As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of January, 2020, the company Zhongya Real Estate (Nekretnine) which still hasn't paid the remaining amount for the purchase of the controversial former Political School building in Josip Broz Tito's hometown of Kumrovec, announced on Thursday that they had not abandoned the investment in Kumrovec.

Zhongya Real Estate said that investor partner Jiang Yu failed to allocate money to the Republic of Croatia for technical reasons within the aforementioned period. However, they say that modalities are still being found in order have the aforementioned money arrive in Croatia as soon as possible. Accordingly, they are ready for new talks with the government, and have stated that, should a new tender be announced, they will of course respond to it.

"The Chinese Government has been actively working for months to control the export of capital from the country. Part of these problems have reached Europe as well as Croatia itself in the case of a transaction related to the former Political School in Kumrovec. We're witnessing that Chinese investments in Europe are significantly falling, and part of the reason for this is certainly the restrictions that come from officials in Beijing,'' Zhongya Real Estate explained in a statement.

"Economic problems inside China and the China-US trade war are the main reasons China is trying to control the ''export'' of money from out of the country. The State Administration for Foreign Currency Relations (SAFE), a key government regulator, announced in mid-December that the task for the next year is to prevent ''abnormal'' capital outflows and thus prevent illegal trading activities,'' Zhongya Real Estate also stated.

Zhongya Real Estate noted that "they proved their seriousness by paying the full tax amount for the purchase of the real estate (which they have not yet managed to purchase) and the surrounding land of almost 27,000 square metres. In total, both transactions are worth over one and a half million kuna, adding in the amount from the tender last spring, we reach the figure of over two million kuna which has already been paid by Chinese investors. Therefore, they say, they don't want to give up on their planned business idea.

The statement from the company, signed by director Mario Rendulić, also said that "the Ministry of State Property announced that the decision on the fate of the Zagorje Hotel has yet to be made by the government."

“Zhongya Real Estate d.o.o. had not paid the rest of the funds for the purchase of the Zagorje Hotel or the political school in Kumrovec by the 31st of December, 2019. The Ministry of State Property will keep the amount of 598,000.00 kuna. Given that the estimated value of the said property is more than 7.5 million kuna, the decision on further disposal of the real estate will be made by the Government of the Republic of Croatia at one of the next sessions,'' the Ministry of State Property announced.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes on the 19th of December, 2019, Ante Mandić from Insig2, Damir Sabol from Photomath, and Ivan Mrvoš, founder of Include - are the most famous names from the Croatian technology community who decided to invest in STEMI educational and technological startups. The Zagreb-Rijeka based company presented its campaign on the Funderbeam SEE platform back on November the 28th, 2019.

The campaign aims to raise a minimum of 300,000 euros that STEMI will invest in growing and scaling its new school-based subscription business model and accessing a part of the global market where more than 3.5 million schools are interested in developing their students' STEAM skills and knowledge. The campaign is still ongoing and investors in STEMI have already indicated an amount of 225,000 euros, as Funderbeam SEE announced on Thursday.

In addition to the investors already mentioned, Vedran Brničević from Suprabit, Luka Abrus and Viktor Marohnić from Five, Hrvoje Pušelj from Dataciph and Tajana Barančić and Mihovil Barančić from Astra Business Engineering decided to participate in this campaign. Tomislav Car from Infinum, Luka Sučić from Eternity, Davor Runje from Airt, Bozidar Pavlović from Oradian, Damjan Miklić from RoMb Technologies, Scott Coleman and Goran Deak from TDA, and Hrvoje Bujas from Crno Jaje also decided to invest.

''We currently have over 150 investors from about twenty countries, and most of them are looking forward to the support of the local tech community, which shows that success is not lost if we stick together. Our programmes need help to reach the global market and people have recognised that,'' said Marin Trošelj, CEO of STEMI.

Include's Ivan Mrvoš said he met a team from STEMI a year ago and has been following their successes ever since.

"The fact that they have already penetrated into nine markets, including the US market, certainly encouraged me to join their investment cycle as a small investor," Mrvoš said.

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As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of December, 2019, according to INA, the decision on a heavy-waste treatment facility comes one year after the announcement of INA's R&M New Direction 2023 program, which aims to transform INA's refining system to generate profits instead of losses.

Today, INA made a decision to invest a massive four billion kuna in a heavy waste treatment plant at the Rijeka Oil Refinery. As was explained during an extraordinary press conference in Zagreb, the company's supervisory board gave its prior approval for the construction of the Heavy Duty Processing Facility in Rijeka, and INA's management board then made a unanimous decision on the investment. Works on the new plant will begin early next year, they say, and it is expected to start operating at some point in 2023.

