One Croat in Ireland has detailed how he often finds himself on the verge of purchasing a ticket back to Croatia, more specifically to Dubrovnik, from what is often marketed as the promised land - the Emerald Isle.

Ireland has become a favourite destination alongside the likes of Germany for Croatian citizens seeking a better life and more economic stability abroad. Since the country joined the EU back in July 2013, the barriers to foreign labour markets within the EU dropped and allowed for the ease of entry of Croats hungry for a fatter wage packet and the chance to get jobs based on skill rather than connections.

While many are glad to have left, others are greeted with quite the shock after the novelty of life in Ireland has worn off, and it isn't just this Croat in Ireland dreaming nostalgically of home in Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of March, 2020, the beginnings of almost anything are always difficult, and for this Croat in Ireland and for many others like him, one has to get used to the different customs, the very different Irish climate, they need to find an apartment... but Mario thinks that he's doing well, and his desire for learning and new experiences hasn't left him.

Mario Miletic changed his address at the end of January this year. A Dubrovnik man who founded the Croatian Parking Services Association and very often and very openly criticised various social anomalies online, but also warned others about the bad situation in Croatia, decided to seek his happiness in Ireland, which, as stated, has become a new home for thousands of Croats over the last few years.

He told Dubrovacki dnevnik a little more about his experiences, as well as a decision he had long thought about. After landing in Dublin in January, he had to return after a week for personal reasons, but did not give up on the move to Ireland. He said that staying here in Croatia was simply not an option.

“I've been thinking about leaving for years, since the first legal process was initiated (a precedent for an administrative lawsuit against the University of Dubrovnik was obtained). Before leaving, I decided to do everything in my power to try to change things and try to make a positive impact on society, so I set up a civil society association with my colleagues. The idea of ​​leaving was, de facto, realised by itself. When you decide to do something, everything comes together for you to be able to accomplish it. Although, the internet has helped a little bit,'' says this Croat in Ireland who is currently working as a bartender in an Irish pub, but doesn't intend to stay there.

Therefore, he applies daily for job advertisements, aiming to get a job in the IT industry. He has even contacted Google and is aiming to continue his education, perhaps to graduate from college in Ireland. The decision to leave was not an easy one.

This Croat in Ireland often finds himself on the verge of buying a ticket back to Dubrovnik.

"The departure was extremely difficult, it still is, and I'm on the verge of buying a plane ticket to Dubrovnik every day. The people close to him in his life, right up until his last day in Croatia, didn't believe he was really leaving. And now it's hard for them, at least that's what they say,'' Mario said.

"My first experience was a bit negative, it was a clash of customs. But after things were explained, the positives prevailed and I returned again. As the Irish explained to me, the weather in February 2020 was the worst in recent years, after our January sunshine, this was a huge change for the worse. For now, I think I've done well, the language isn't a problem, the fact the system is all online is a great thing for me, and I'm learning a little more. The biggest challenge is finding a reasonably priced apartment because they're astronomical when compared to what we're used to,'' said Mario.

The biggest Croatian problem is the reluctance of institutions to change anything, according to Mario.

In Croatia, he said, he was extremely disturbed by the lack of functioning of institutions, which isn't the case in Ireland, which, Miletic points out, respects the rights of workers. General inertia, nepotism, an atmosphere of less value, lies that came from representatives of political power and, as he says, an artificially created negative atmosphere, are just some of the reasons for his departure from Croatia, despite the pangs of his heart that often lead to him wanting to buy a return ticket home to Dubrovnik.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

As Novac/Tanja Simundic Bendic writes on the 17th of February, 2020, never before have Croatian hospitality industry employers from the coast set out in search of a workforce so early before. The situation is alarming, there is a shortage of chefs, waiters, support staff, to such an extent that the search for a good worker began as early as October last year.

In comparison, in the previous tourist seasons, Croatian hospitality industry employers started looking for staff at the end of March. This year, the situation is already desperate. This is known firsthand, from the famous Croatian chef, Duje Pisac from Split, a man who last year brought 200 workers from neighbouring Serbia to work in Dalmatian restaurants.

''This year, more are coming, people of all profiles,'' he stated for Slobodna Dalmacija.

