September 27, 2021 - The Croatian National Security Report 2021 says Croatia is a stable democracy, but some issues which need to have an eye kept on them have been revealed.

Like any country which cares about national security, Croatia has its own intelligence agency. Croatia's Security and Intelligence Agency (acronym, or in spy terms, code name SOA) collects and analyses information in an attempt to detect and prevent the activities of individuals or groups that threaten the independence, integrity, and sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia, and/or those who aim at violently overthrowing constitutional order. Additionally, let's suppose you're in Croatia and you try threatening human rights and basic freedoms or want to endanger the fundaments of the economic system of the Republic of Croatia, in that case, you will also make it to the list of this organization.

''SOA also collects and analyses political, economic, scientific-technological and security-related information concerning foreign countries, organisations, political and economic alliances, groups and persons and other information relevant to national security,'' explains SOA's public website.

As Slobodna Dalmacija writes, SOA has so far published seven reports assessing the threats to Croatia's well being previous years. The latest reports, as Slobodna Dalmacija writes, rates Croatia as a safe and stable democracy. However, the pandemic boosted the rise of extremism and radicalism in the country, namely due to disinformation and conspiracy theories in the European and national response to this unprecedented public health crisis.

The terrorist threat in Croatia is low but not completely out of the equation.

As TCN wrote back in October 2020, a policeman was wounded on St Mark's square (Markov trg) in Zagreb (which is home to both the parliament and governmental building) by 20-year-old Danijel Bezuk, who, shortly after the incident and while on the run, took his own life.

''SOA states that the attack had the features of a terrorist assault from the extreme right spectrum and the gathered data suggest a psychological disorder of someone with a disassociative, bipolar personality. However, no type of extremism has significant basis nor public support and therefore no potential for endangering national security,'' writes Slobodna Dalmacija.

Nonetheless, more serious threats have been identified and explained.

When it comes to internal threats, corruption should come as no surprise. Criminal organisations and individuals, SOA warns, try to illegally affect public representatives.

''The attempts of corruptive influence on political, legal, economic and other processes and on public interest decision making processes are particularly worrying,'' says Slobodna Dalmacija in following SOA's report. Looking at solely external threats, the tensions between EU and Russia didn't bypass Croatia as SOA confirmed 12 state-sponsored cybernetic attacks in Croatia which came with a Russian signature.

Additionally, tensions in neighbouring countries need to be observed closely from the perspective of Croatian national security, warns SOA.

''The report states that Greater Serbian extremism is still present in certain neighbouring countries, and this is evident in their denying Croatia and neighbouring countries their territorial integrity,'' Slobodna Dalmacija reports.

Following previous TCN writing, this is clearly a reference to the tensions in Montenegro as well as Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić's calls on ethnic Serbs in Croatia to raise Serbian banners in the country. When it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, radical Islam, which also questions the integrity and values of both democracy and territorial borders, is also a reason for serious concern.

If you don't look for trouble, but trouble always ends up finding you, you can learn more about the emergency services that can help you in Croatia in our TC guide.

For more about security in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 21st of May, 2019, the Zagreb software company Ingemark and the RoomOrders startup, launched by Croats despite having been registered in America, created the first application (app) for ordering food from hotels to hotel rooms and started to conquer the many challenges of the huge global market. They began with the development of this application at the end of 2017, and back then, as a pilot project, they first tested it out at the Hilton Hotel in Boston.

According to them, they will launch RoomOrders at the Hilton Sydney hotel, and then in Belgrade's Hilton in Serbia by the end of the month. The application's software, in which 2 million euro has so far been invested was started by the Zagreb-based company Ingemark, which has been in existence since as far back as 1990, and as of 2006, it has specialised in software development by order.

Funds for the application's development have also been withdrawn from EU funds. In the list of references are big clients such as Agrokor, Adris, HT... One of the most significant cooperations was, as they say, one in the Middle East where clients developed a platform that distributed multimedia content, and soon their latest project, ZorroTines, a regional music platform, will see the light of day right here on the Croatian market. Right now, it seems that this Zagreb company's RoomOrders app is going to go very far indeed.

As Eugene Brčić Jones, the marketing and sales manager at RoomOrders revealed, last week at the International Hotel Technology Forum in Zagreb, the company negotiated with numerous hotel industry leaders about integrating their products.

"We've intrigued the leading world chains and deepened the existing relationships, about which we're certain will bring us to the position of ''disrupter'' of the in-room dining segment within the hotel industry," Brčić Jones said, adding that he believes that in several years, it will be present in a number of world hotels which boast 4 and 5 stars.