Sándor Fasimon, CEO of INA, said the decision on the heavy-duty processing plant marks an important step in the implementation of the R&M New Direction 2023 program, as well as an important moment in the company's history as it is the largest investment INA has made in decades.

"With this decision, the Rijeka Oil Refinery will be transformed into a modern European refinery while ensuring that INA maintains a leading position on the market. It's a major investment that will significantly affect the company's operations in the future," said Fasimon.

The chief executive officer of the MOL Group and the deputy chairman of INA's supervisory board commented that this decision confirms the MOL Group's commitment to INA. "By constructing a heavy waste treatment plant, we'll significantly increase the complexity and efficiency of the Rijeka refinery. I firmly believe that this investment will have a significant positive impact on the company's profitability in the future,'' said Molnar.

Tomislav Ćorić, Minister of Environment and Energy, said that the announcement of about four billion kuna in investment over the next three years is the most wonderful Christmas gift to Croatia that could be expected.

''Today's decision to launch the modernisation project of the Rijeka Oil Refinery is a major step forward. This is one of the biggest investments in our energy sector and I'm glad that it was realised precisely during the term of this current government. This investment will improve the product structure of Rijeka, increase profitability and improve the company's competitiveness in the field of environmental protection by significantly reducing CO2 and other harmful gases,'' stated Minister Ćorić.

A year ago, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković promised us a "Christmas present" in the form of an announcement that Croatia would go ahead with the purchase of MOL's stake in INA.

According to INA, and as previously mentioned, the decision on this treatment facility comes one year after the announcement of the R&M New Direction 2023 program. The program includes the concentration of crude oil processing activities in the Republic of Croatia at the Rijeka Oil Refinery and, as part of this, the conversion of the Sisak Oil Refinery into an industrial centre that will cover the production of bitumen, which was approved in March this year and is set to launch in 2021.

Still to come is a logistics hub and, potentially, lubricant production and even a bio-component refinery. With the implementation of all activities covered by the INA R&M New Direction 2023 program, after 2023, INA expects an average annual EBITDA growth of over 1 billion kuna in total.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of December, 2019, the company Zhongya Real Estate (Nekretnine), whose Chinese co-owner is Jiang Yu, paid a massive 1.14 million kuna for some construction land covering nearly 27,000 square metres in Kumrovec.

The construction land the Chinese investor has now paid in full for is Josip Broz Tito's hometown, is in the immediate vicinity of the controversial former political school, more specifically hotel Zagorje, located in Krapina-Zagorje County in the northern part of the country, close to the Sutla river and the Croatian-Slovenian border.

This payment regards a plot of land for which Zhongya Real Estate signed a contract with the Ministry of State Property back at the end of October this year, and paying the price for the land was one of the Chinese's arguments in the sense that the aforementioned company would also fulfill its obligations to take over the former political school, for which they had already requested a delay in payments twice previously.

As we reported last month, the Croatian Government approved Yu's latest request for a payment deadline extension and the new payment date was the 31st of December, 2019. Had the investor failed to pay for the land in Kumrovec by the aforementioned date, the hefty advance payment would have been kept by the government regardless of the investor's next move. 

The land in Kumrovec has now been paid for in full, meaning that the obligation to pay and the deadline were both fulfilled and met by the Chinese investor.

The eventually agreed price investor Jiang Yu needed to pay stood at an enormous 14.09 million euros, according to a report from Vecernji list.

As mentioned, Yu asked for an extension of the payment deadline, explaining that the current tensions in Hong Kong made it difficult to transfer money abroad.

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As Novac/Dora Koretic writes on the 8th of December, 2019, it will happen a little later than was initially announced last year, but the City of Zagreb and Croatia will get their first Novotel hotel at the beginning of 2021, just before spring, which should "sprout" in the eastern part of the capital city, more precisely in Resnik.

The investment, which was first introduced to the public back in October 2018, now finally has its first visuals, a conceptual design that Jutarnji list exclusively received from the investor of the project, the company Rox d.o.o, whose founder and owner is entrepreneur Ivo Kristić.

Judging by the visuals, the first Novotel in Croatia will be located right next to the Rox headquarters in Resnik, on the plot of land owned by that company, at the eastern entrance to the city, right next to Slavonska Avenija.