Ever since he became known as being some sort of help in getting foreign workers, his mobile phone hasn't stopped ringing. Croatian hospitality industry employers have been calling him non stop, from Dubrovnik to Istria, begging him not to forget about them, otherwise they'll end up with huge workforce issues. Pisac in Serbia two weeks ago, as he had last year rented a hotel, gave a cooking presentation and then a workshop where he sought to fill the gaps of the staff shortage in Dalmatia. He tells us that 800 people came to work in Croatia.

''It's a miracle, people really want to come to Croatia. They have a safe job here, and if they prove to be good, they also have a place here next year. Their salaries are twice as high as they are over in Serbia. They're provided with accommodation and food, and if they're good at what they do, excellent tips. We're the eldorado for them. This year everyone is interested in Dalmatia because of the strained relations between Serbia and Montenegro, too. They told me that they felt they might have some discomfort [in Montenegro] and that's why they responded en masse to us. I can’t say I was shocked by such interest, but I admit I was surprised. Obviously, those who worked with us last summer told us a lot about what was good about us,'' Duje Pisac said.

But it is far from just Serbian hospitality workers who are interested in the Croatian summer buzz. There are also Bosnian and Macedonian chefs, who have been coming to work for Croatian hospitality industry employers for years now. Owing to the utter lack of manpower, employers from Croatia throw their ''nets'' out to much wider areas in their increasingly desperate search. Their support staff come from as far away as Nepal and India to work in Dalmatian and Istrian restaurants.

''Eighty percent of the workers who came from Serbia last summer will work in the same locations this year. These are the professionals that I myself included in my team at the top restaurant of the heritage hotel in Pucisca, on Brac. The workshop is attended by top chefs. In winter, they work in luxury Serbian hotels, speaking three languages ​​each. In addition to the chefs, there are waiters who know their business well. I will tell you frankly, there is no language barrier, no thinking about where anyone came from. The guest doesn't care, he doesn't care what dialect or with what accent they speak. He just wants superior service. These people eventually get another paycheck from the tips they earn. I take my hat off to them, because when you see that old school style, the service they provide, the masterful work, I have to say that they deserve it,'' says Pisac.

Why did Croatian hospitality industry employers run into this kind of problem in the first place? When annoying political philosophising is removed, the bare truth remains. And the truth says - Croatian youth has gone. Many unemployed people wouldn't even get jobs in kitchens for auxiliary tasks such as cutting, chopping, cleaning, washing dishes. No, they think they can do more. Schools cannot produce as much staff as the market needs.

''Split has turned into a big kitchen, it smells like oil, like fat. My job is to go to restaurants and see what's on offer. For the most part, this is something inedible, which is often accompanied by poor service. Food aside, what about the waiters? They must be agile, fast, quiet, unobtrusive. They need to know how to suggest, advise, know how something is served, whether it's just a coffee or a top dish. We don't have these people.

They don't come out of schools with the knowledge that today's hospitality sector needs. And that's why we import foreign waiters. There should be some order, not every space in the city can be turned into a restaurant. The worst part is that we haven't even reached the maximum yet, and when we do, this story will just burst like a soap bubble,'' notes Pisac.

''Split is bursting at the seams in terms of the the number of restaurants. The infrastructure in the old centre is hardly sustaining it. The city under Marjan has transformed from a transit centre into a tourist destination, so many who are looking for light, fast, seasonal earnings see it as a cash cow,'' he adds.

Make sure to follow our business page for more on Croatian hospitality industry employers and the current Croatian demographic crisis.

Croatia has lost half a million workers in the last decade alone. Without foreign workers and with the state of the Croatian demographic crisis, at least according to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), we simply cannot go on.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of January, 2020, half a million workers have left Croatian territory in the last ten years. We knew that the shortage of workers in Croatia was a dire and alarming situation, but the rally at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce in Rijeka was now backed up by extremely worriyng figures, writes local Rijeka portal rijecanin.rtl.hr.

Measures to curb the negative trend were also presented, and one of the most important economic measures was the total abolition of quotas for foreign workers.

Despite the chronic shortage of workers, this will not be felt here in season. Aware of the situation, the owner of an Opatija restaurant, Stipe Dunatov, prepared himself on time.

