ZAGREB, November 5, 2018 - Croatia's economic stagnation is a direct consequence of the fact that its ruling coalition is the result of political trade-offs, the opposition MOST party said on Monday, calling on the governing parties to accept its proposals if they wanted Croatia to join the top 30 countries in the Doing Business ranking.
"Since 2017, Croatia has fallen from 43rd to 58th place in the Doing Business ranking. Croatia is growing very slowly, while all countries in its neighbourhood are growing much faster. The problem of issuing building permits in Zagreb is one of the reasons for such a poor showing. There is also a problem with the public electricity utility HEP and its 50 percent higher costs of connection than in other transition countries," said Vedran Jerković, the head of the party's economic council, while discussing the issue of stagnation.
The party recalled that it had left a finalised action plan for public administration to the present government and 887 million kuna from EU funds. "Why aren't you implementing it? Why don't you tell the public how much money you have absorbed so far from the EU? The Doing Business ranking for 2019 will be even worse for Croatia. What does Mr Plenković say about that? What will be his excuse?" MOST leader Božo Petrov said.
"Plenković has said that the aim of his government is for Croatia to make it into the top 30 in the Doing Business ranking, and Croatia is backsliding. The government doesn't understand what the word 'reform' means. I call on the ruling parties to accept MOST's proposals if they really want Croatia to make it into the top 30," Petrov said.
Apart from the reform of public administration, MOST also proposes adopting a law on start-ups and reviewing profit tax as "a classic example of double taxation".
"The biggest problem for Croatia is a cumbersome public apparatus for which nearly 28 billion kuna is set aside annually. Another problem is a large number of procedures and steps in procedures, as well as messy public registers," MOST MP Sonja Čikotić said.
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