According to the description of the architects themselves, the facility will consist of a multifunctional ground floor building and a smaller tower that will house hotel rooms, and the centre of the ground floor should be a central green part, a kind of piazza, or space that will serve for the daily needs of guests who will hang out, have business meetings or rest there.

In addition, the idea of ​​the architects and investors was to build a hotel in the east of the city, which would also be visually attractive from a distance, especially considering the fact that it was planned along an extremely busy road.

What is also interesting is the solution of the façade of the construction itself: it consists of horizontal lines that round off the corners or act as if they "hug the building", and due to the numerous decorative elements they create special optical effects that should visually enrich that part of the city.

The intention is also to make the guests at Novotel feel at home, which is why the interior design will be based on natural materials and colours, especially when it comes to the decoration of the rooms.

"Our idea was to build a four-star hotel for business guests, which we found to be chronically missing from the Zagreb market. We haven't timed the investment with the Croatian presidency of the EU Council, since the construction of a hotel is an extremely demanding job, but we believe that the hotel capacities in Zagreb are lacking independently of the EU presidency and that we'll be able to offer quality content to the market,'' the hotel project manager, Matej Krištić, told Jutarnji list.

Zagreb's first Novotel will be mainly intended for business guests, given the number of stars it boasts, but Krištić says that no other types of guests are excluded here, in accordance with the wishes and needs of the hotel manager with whom Rox, as an investor, entered into a separate contract.

The investors are confident that they'll be able see a return on the value of the investment within a nine-year period, and also revealed that the construction of Novotel is only in its first phase, and given that, depending on the indicators and the operation of the future hotel, they will be interested to continue expanding their business in this segment.

All of this was shown to them in extensive research, for which they had hired a separate agency, which provided information on that location in Resnik. A possibility for the second phase of investment in a service centre and a health clinic (polyclinic), as well as additional facilities into which Rox would invest, but leave the running of the businesses to other interested partners.

"We had quite a lot of land at that location, so we thought long and hard about what purpose to use it for. The research showed us that it'd be profitable to invest in the hotel business, and in this segment we're interested in further expansion, not only in the Zagreb area, but also in other commercially interesting locations. As we have contracted for this hotel with Accor, which is a really respectable company in the hotel business, we're interested in continuing to cooperate with them, since the company has a lot of well-respected and successful brands,'' said Krištić, citing Ibis, Sofitel and many others.

Accor Hotels is truly among the world's leading tourism groups with more than 4,500 hotels and forty brands under its belt, the most famous of which are Ibis (one of the world's most famous three-star hotel chains), Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Fairmont, Rixos and many others.

Croatia's southernmost city of Dubrovnik, where the Rixos Libertas Resort was opened in 2009, was the ninth Rixos Hotel in the world.

In addition to Novotel, however, Croatian tourism was also glad to receive the announcement last year of an investment in the first Ibis hotel in Croatia, namely the Ibis styles hotel in Rijeka, which is a strategic partner of Accor, or the Orbis hotel group, working in partnership with Rijeka Property. According to the announcements, the first Croatian Ibis' door's should open for its guests in 2021, and the plan is to build a 15,000 square metre hotel.

It will have 150 rooms, including 18 family rooms, a bar, a restaurant, four conference rooms and meeting rooms, a wellness area and parking for guests and visitors of the hotel. The investment, which would employ 45 people from Rijeka, amounts to 18.5 million euros, and the new hotel capacity in Rijeka will emerge just twenty minutes away from the popular Korzo.

Unlike the Rijeka investment, which is well known for its value, Novotel's investors don't want to reveal the price tags associated with the project at this point in time.

According to the information Novac received, the architectural design of the hotel was entrusted to the Chapman Taylor International Architectural Office, which is recognised worldwide for its work on the Port Bak Business Tower in Azerbaijan, the modular Holiday Inn Hotel in Manchester, a Shanghai retail shopping centere for which they were awarded, as well as on projects they're about to work on, which include a futuristic eco resort in Vietnam with six hotels and 500 villas, or a smart hotel in China at over 63,000 square meters.

This office in particular has worked on over two thousand projects so far and received 250 awards for them, and it's interesting to note that one of their first projects, given that the office has existed for decades, was the New Scotland Yard building, designed back in 1959.

This will be the first ''trip into tourism'' for the Rox company since the company primarily operates in the wholesale and distribution segment of consumer goods, and operates on the markets of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Slovenia.

At the regional level, Rox employs a total of 200 employees, and according to Business Croatia, in 2018 it generated revenues of just over 107 million kuna and employed around 100 employees in Croatia.