"Recently I was in Dubai, interviewing twenty people, they are mostly from Pakistan and India and they're ready to come to Croatia. They're ready to come to the EU to work. Nine people are coming here to work for me, I'm opening a new Japanese restaurant and fourteen people will work there,'' Dunatov says, clearly doing all he can to avoid the effects of the ongoing Croatian demographic crisis.

"In the past ten years, from 2008 to 2018, Croatia has lost 500,000 people in the working contingent, 200,000 naturally, meaning the aging of the population, leaving the working contingent and inflow of children into the working contingent, and about 300,000 have been lost to migration," emphasised Davorko Vidović, a counse;lor for Labour Policy and Employment at CCE.

The plan is to include people in the labour market and prevent emigration, and the Croatian Employment Service is also involved in funding through the European Social Fund.

“We expect about 25,000 new people to be included in 2020. Looking at the three-year period, we can say that a total of over 126,000 people have gone through the system of active employment policy measures,'' says Ante Lončar, Director of the Croatian Employment Service.

About 40,000 foreigners (non-EU) worked in Croatia last year, and 65,000 permits were issued for that purpose. From the middle of this year, there will be no more quotas. However, the tourist season has to be prepared for, because the paperwork takes about two months to process owing to the unutterably slow system and the ever-lagging MUP.

The shortage of workers, according to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, is not a temporary problem that will disappear. Foreign labour is what awaits Croatia in the future.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more on the Croatian demographic crisis.

The Croatian demographic crisis is continuing to bite and its grip is becoming tighter in many areas, with the labour force being one of the most pressing issues caused by the country's increasingly poor demographic outlook. Still, in some areas, such as Novigrad Podravski in continental Croatia, more babies are being born as demographic measures are employed in hope of persuading families to stay.

As Novac writes on the 14th of January, 2020, the municipality of Novigrad Podravski finally welcomed a real ''baby boom'' in 2019 after years of extremely poor demographics. Given the Croatian demographic crisis which has spread far from the region of Slavonia, where there have been major issues for a long time, to the rest of the country, Novigrad Podravski's Zdravko Brljek has reason to be pleased.

As was announced on the municipality's website, a total of 165,000 kuna was paid out to parents residing in the municipality for the births of their newborn children in 2019, local portal Podravski reports.

Since the individual amount per child is 5,000 kuna, it can be seen that the money had been paid out to the parents of 33 newborns, two of whom are twins.

''I'm pleased that we were financially able to pay 5,000 kuna per child to parents within less than five working days of the request having been received,'' said Brljek.

He also recalled the fact that in a local primary school in Novigrad Podravski, fifteen students enrolled in the first grade back in 2016, fifteen students enrolled in 2017, a further fifteen students enrolled in 2018, and then nineteen students enrolled last year.

''This year has greatly improved the municipal demographic. I hope that most of these young people will stay in our municipality and that as many young people as possible come back here or move here,'' Brljek concluded.

Unfortunately, the demographic picture regarding newborns in Koprivnica-Križevci County, in which Novigrad Podravski is situated, is otherwise not so positive and reflects the overall Croatian demographic crisis accurately.

Namely, in 2019, according to data from the aforementioned county, 866 children were born, which is fifteen less than one year before when 881 children were born. Thus, the positive trend that started in 2018 compared to 2017 when 860 children were born came to a halt once again.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more on the Croatian demographic crisis.

The Croatian brain drain is second only to the Maltese demographic crisis, recording the second largest brain drain in the European Union. The entire region and the countries of the former Yugoslavia are massively affected by the departure of the population, but where does Croatia stand in comparison to other ex-YU countries?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of January, 2020, In 2019 alone, the most people to have ever departed to date left neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 60,000 citizens, while in 2018, about 40,000 left that country.

The departure of residents, especially young people, from the Balkan countries to the economically highly developed countries of Western Europe is one of the biggest problems facing all the countries in Croatia's immediate region in recent years, writes Anadolija. Although accurate official data from state institutions on this crucial social issue is still lacking, it has long since become clear that this is a worrying demographic trend and that the Croatian brain drain is reaching alarming depths.

