December 22, 2020 – The Sisak-Moslavina County Development Agency SIMORA and A1 Croatia, a leading technological innovator, have entered into business cooperation to develop the video game industry in the Business Incubator in Novska.

As Jutarnji list reports, SIMORA, a development center for the video game industry, and A1 Hrvatska, a leading technological innovator, have signed a multi-year agreement on cooperation and services exchange.

Business cooperation has common goals: development of the video game industry in the Business Incubator in Novska, including the development of video games on the most modern mobile and fixed technology, promotion of innovations, as well as stronger involvement of ICT industry and video game industry in education, public, and private sector throughout Croatia.

The specific location where the cooperation will take place is the PISMO Business Incubator in Novska, recently declared the best EU co-financed project in Croatia for 2020.

"At a time of unprecedented public health and economic challenges, we are especially pleased that the project of our development agency is recognized by important market participants aimed at digitalization of society, the progress of the local community, and thus the whole of Croatia. I am convinced that the inclusion of A1 Croatia will further accelerate the achievement of the goal of our county becoming a true center of the gaming industry, the fastest growing industry in the world," said Ivo Žinić, prefect of Sisak-Moslavina County.

The PISMO business incubator currently consists of two facilities with about twenty offices, co-working, and conference rooms equipped with the latest technology such as motion capture, photogrammetric and video, and music studio, CNC, 3D printer, VR, and other ICT equipment.

"About forty startups from the gaming industry are already operating in our incubator. It proves that we are succeeding in our intention to give young people the opportunity to stay in Sisak-Moslavina County or a reason to move in. The support provided by our new technological partner A1 Croatia is related, among other things, to access to the most modern mobile and fixed network. This is certainly one of the basic preconditions for our further development and growth in the direction of building a future Gaming campus worth almost 400 million kunas," explains Mario Čelan, director of SIMORA.

In addition to optical fixed infrastructure with access speeds of as much as 1 Gbps, A1 Croatia also ensures the availability of a real 5G network, gigabit speeds, and extremely low latency.

"A1 Croatia is a company that brings innovations and recognizes technological and social trends. So it's no surprise that everything related to the gaming industry has been in our focus for a long time. The potential that we recognized in the PISMO incubator we plan to realize much wider than technical support. In addition to content related to esport and hackathon events, we will organize numerous demonstrations and trainings related to the use of new technologies together. This partnership will certainly be one of the wheels of development of modern, digital society," concludes Tomislav Makar, General Manager for Technology and Information Technologies at A1 Croatia.

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October 13, 2020 – In a competition of 21 projects, one from each Croatian county, the project PISMO Novska from Sisak-Moslavina County won the title of the Most Successful EU project in Croatia, according to the people's choice.

The project "Creating a stimulating business environment in Sisak-Moslavina County by establishing the Business incubator PISMO-Novska“ won a convincing victory with as many as 30 percent of the votes in the online poll and was declared the most successful EU project in Croatia in 2020, in the category of contribution to entrepreneurship.

Gaming and metal industry

The Croatian public thus supported the PISMO (eng. letter) project the most, which focuses on the development of the gaming industry in Croatia. As we reported earlier, gaming is an industry that has seen great expansion in recent years. In Sisak-Moslavina County, this project has enabled the equipping of its infrastructure.

Gaming equipment inside one of the two renovated buildings in Novska / PISMO

Also, the vision for Sisak-Moslavina's town of Novska is to become not only the Croatian gaming industry center, but the regional center as well.

Namely, in only a few years, two new buildings have been equipped in Novska for the needs of the business incubator, and young video game developers have already started attending lessons at Sisak and Novska high schools.

In the future, the construction and opening of a faculty campus and an arena for sports are planned.

In addition to the gaming industry, the PISMO project also encourages the development of the metal industry, which has a long tradition in Sisak-Moslavina County with still untapped potential. The goal of the project is, of course, the development of entrepreneurship and the creation of conditions for new jobs in this county with a high unemployment rate.

Competition of 21 projects

The competition for the most successful EU projects in the Republic of Croatia was conducted by Jutarnji list in cooperation with the Croatian Union of Counties, the Office of the European Parliament in Croatia, and the Župan.hr project.

To participate in the competition, a five-member jury selected 21 projects, one from each Croatian county. Each of them was presented to the public in the printed edition of Jutarnji list newspapers and on the Novac.hr portal, from August 20 to September 7, 2020.

The election itself lasted from September 19 to October 10, when an online poll was open to the public. As part of the same competition, a five-member expert jury will also award prizes to projects in other categories such as contributions to the local and regional community, cross-border cooperation, and science and innovation.

The second place went to the project of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County entitled "Mala Barka 2: Preservation of the maritime heritage of the northern Adriatic" with 23 percent of votes, and third place went to Brod-Posavina County with the project "Innovative mind to smart schools - SMART SCHOOLS" with 13 percent of votes.

"Thank you to everyone who supported us, gave their vote, and helped the PISMO project to proudly win the title of the best and most successful EU project in Croatia!" reads the page of the PISMO Business Incubator.