"With the help of the RoomOrders application, guests in hotels can order food to their rooms in a few clicks and not in the ''old fashioned'' way. In addition to it having a faster mode, hotels can embark on this project without any large investments," explained Ingemark's director Jurica Mikulić, adding that the application has managed to receive some excellent initial customer reviews and financial results for the hotel. Hilton in Boston has increased its average order value by as much as thirty percent.

''We offer a simple solution that not only increases revenue, but promotes hotels through user-generated content and facilitates analytics. The greatest benefit is that this solution can be implemented without disturbances to the processes involved, and it provides almost instantaneous results,'' Brčić Jones added.

The author of the application, Haris Dizdarević, explained that the creation of RoomOrders was triggered by the current rather obsolete ways of ordering and the obvious need for faster selection and the changing of the menu that guests want in the room.

"We realised we should digitise the offer and thus expand it. The simple idea has become a complex but a successful project," said Dizdarević, explaining that the positive signal was the fact that hotel guests continue to use the application after the first time of using it, and for several days in a row. Although they acknowledge that the Croatian market is not really a priority, they're still negotiating with several Croatian hotels in Dubrovnik and with Maistra, Blue Lagoon (Plava Laguna) and Liburna, and that soon, the application will be launched in Sheraton, part of the huge global Marriott hotel chain.

Otherwise, RoomOrders was introduced DoubleTree by Hilton in Zagreb a few months ago, but then it was a modified version of the app.

"With the new application or system, the guest can, as soon as he is given the room after booking, in advance, even when travelling, immediately choose a range of dishes and orders so that it's ready and waiting in the room upon their arrival. The guest doesn't need to order it from the hotel room, they can do it in advance and choose from a simple and flexible application where all the photos, descriptions and the prices of the food and drinks in the hotel's offer are,'' they explain from hotel Sheraton where this new type of offer and service will be on offer by the end of May, which will, as they say, bring about improvements.

"The application also enables sharing of guest experience on the platform, real-time appraisal of food and services so that the hotel can almost react at the same time to all guests' comments and adapt to the current wishes and preferences of the guest," they added from Sheraton.

"We're sure that at some point there will be some competitors in this segment on the market, but we believe that we're strong and already ahead of them all. We're focusing on the development of this product which we want to make perfect. Along with marketing, the analytic component is the most important, to be more concrete, the analysis of the reactions, comments and the number of orders, so, the entire internal process. We hope to conclude this year with good results and continue to expand successfully,'' Brčić Jones concluded.

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Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik

Croatian companies have a chance for further growth and more exporting should Croatia decide to deepen its business ties and cooperation with China, the country which is currently undertaking the mammoth task of constructing Pelješac bridge.

As Suzana Varosanec/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of March, 2019, at the 8th Summit of heads of government of central and eastern European countries and China, which will be held from the 9th to the 12th of April in Dubrovnik, the "Dubrovnik Guidelines" document is expected to be adopted, which will lay out the activities in this format in the forthcoming phase.

The summit on the EU and China set to take place in the Belgian capital of Brussels on the 9th of April is expected with interest, and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang is coming to Croatia. There are bilateral talks between Keqiang and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on the agenda, as well as the signing of several already concluded bilateral agreements in Zagreb. In line with the things that are set to be dealt with and concluded at the summit, Croatia and China could strengthen their blossoming cooperation with as many as ten brand new agreements. Other major Croatian expectations for the strengthening of overall relations with China are also awaited with gritted teeth, with the greatest interest being expressed in the areas of infrastructure, tourism and SMEs.

After the construction of Pelješac bridge, which is being built by China's CRBC, will yet more new infrastructural advances, such as the modernisation of Croatia's railway system, soon come to pass? The plans are also for the Chinese and Croatian prime ministers to visit this huge construction site down in southern Dalmatia. The Chinese delegation will consist of around 250 members, and that isn't including the 300 business community representatives coming to the 9th business forum ''16 plus 1''.

A total of more than 700 entrepreneurs have been registered, and many opportunities are on offer to Croatian companies when looking at entering the giant Chinese market, meaning that the initiative is on them. B2B meetings can be arranged with the help of an application created by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), and as Croatia's SME coordinator, it will officially launch the 16 + 1 coordination mechanism for small and medium-sized enterprises. The major promise for Croatian companies which operate within a multitude of different sectors lies in exports when it comes to deeper cooperation in doing business with China.

Croatia's visibility for the Chinese is continually growing, by about fifteen percent annually, while the number of tourists from China has increased by an enormous 120 percent over the past two years alone. In 2019, a record 300,000 Chinese tourists are expected to visit Croatia, which is the fastest growing market in the whole of the Republic of Croatia.

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Click here for the original article by Suzana Varosanec for Poslovni Dnevnik