According to unofficial data and estimates of certain Croatian and international organisations and associations, almost every country in the Balkans is annually left without a population the size of a smaller city. There has been a steady increase in departures from Bosnia and Herzegovina over the last six years. Since 2013, more specifically since the Bosnia and Herzegovina Sustainable Return Union has been keeping actual records, until the end of last year, more than 200,000 people have abandoned that country.

This data shows that in the past two years, approximately 50,000 persons emigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina and headed abroad. Serbia is facing a similar demographic problem, if not a much more difficult one, which, according to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has seen around 654,000 people leave, most of them between the ages of 15 and 24, from the beginning of this century to the end of 2018. Eurostat figures also show that 51,000 people left Serbia to go to the EU in 2018.

The Croatian brain drain isn't something new, but it has become much worse despite the fact that the country has been facing the problem of population exodus for years, which is especially pronounced in its smaller communities, and it is particularly worrying that Croatia is struggling to retain its population even large cities. According to unofficial data, around 190,000 people have left Croatia in the last five years alone.

Examples are municipalities such as Civljan and Ervenik in the Šibenik-Knin County, which lost 39.3% or 37.8% of the population in five years, which means that every third inhabitant left the area in five years. A report by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) also showed that 39,515 people emigrated from Croatia in 2018 alone, which is the second largest number after 2017, where a record 47,352 people emigrated.

The results of a World Bank report "Migration and brain drain in Europe and Central Asia" from last year showed that after Malta, the highest rate of emigration in the European Union is Croatia, with 21.9 percent of the population having left, which means that more than a fifth of its former population now lives abroad. According to Eurostat, around 62,000 people left Albania to go the the EU in 2018 alone. According to the latest World Bank report on migration, about 40 percent of the population has left that country so far.

A dramatic trend of emigration has been present in Northern Macedonia for years, from which, according to the latest Eurostat data, 24,300 people left in 2018 alone, while World Bank data shows that over 25 percent of the population, or a quarter of Macedonians, now reside outside of this non-EU Balkan country. According to the latest Eurostat data, 34,500 people emigrated from the territory of Kosovo in 2018 and about 3,000 from Montenegro, both of which are not EU member states.

If just Eurostat's 2018 data and other unofficial data is taken into account alone, it can be concluded that over the past few years, an average of 200,000 people, or even more than this number, have left the Balkan countries annually.

For more on the Croatian brain drain, keep up to date with our dedicated lifestyle page.

As Adriano Milovan/Novac writes on the 12th of January, 2020, the poor entrepreneurial/economic climate, money worries and mass emigration are increasingly reflected in the dynamics of opening new Croatian companies and businesses.

According to Fina's data, about a thousand fewer Croatian companies and trades were founded through Hitro.hr last year than were founded back in 2018, which is a startling decrease of almost 15 percent.

During 2019, a total of 5914 Croatian companies were established through Hitro.hr, according to Fina's data. Just one year earlier, 6822 Croatian companies and other types of businesses were established through the same service, while back in 2017, the number of established Croatian business entities through that service stood at a much higher 7081. A decrease was also present in 2018 compared to 2017, but it accelerated significantly last year.

Crafts (obrti) recorded a particularly large decline: while 245 were established through Hitro.hr in 2017 and 128 in 2018, only 48 were established through the service last year.

The number of established simple limited liability companies is also down from 2018. In 2018, 4347 were established through Hitro.hr, while 3498 were founded last year, equalling almost a fifth less. On the other hand, in 2019, the number of limited liability companies increased slightly. Back in 2018, 2347 were established through the Hitro.hr service, and 2368 were established last year, which is equal to about one percent more.

Last year, economists were pointing their fingers at a poor and discouraging entrepreneurial climate in Croatia, but also to mass emigration and the demographic crisis, which led to the absence of entrepreneurs in some Croatian municipalities. In addition, they warn that Croatia is too large a public sector, which displaces private initiative. In these circumstances, nothing, not even the ability to quickly start a business through Hitro.hr, can help that much.

''It's a combination of a number of factors which have been present in Croatia for more than two decades now, which have further enhanced emigration. The Croatian economy is simply not an incentive for startups,'' says Damir Novotny, a well known economic analyst.

