December 5, 2022 - For the fifth year in a row, Hanza Media and the Gradonacelnik.hr portal selected the best cities in five categories based on detailed analysis and with two special awards, Smart City and Eco City. This year, Vukovar won the title of the best Croatian city in the categories of education, youth, demography, and social policy.

Ivan Penava, the mayor of Vukovar, attended the award ceremony in Opatija on December 1.

"According to FINA data, competent ministries, and specialised agencies, Vukovar is constantly at the top of numerous rankings in Croatia according to various parameters, from investment in education, youth and family, the number of children enrolled in kindergartens, to the total income of entrepreneurs in 2021. I consider it my duty to keep Vukovar at the top and make it the best. This award achieved in the competition of big cities is the crown of many years of dedicated work of the City Administration of the City of Vukovar and is a confirmation of the enormous progress of Vukovar," said mayor Penava.

According to research based on data from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia, data from FINA on the execution of the budget in 2021, and analysis by the portal Gradonacelnik.hr, the City of Vukovar ranked 5^th in the Republic of Croatia in terms of allocations for education.

In 2020, regarding allocations for family and children, the City of Vukovar took 3^rd place with 193.75 kuna allocated per capita and 9^th place with 2.19% of total city budget expenditures assigned.

Recall, the gift amounts of the City of Vukovar for newborn children were increased in 2021, and the City of Vukovar was the first city in the Republic of Croatia to introduce a unique demographic measure of co-financing overhead costs for families with three or more children up to 16 years of age.

Vukovar also stands out for with some of the lowest prices of kindergartens in the Republic of Croatia, which is 490 kuna for the first child, 441 kuna for the second child, while kindergarten is free for the third and every subsequent child, and from this year, the afternoon shift is also provided in Vukovar kindergartens.

In Vukovar, in recent years, the city's kindergartens have recorded a constant and continuous increase in the number of children enrolled. According to independent research, Vukovar is the second city in Croatia regarding the number of children enrolled in kindergartens!

For years, the city of Vukovar has been providing primary school students with the necessary school materials as well as the help of teaching assistants. Through an EU project, free meals have been provided to all students at risk of poverty.

Extended stays have been introduced in 6 out of 7 primary schools (expected from the summer semester and in the remaining newly renovated school of N. Andrić), Christmas presents have been a must for all the children of Vukovar, as well as free summer holidays on the Adriatic for the most successful primary school students.

Through high school education, the City of Vukovar supports young people by fully financing city bus transport tickets, co-financing intercity bus transport tickets, and providing stipends for high school students in deficit occupations in the amount of HRK 400.

It helps students from the area of the city with scholarships of 500 to 1000 kuna, it co-finances the intercity transport of regular students in the area of two counties - Vukovar-Syrmia and Osijek-Baranja, and the best ones who finish the academic year with an average of 4.50 to 5.00 are rewarded by the city of Vukovar with 1000 kuna.

It should also be noted that the works on the renovation of the new building of the Polytechnic Lavoslav Ružička Vukovar have been completed, so Vukovar students will soon enjoy the highest standards of education. The project is part of the Intervention Plan of the City of Vukovar, and its total value is HRK 66,439,727.54.

The housing program for the necessary staff in the area of Vukovar is also being successfully implemented, so in the last three years, 59 staff apartments have been allocated using this model.

Bjelovar, Čakovec, Pazin, and Velika Gorica also competed in this category. The City of Vukovar sincerely congratulated them and all other nominated cities and award winners.

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October the 6th, 2021 - This year's Best Croatian Cities awards will take place on the 21st of October in the coastal town of Novi Vinodolski. This will be the fourth such contest in which the best Croatian cities in various different segments will be chosen.

As Vedran Marjanovic/Novac writes, this year's selection of the best Croatian cities, organised by Jutarnji list, the Gradonacelnik.hr (Mayor.hr) portal and the Ipsos agency, started out with the determining of the list of cities that were shortlisted for the awards which will be presented later on this month.

Currently, well-known cities are candidates for winners in four of a total of seven categories of selection of the best Croatian cities. These are the categories of education and youth, economy, quality of life and the greatest progress made. Recognition to the city that, according to the criteria of the organisers, has made the greatest progress in ensuring the quality of life of its inhabitants, is being awarded for the first time.

''The award for the greatest progress in the quality of life is calculated by comparing their ranking in the category of quality of life for 2020 in relation to their ranking for the same category as part of the first selection of the best Croatian cities back in 2018,'' they explained from Gradonacelnik.hr.

Six indicators

The first ''Best Croatian Cities'' candidates for the recognition of the best city in their achieved progress in terms of quality of life are Klanjec (Krapina-Zagorje County), Krizevci, Metkovic, Sinj and Sisak. They made the most progress in at least six observed indicators.

While there will be only one winner in the new category of selection of the best Croatian cities, in the other three aforementioned categories, three winners will be announced this year as well. This will be the competition of large cities (more than 35,000 inhabitants), medium-sized cities (10,000 to 35,000 inhabitants) and small cities, ie a city with no more than 10,000 inhabitants.

The shortlist of the best Croatian cities in the category of education and youth includes fifteen cities that have the best indicators, ie the highest shares in the total index of the six observed criteria. The criteria are, among other things, the budget allocation for education, youth and social policy, the number of children per kindergarten teacher and the average budget allocation for scholarships and tuition fees.

''An index was calculated for each indicator according to the methodology explained in detail in formulas in the Government Decree on the Development Index. Prior to their ranking, all variables were standardised. Cities which have an index greater than 100 are above average, and cities that have a value index less than 100 are below average,'' pointed out Gradonacelnik.hr.

When it comes to the list of cities in the shortlist for the best city in terms of education, among the candidates are last year's winners in that category, Sibenik, Labin and Cres, which triumphed in the competition of small towns.

One of the most prestigious categories of choosing the best Croatian cities is certainly economic factors, the winners of which (for 2020) were Samobor, Sveta Nedelja and Hvar, also in 2021's shortlist as it stands. Some of the indicators of cities that are ranked in this category are the number of craft (obrt) owners per 1000 inhabitants, the average original income of cities per capita and the level of indebtedness, and it's also important to know whether a surtax has been introduced in the city.

In support of the assessment that the economic category is one of the categories in this selection with the fiercest competition is the fact that the opponents of Samobor are Pula, Varazdin, Koprivnica and Krapina, which, according to public discussion, are considered the most dynamic environments when it comes to economic development.

Fierce competition

Equally fierce competition in relation to the economic category of this year's selection of the best Croatian cities reigns in the quality of life. Last year's winner was Cakovec, for example, and in the competition of big cities, Zagreb, Samobor, Velika Gorica and Varazdin are the opponents. In the category of quality of life, the cities are ranked, among other things, according to indicators of average income per capita, average number of employees per 1000 inhabitants, budget allocations for culture and the efficiency index of the city administration.

In this year's selection of the best Croatian cities, three special awards will be given - Smart city, Eco city and the best city for withdrawing money from EU funds, and the choice there will be between Beli Manastir, Petrinja, Rijeka, Virovitica and Zagreb.

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