2000, while unemployment in Croatia it mildly decreased and was again lower than the euro area average, according to Eurostat. The EU28 unemployment rate was 6.6% in December 2018, stable compared with November 2018 and down from 7.2% in December 2017. The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.9% in December 2018, stable compared with November 2018 and down from 8.6% in December 2017. This remains the lowest rate recorded in…

ZAGREB, January 30, 2019 - The government decided on Wednesday to invite bids for licenses for oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the Dinaric Alps, with Environmental Protection and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić saying it was part of the government's activities to boost Croatia's energy autonomy. Bids will be invited for four areas covering 12,134 square kilometres in total in Karlovac, Lika-Senj, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Zadar, Split-Dalmatia and Šibenik-Knin counties. Exploration is to last five years. It excludes national parks and areas off the coast and the Bosnian border. The tender will be advertised by the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency and…

ZAGREB, January 30, 2019 - Environment Protection and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić on Wednesday told a press conference that the operating costs of the LNG terminal on the island of Krk would be covered from an existing lease and security of supply fees (S.O.S fees). Questioned by reporters following a cabinet meeting at which a decision was adopted on financing the first stage of a floating terminal project, whether there were any figures of the LNG terminal's business over the next 10 to 15 years, Ćorić said that he expects the terminal's operating costs to be settled from an existing…

From Friday, paying the tolls for cars leaving the motorway system at the Vučevica toll station during the night will be possible exclusively with the electronic toll collection (ENC) system. This is part of a pilot project for a new regime of toll collection at smaller and low-frequency toll stations, announced the Croatian Motorways (HAC) public company on Wednesday, reports Jutarnji List on January 30, 2019. According to the announcement, the ENC ONLY exit system will be operational only overnight, from 10 pm to 6 am, and the Vučevica toll station is the first to enter the new regime. The…

ZAGREB, January 30, 2019 - Energy and Environment Protection Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Wednesday that a bill of amendments to the law on the privatisation of the INA oil company, which the government recently sent to parliament, safeguarded Croatia's interests to the maximum amount. On 23 January, the government tabled the bill which aligns the INA law with European Union legislation and protects Croatia's energy interests as well as the state's interests in INA, as stated by the government on that occasion. However, the opposition has criticised the Andrej Plenković cabinet about the detrimental effects of the latest proposal,…

One Labin factory goes from the worrying signs of closure to contracting brand new jobs in a dramatic yet welcome turnaround. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of January, 2019, back in October last year, the Syndicate of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia warned that after five years of successfully dealing with mobile homes for camps, there would be a possibility of shutting down the CR Abitare factory in Labin, Istria. Instead of getting the sack from the company, which at one point looked like an unfortunate yet very likely option, the workers of the Labin-based company CR Abitare, who…

ZAGREB, January 30, 2019 - Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Tuesday that in the next 30 years Croatia could become self-sufficient in electricity production and eventually start exporting electricity. Ćorić made the statement at the conference "Towards a new energy strategy", organised by the Jutarnji List daily. He noted that for a country the size of Croatia it was difficult to achieve full energy independence, especially with fossil fuels. "What we can do over the next 10 or 20 or 30 years is to try to fully meet our needs from our own electricity production and eventually…

ZAGREB, January 29, 2019 - Following media reports that a Polish slaughter house was processing meat from sick cows, Croatia's chief veterinary inspector, Gordan Jerbić, said on Tuesday that Croatia did not import meat of sick cows from Poland and that there was no need for local consumers to fear. "An inspection of the documents attached to each animal shipment imported into Croatia established that Croatia did not import meat from that abattoir," Jerbić told reporters after media outlets released secretly taken footage of exceptionally sick cows that were being smuggled into the Polish abattoir and processed without hardly any…

ZAGREB, January 29, 2019 - With the process of registering the new names of the future Agrokor Group mirror companies having been completed, the procedure to appoint the management boards/ managing directors of the new companies started before the Commercial Court of Zagreb on Tuesday, Agrokor's emergency administration said in a press release. The management boards and managing directors of the mirror companies will mostly remain the same as in the existing Group companies. Changes will only be made at several smaller companies where individual management board members / directors have announced that they will leave for other reasons of…