Novotny points out that in Croatia there are limited possibilities for financing new entrepreneurial ideas through venture capital funds, which in the west play a large role in the first entrepreneurial steps of people with ideas, but who lack the money to navigate entrepreneurial waters. In addition, Novotny adds, the incentives for self-employment provided by the state to the unemployed are relatively small here. In other words, the development of entrepreneurship in Croatia is a major obstacle to an underdeveloped infrastructure, with a particular focus on finance, although some progress has recently been made in this area.

However, Novotny sees perhaps a greater obstacle to a stronger development of entrepreneurship in Croatia in the staggering amount of bureaucracy. Administrative barriers in Croatia remain large and cumbersome, he warns, and regulations are complicated and often changing.

''The entrepreneurial climate in our country is still bad. When abroad, when it comes to administration, you've got the "see you once a year" rule, in our country, it's common for inspections to come knocking on the doors of Croatian companies as soon as they start business, and there are visits that entrepreneurs have to make to various government institutions,'' Novotny notes.

He believes that young people should be directed more towards entrepreneurial waters, so that their goal is not to look for jobs in the public sector after graduation, but to decide to start their own businesses. Although changes have taken place in recent years, they are still, according to economists, insufficient.

Until these changes occur, Croatia will continue to be perceived by the world as a country where it is difficult and expensive for business owners to play, with the state playing a major role in economic life.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more on Croatian companies, entrepreneurs, products and services.

The Croatian demographic crisis continues to bite, and it's far from plumbers, electricians, mechanics and drivers that Croatia is rapidly running out of, but nurses, dentists and doctors too.

As Novac writes on the 2nd of January, 2020, for more than forty years, Dr. Željka Perić has been working in the Slavonian village of Zdenci, in the east of Virovitica-Podravina County. She acquired the conditions for early retirement back in 2010, but due to a lack of doctors owing to the Croatian demographic crisis, she has continued to work in the same office.

She is of course sorry to leave her patients without primary medical care in their village because that would mean that they have to travel ten kilometres for their care to Orahovica, and for some of them that simply isn't viable.

''Next year in September, I will turn 65 and be able to retire fully, but I'm afraid that nothing will come from that as there are no young family doctors and the clinic will be closed. If something does get organised, it will be the ''flying'' doctors who are changed every day. That type of thing is done just to put out fires and has nothing to do with medicine because the sense of family doctors is continuity,'' explained Perić, who was named the best doctor in Croatia in 2014 by the Association of Croatian Patients.

She's not the only one feeling the strain of the Croatian demographic crisis and who doesn't want to be left stranded, either. Another dozen doctors in Virovitica-Podravina County are on an ''extension'' as they say in health circles when referring to those who remain in work after 65 years of age. The average age of family doctors in Croatia is 55, and in Virovitica-Podravina County, they are older. According to the records of the Croatian Medical Chamber, the loss of doctors that will occur during this year and next year is just over 25 percent due to the age of retirement in that particular continental Croatian county.

At the moment, eight primary care clinics are stuck without a doctor, two are on specialisation and as many as fifteen of them are retiring. The Virovitica-Podravina County Health Centre has not concluded a specialist training contract with any doctor for many years, proving that the Croatian demographic crisis is not only damaging to the country's overall economy, but to the health of its waining population, too.

"In October, my office had about twenty sixth year students from the Faculty of Medicine in Osijek and none expressed a desire to stay in primary health care. They see their future in hospital specialties, meaning that the whole of Croatia will soon have major problems on the front line when it comes to health,'' Perić pointed out disappointingly.

''We had an example of a shortage of doctors in family medicine recently after the closure of Zdravko Sertić's office in Virovitica. Hundreds of his patients are now trying to enroll in the remaining teams that are already double-packed. None of the newly graduated doctors of medicine at the Health Centre requested work under supervision, which was introduced as a new form of work instead of an internship. More young doctors still working in that institution without specialisation, and even a few with completed specialisations, are preparing documentation for moving to other institutions,'' notes Berislav Bulat, president of the County Commission of the Croatian Chamber of Physicians and President of the Croatian Family Medicine Coordination Branch (KoHOM) for Virovitica-Podravina County.