In addition to the distribution of its own and foreign brands, Rox also owns several petrol stations (two in Croatia and three in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina) that operate through a partnership with INA.

Despite frequent complaints by investors about the complexity of the bureaucracy and lengthy procedures in Croatia, this company's ''trip into tourism'' has so far gone smoothly, and if everything goes to plan, in 2021 the eastern part of Zagreb should finally receive a more respectable hotel complex.

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As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of December, 2019, although the Čakovec-based company Medjimurjeplet has built its brand and business on the production of quality furniture for outdoor spaces based on wood and metal, in recent years, an increasing part of their business has been the production of parquet, windows and doors.

So far, these assortments have in principle been separated through various presentation and sales channels, but today they have been integrated through their concept stores in Zagreb and in Munich. Just last week, an exhibition and sales centre was opened in Zagreb, which houses almost the entire collection of their companies - Međimurjeplet, Pana and Pana Windows.

Although the companies have not been formally consolidated as a group, it is a business “empire” created by Alojzije Sobočanac, which is increasingly being taken over by his daughters Nikolina Babić and Ana Marija Sobočanec Dalić.

“Our entire range is based on the concept of ''living with nature'', ie, high quality and natural materials, various combinations of wood and aluminum, while we have no PVC in our offer. Investments in the modernisation of the window and door factory, Pana Windows in Čakovec, and the new Pana multilayer factory in Turopolje, will greatly increase our capacity and competitiveness on foreign markets,'' says Ana Marija Sobočanec Dalić.

She added that 90 percent of their parquet flooring is currently exported, as are 50 percent of their windows and doors, while in the case of furniture, that figure stands at around 20 percent. In the coming period, they plan to put even more emphasis on exports, especially in the area of ​​doors and windows, which is why they have set up a company in Germany. Medjimurjeplet's most important export markets are those of Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and in the furniture segment, they also have significant cooperation with Italy, from which they import a part of their non-production range.

In the past year, they have invested 13 million kuna in the modernisation of Pana Windows, while a joint investment with Austria's Weitzer Parkett in the new Pana factory near Velika Gorica stands at more than 70 million kuna (10 million euros). Each partner secured half the amount, and the factory should start operating as of January the 1st, 2020. Although Medjimurjeplet was the base from which the expansion to take over Pana started some 20 years ago, today the furniture factory is actually the smallest member of this business family.

Namely, Medjimurjeplet has around 30 employees and 27 million kuna in revenue, while the Pana parquet factory already generates 70 million kuna with 160 workers, which will be further increased by a new factory and around 50 new employees. Pana Windows, on the other hand, has 55 employees and 20 million kuna in revenue, which will certainly be enhanced by modernising the factory and boosting exports. Here in Croatia, the company mostly cooperates with architectural offices and construction companies, although they also have more and more inquiries and orders from private individuals.

''We're most represented in the projects of high-end hotels, restaurants and residential and commercial buildings. One of our significant partners is VMD, which has used us for all its projects, and one of them is their Blok Bužanova on the ground floor in which we've set up our Concept store in Zagreb,'' pointed out Ana Marija Sobočanec Dalić.

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Investment in Croatia is often a set of words that makes people shudder. This country, while in desperate need of investment, be it foreign or otherwise, likes to put up as many draconian, outdated barriers as possible, often resulting in putting off would-be investors entirely. But it isn't all so bleak, and as usual, Istria is a shining example.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 27th of November, 2019, within the project "Umag - City of Children 2010-2020" The Istrian city of Umag has continued to invest in education and to ensure the best educational conditions and standards for its residents.

At yesterday's press conference, the Mayor of the City of Umag, Vili Bassanese, his deputies and others from the city's administration, as well as representatives from the local school on which the project is focused, and the project's contractor, presented the project.

"The energetic renovation of the building of Osnovna škola Marije i Line was officially presented to the public at Školska 14, City of Umag ", with a total value of almost 22 million kuna, according to a report from local portal Glas Istre.

This project was submitted to the tender of the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning from the Operational Program of Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020. The project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund with 7,147,248.16 kuna in grants, 8,815,698 kuna in grants from the fund for co-financing EU projects at the regional and local level of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, as well as 5,879,832 kuna from the budget City of Umag itself.

The main objective of the project is to save 61.45 percent of the school's heating energy on an annual basis when compared to the annual consumption before the energy renovation, which will be achieved by increasing the thermal protection of the roof and the exterior walls, installing new high-efficiency heating system and more.