The Croatian demographic crisis has caused a problem with doctors of other specialisations, too. Currently, a tender for the specialist training of doctors of medicine at Virovitica General Hospital is underway. Such tenders are repeated year after year with a demand of over thirty doctors. The actual expected turnout can be counted using the fingertips of one hand, Deutsche Welle writes.

''Although in recent years we have more and more medical doctors graduating from this area of ​​origin (in 2017 there were five, in 2018 there were eight, in 2019 there were thirteen), only a few want to stay in institutions here. They go off to other hospitals, usually to Bjelovar or to Zagreb. Similar to family medicine, there remain those who should retire because of the needs of the system, and because of poor pensions,'' said Bulat.

Virovitica-Podravina County is not far from an isolated case. The situation is similar in other parts of Croatia, but in that county, when referring to statistics, the situation is the most unfavourable.

For example, in Virovitica-Podravina County there is one doctor per 425 inhabitants, in Požega-Slavonia, one doctor for 318 patients, and in Osijek-Baranja, one doctor for 303 patients. Virovitica-Podravina County has the oldest doctors, 22 percent of them are over 60 years old, while 17 percent of doctors in Požega-Slavonia County are over 60, and in 11 percent of doctors in Osijek-Baranja are over 60.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more on the Croatian demographic crisis.

The German Government has published a map on its official website which highlights the German regions missing the most workers, and what type of workers they are. Despite the overused rhetoric from politicians and indeed the current presidential candidates, Croatian demographics aren't looking very healthy, at all.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of December, 2019, the Immigration for Qualified Workers Act enters into force on March the 1st, 2020. This law also applies to workers from all countries which are outside of the European Union, including workers from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes buka.

This new law provides the legal basis for the migration of skilled workers to Germany and has been designed and is intended to make it easier for academic and professional experts from non-EU countries to come to work in Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that the new law is "a paradigm shift in the way we want to approach professionals who are from outside the European Union".

The German Federal Government has agreed with the federal states, business associations and trade unions on concrete steps to be taken against the shortage of workers in that country, a country which many Croats have settled and begun working, furthering the weakening of Croatian demographics and its picture.

In a signed letter of intent, the participants agreed, among other things, to expedite the procedures for issuing and recognising visas. In addition, professionals and their relatives coming to Germany should receive greater support from companies when seeking accommodation.

At the same time, while Germany wants to help out foreigners who could be useful to them, they continue to want to make full use of the domestic labour potential.

"We have various measures and laws that give all people in Germany a chance to really work and make money,'' the chancellor announced. The steps that German is taking requires close cooperation between businesses, unions, the federal government and the states.

Federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil stressed that it must be ensured that professionals quickly find the companies they need.

''We want to avoid unnecessary red tape, streamline validation procedures, better equip visas and digitise the entire application process,'' he stated.

In Germany, there is a shortage of workers, especially in the craft, nursing and technical fields, and yesterday we wrote an article about how much Croatian ''majstori'' are in demand in Germany, contributing even more to poor Croatian demographics, as many feel they are more respected and of course properly paid for their work abroad than in Croatia.

On the map published by the German Government, the red colour indicates the states where the workers are most needed. The more intense the red, the more workers are missing.

As can be observed, southern Germany is where the workers are most needed. 

2020 is expected to see the continued emigration of Croats, as well as other nationalities from neighbouring, non-EU countries. Germany is more than likely going to be the target country for the vast majority.

For more on Croatian demographic, follow our politics page.

The one-off cash sum for the birth of a second child has been increased in Rovinj, Istria, meaning that in the next year it will amount to 3000 kuna, and for each subsequent child, 4000 kuna will be paid out to parents.

As Glas Istre/Nina Orlovic Radic writes on the 22nd of December, 2019, the last session of the City Council of Rovinj, the decision on social welfare was financially ''fattened up'', meaning that the total amount allocated from the budget to certain categories of citizens rose to 4.7 million kuna in total. The implementation of this decision will commence on the first day of January 2020.

A major breakthrough was made for young parents, or future residents of St. Euphemia's coastal city. Specifically, the cash sums Rovinj will provide to new parents has been increased. When it comes to the 1,500 kuna the city provided parents for their first born children, this one-time financial assistance will be raised by 500 kuna. Furthermore, parents living in Rovinj who have a second child will receive 3,000 kuna, while for the third and each subsequent child after that, parents will receive 4,000 kuna each.

In regard to the new measures for families with children, the City of Rovinj will fully subsidise the cost of kindergarten and elementary school student meals when one parent exercises the right to work part-time in order to provide more enhanced child care or if they need to leave their job because of the need to care for a child with severe developmental disabilities.

Regardless of income, the cost of services for parents who have two or more children in Rovinj kindergartens will be more favourable as the cost of kindergarten will be subsidised at thirty percent for the second child, and for the third and at the next children - it will be subsidised by Rovinj by fifty percent.

The new measure in Rovinj also includes single-parent families and single parents, whose monthly income does not exceed 2,000 per person kuna, for whom the city's monthly subsidy will be fifty percent of the total cost of services. In addition, the amount refunded to parents who drive their children independently to Pula to the rehab centre in Veruda or the school in Pula has been increased from 70 kuna to 80 kuna. The new measure also introduces the right to cover the costs of assessing a child's development at the Rehabilitation Day Care Centre in Pula.

Along with the new (or) "reinforced" subsidies from Rovinj, it's worth recalling the well-known subsidies that continue to be awarded, such as the co-financing of the transportation of high school students, financing the transportation of children with disabilities who are transported in an organised manner to Pula.

''I consider that the adoption of the proposal of the decision on social welfare was extremely important. The proposal seeks to further improve the care for the most vulnerable groups of citizens, beneficiaries of the guaranteed minimum benefit, persons with disabilities, and pensioners with lower pensions. It also seeks to financially facilitate and improve the status of families with more children,'' said Mayor Marko Paliaga, adding that by passing this decision, the City of Rovinj not only showed its social sensitivity and care towards its citizens, but also its leadership position in creating a better, more comfortable and secure future for its residents.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

As Novac/Adriano Milovan writes on the 18th of November, 2019, the Republic of Croatia has managed to climb one place up in this year's World Talent Rankings, and now, according to a new report from the Lausanne Institute for Business Management Development (IMD), it ranks 53rd out of the 63 countries which were surveyed.

The Talent Report assesses a country's ability to build, attract and retain talented individuals so that it can form the much needed basis for increasing competitiveness and economic growth. Ratings are given on the basis of three key factors - investment and development, then, the country's ''attractiveness'' in regard to retaining its own as well as attracting foreign talent, and the country's willingness, ie, its actual ability to meet the labour market demands of talented individuals. These three factors contain a total of 32 indicators.

Although Croatia has improved its position on this list of world rankings, it still remains close to the bottom of the table. This year, Croatia ranked best in terms of investment and development, ranking 36th in the world, while the country was ranked an unimpressive 61st in terms of retaining its own and attracting foreign talent - coming in at the very bottom of the list. Croatia is also poor in assessing its own willingness to meet the labour market's demand for skilled labour, which places it at an equally rather depressing 60th in the world.

''This year's IMD report shows that we have moved towards the top by one place, but it has also shown that we cannot be satisfied with 53rd place,'' said Ivica Mudrinić, President of the National Competitiveness Council (NVK), an IMD partner institution. He added that Croatia should be deeply concerned about its clear inability to retain its own talent or attract foreign talent.

Rather unsurprisingly, Switzerland is still the best positioned country on the world talent list. Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Luxembourg follow. Among the 10 countries that are seen as hotbeds for talent, only one country - Singapore, is non-European. Germany ranks 11th, USA 12th, and Canada 13th. On the other hand, Mongolia is at the top of the chart, while Venezuela and Brazil are slightly better placed, the report shows.

For Croatia, it is a particular problem that almost all new EU members are ranked better than Croatia on the world talent list. Estonia is 27th, Lithuania 28th, Slovenia 31st, Latvia 34th, Poland 37th, Czech Republic 39th, Hungary 45th, and Bulgaria 53rd. behind Croatia is Romania, which came in 55th, and Slovakia, which is 57th.

According to this particular report for 2019, Ukraine and even Indonesia, the Philippines and Jordan were better placed than Croatia, meaning an enormous amount of work needs to be done.

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