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As Novac/Kresimir Zabec/Dora Koretic writes on the 26th of November, 2019, investment in Croatia, while sometimes tricky, is on the rise. As much as three billion euros have been invested in Croatian transport infrastructure projects over the last few years, and even more could be made available in the next period by EU funds, Transport Minister Oleg Butković announced at the 7th Congress of the Croatian Road Society - VIA VITA in Opatija recently.

However, in order to use and properly implement these funds in time, the Public Procurement Act needs to be urgently amended, Butković pointed out.

''The biggest problem so far has been finding a source of funding. Now that we have the money, we have to wait more than a year to run the tender. That's really frustrating. Tender appeals are made by non-employee companies that deal with real estate and buy time. I urge the Minister of Economy, Darko Horvat, to move to amend the law. To raise the cost from 5,000 kuna to 100,000 kuna, and shorten the appeal deadlines,'' said the Minister of Transport, who publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the current Public Procurement Act for the very first time.

The act puts a huge weight on the shoulders of investment in Croatia, and he was joined by Croatian Roads CEO Josip Škorić, who firmly shares his belief and has been pointing out the issues with that law for more than a year now. According to him, an equal or perhaps bigger problem to potential investors is the Construction Act. He believes that the amount of responsibility placed on the backs of investors is hindering investment in Croatia in general.

''Today, when we start the construction of a 20 kilometre road, we have to resolve all the boundaries of the plots along which it must pass in the land registry. Well, just let someone else handle the land registry! At one time, everything was handled by the contractor, and today everything has fallen on the back of investors,'' said Škorić, who demanded that the model be changed because the current law doesn't treat the construction of line infrastructure in the right way at all.

At the panel, which discussed the projects of the transport sector, Dario Silić, the director of Bina Istra, announced the construction of the second part of the Učka tunnel. According to him, agreements are underway to finance the project. According to rough estimates, construction would cost about 1.5 billion kuna in total. The construction would be financed by Bina Istra and the state would extend its concession period over the Istrian Ypsilon. Both Silič and Butkovič announced that construction could begin next year, and would take between three and three and a half years to complete.

The tender for the construction of the Vc corridor from Osijek to Beli Manastir should be announced by the end of the year, as was explained by the director of Croatian Motorways, Boris Huzjan. According to him, an agreement was reached that this project would be jointly funded by the EBRD and HBOR. However, as we has since been unofficially learned from the Ministry of Economy, for some time now, changes have been being considered, such as potentially introducing different rules during the appeal process.

Denis Vukorepa, the director of the Port Authority of Rijeka, spoke about the largest project in the Northern Adriatic. He said that seven major global companies that were interested in concluding the project in mid-January 2020 would be invited to submit their final bids. According to him, the Port of Rijeka is the only port in the Northern Adriatic that has excess free container capacity.

''This enables us to become the leading container ship port in the Northern Adriatic in the next five to seven years. We can even reach Koper in terms of traffic,'' Vukorepa stated.

According to Minister Butković, the forthcoming period should be the period of investment in Croatian railways. There are no major projects that are going without significant interest, but the actual realisation of these projects will make little difference without restructuring all of the companies operating within the sector.

A sector policy letter defining the restructuring model was due to be adopted in June, but of course, it has not yet been adopted. Butković has openly acknowledged that it's difficult to reconcile the restructuring model due to different interests within HZ Passenger Transport, HŽ Infrastructure and HZ Cargo. However, an agreement was indeed reached. Another problem is unions with which there is no consent and it is obvious that without union consent, things won't go well.

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As Novac/Dora Koretic writes on the 24th of November, 2019, the year is 2024. Zagreb's roundabout has long since been dealt with, and Zagreb's businessmen are laughing as they head off to work on ''that side'' of the Sava river. It's a good thing that the "old roundabout" is now a thing of the past, especially for the two thousand people who found employment in Zagreb's brand new city landmark - the 150 metre tall Jarun Panorama business tower from which one of the most beautiful views of Novi Zagreb is offered. Ambitious runners also spend their mornings on the banks of the popular Jarun lake.

This gorgeous 38-story illuminated building is an impressive sight indeed, it houses the offices of some of the most renowned Croatian and international companies, and it's also the tallest building in all of Croatia, which, due to its imposing character, has quickly become one of Zagreb's most famous architectural spots. The tower is not lonely here, however, and within its ''company'', there are six more separate buildings, among which a green park belt is arranged. Zagreb's brand new residential and business centre is called Jarun Panorama and as has been announced by investors, upon completion of construction, three thousand citizens should gravitate towards it daily.

Five years from now might seem like it's in the distant future, but given the fact that the investor spent almost twelve years engulfed in the “construction” of this project, it could be said that the actual construction of Jarun Panorama is almost within our sights. That is, of course, as long as good old Croatian red tape doesn't throw a spanner in the works before that.

The investor is Rotor South Ltd. d.o.o., which is 100 percent owned by the Oslo-based Norwegian Croatian development property II AS, managed by Robert Hagen. In Croatia, they are represented by consultants from Colliers International, which, after years, finally plans to present Jarun Panorama to the public next week, more specifically on Tuesday at REXPO.

There, visitors will be able to get better acquainted with the details of the project, which extends to just under 35,000 square metres in total, and in addition to the business tower, includes residential and hotel facilities, which is set to make Jarun Panorama the largest residential and business centre in Zagreb.

According to the ideas of the Norwegian investors, about 340 apartments with an average size of over 100 square metres would be built in the area near the roundabout, and Novi Zagreb would also get new hotel content along with this project, as Jarun Panorama also envisages one hotel under the management of a well-known international brand. The category will be a minimum of four stars, it will boast 240 rooms, a conference room and additional amenities such as a restaurant, wellness facilities and the like.

If realised, Jarun Panorama will be located right in the space currently encircled by new thoroughfares built to reconstruct the Zagreb roundabout. It will be located near the Arena shopping mall and the sports hall, and investors hope that the good traffic situation can contribute to the attractiveness of the building - which will be close to major city roads leading to Zagreb's exit, but also towards the city centre itself.

According to Vedrana Likan, director of Colliers International, which represents the Norwegians responsible for this project in Croatia, it is currently the most advanced mixed-use project in all of Croatia, for which two location permits have already been issued, and for which the Hagen-led fund has spent more their time and cash on arranging things and bringing the massive project to this stage of realisation for more than a decade now.

''For over twelve years, it was necessary to resolve the property-legal relations and to buy all the land on which Jarun Panorama would be built. According to our estimates, construction could start within a maximum of 18 months, and the completion date will depend on the pace of construction,'' she says.

The reason why the Jarun Panorama megaproject will be presented at REXPO next week is because the Norwegians have decided they need to find a construction partner, and it is entirely possible that they will acheive that goal, given that so far there is considerable investor interest.

"The search for investors began in October this year, and for the time being, there are interested investors from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Serbia, the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. We're also targeting investors from the US and the UAE, and so far, we've continued negotiations with five of them,'' Likan said.

''The project is fully ready for the market and for further development, it's clear of any potential problems. Location permits have been issued and allow for a high level of construction and we're extremely curious about how the story will evolve,'' Hagen stated.

When he mentions that the project has been cleared of potential problems, Hagen is probably alluding to the numerous twists and turns that have surrounded Jarun Panorama since the very first announcement that the Norwegians would build something near the roundabout, which mainly concerned land ownership.

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With revenues up significantly after a rather negative business year in 2018, the third quarter was particularly successful for the Crikvenica-based company Jadran. In an explanation, Jadran's CEO Goran Fabris points out that this is largely the result of a new investment cycle.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 6th of November, 2019, the hotel company Jadran from Crikvenica unfortunately experienced a negative business last year (publishing significant losses 13.9 million kuna), but in the first nine months of 2019, it recorded a turnaround: with 22 percent higher revenues compared to the comparable period, and it generated 22 million kuna net.

With revenues higher than 26 percent, the third quarter of 2019 was particularly successful for the Crikvenica company.

In the first phase, 106.5 million kuna was invested, which, along with increased competitiveness - increased the overall quality of services within the company and raised the category of accommodation in its hotels and camps, all of which enabled a justifiable increase in prices. The head of Jadran's board confirmed the continuation of the cycle in which further investments in the amount of 125 million kuna are planned by the beginning of next season.

This autumn, the company will continue to work on its luxury Katarina Hotel in Selce, the Omorika Hotel and the Ad Turres Resort Complex, and on the Selce campground. With the planned end of the cycle, the company will maintain its existing growth dynamics and gain the prerequisites for year-round operations. From Jadran, they hope that with the opening of the Katarina Hotel, it will become their first year-round hotel.

''In the consolidation of the company, we also paid great attention to increasing efficiency at all levels. That is why good results were reflected in our employees' earnings. In addition to the 6 percent incentive pay supplement, we also paid each employee an additional 1,000 kuna in bonuses for June, July and August,'' Fabris points out.

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