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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ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 - After the Zhongya Nekretnine company failed to pay, within an extended deadline, the remaining amount of money for the purchase of the building in the Croatian town of Kumrovec, which used to house a Communist political school and is now the Hotel Zagorje, the company stated on Thursday that it hadn't given up this acquisition.

The company said in a press release that partners of the investor, Mrs. Jiang Yu, had not managed to allocate the money within the set deadline, for technical reasons. They are seeking models to transfer the required amount to Croatia as soon as possible, reads the press release.

The company is also ready for a new round of talks with the Croatian government, and says that the delays are due to the fact that the Chinese government is tightening control of the transfer of capital out of China. In this context it mentions a trade war between China and the USA.

The press release, signed by director Mario Rendulić, also says that a statement issued by the Croatian State Assets Ministry on Thursday afternoon underlines that a final decision on the future of the Hotel Zagorje rests with the Croatian government.

In its statement, the ministry notes that the investor failed to pay the remaining amount by 31 December.

In mid-June the government decided to sell the Hotel Zagorje, which used to be a Communist political school during the time of the former Yugoslavia, to Zhongya Nekretnine as the sole bidder, for 14.09 million kuna (1.9 million euro).

The new owner was expected to pay the purchase price within 30 days upon the conclusion of the sales contract. After the company failed to do so within the initial deadline, the government allowed the bidder to pay the required amount until 31 December 2019.

In the event that the bidder missed the new deadline, the advance payment of 598,000 kuna would be retained by the government.

The state-owned Hotel Zagorje, which is in a dilapidated condition, covers 27,000 square metres.

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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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ZAGREB, November 14, 2019 - The government on Thursday extended a deadline for the payment of the necessary amount by the Zhongya Nekretnine company for the Kumrovec-based Hotel Zagorje until 31 December.

In mid-June, the government decided to sell the Kumrovec-based Hotel Zagorje, which used to be a political Communist school in the former Yugoslavia, to Zhongya Nekretnine company that has been the sole bidder, at the price of 14.09 million kuna (1.9 million euro).

Chinese businesswoman Yu Jiang is a co-owner of the Zhongya Nekretnine company and during her visit to the compounds in that northwestern Croatian region she said that according to an initial estimate, around EUR 20 million would be invested in the entire project.

The premises of state-owned Hotel Zagorje, which is in a dilapidated condition, covers 27,000 square metres.

The new owner was expected to pay the purchase price within 30 days upon the conclusion of the sales contract. Upon the company's failure to do this within the initial deadlines, the government enabled the bidder to pay the necessary amount until the end of this year.

In the event that the bidder missed the new deadline, the advance payment of 598,000 kuna will be retained by the government.

More Kumrovec news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, May 25, 2019 - More than 10,000 fans of former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito arrived in his birthplace of Kumrovec on Saturday to mark the Day of Youth and Joy, his official birthday, wearing Titovka caps, scarves, uniforms and T-shirts with his image, although this year there were far fewer flags with insignia of the former federation.

Although Josip Broz Tito Alliance president Jovan Vejnović said several buses were stopped at the Slovenian-Croatian border because some of those going to Kumrovec carried those insignia, the president of the SABA antifascist alliance, Franjo Habulin, said he had no information about the confiscation of flags or other items.

Vejnović said this year there were far more police monitoring the gathering than in recent years, and that "for the first time in 15, 16 years of this gathering," they called the participants to order.

Vejnović said he would like the message sent out from Kumrovec to be that people of good will gathered there for the Day of Youth and Joy celebration.

He said those who gathered there were concerned about developments on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and the creation of national tensions instead of a space for communication, agreement and cooperation.

Municipal head Robert Šplajt said the gathering in Kumrovec was something positive and that the town had the chance to revive its 1980s heyday.

Habulin said the gathering was focused on those with youthful and creative energy whom this country needed, adding that "it's necessary to create long term and stable economic conditions, a fiscal policy, a monetary-credit policy, to subordinate everything to the opening of new plants and to job creation so children will have somewhere to work."

Deputy county head Jasna Petek said the message from the gathering should be that Croatia was created on anti-fascism, as stated in the constitution, adding that Tito, by putting the Partisan movement on the side of anti-fascism in 1941, had built its foundations "into all the achievements we have today."

Former Croatian president Stjepan Mesić said he expected to see today "many flags under which the biggest victories in the history of our people were won, under which people were killed but also triumphed."

He said history could not be revised. "We have met here first and foremost because of the man who organised the National Liberation Struggle (NOB) and brought Yugoslavia and all its republics and provinces to the victors' table."

He added that there would have been no present-day Croatia without the NOB. "We welcomed victory at the victors' table and revisionists should understand that," he said, adding that Yugoslavia had been an authoritarian but not a totalitarian state.

Hundreds of people from the former Yugoslavia gathered at the House of Flowers, Tito's resting place in Belgrade, to honour him on May 25, his official birthday, bringing wreaths, flowers, and flags and insignia of the former Yugoslavia and the former League of Communists of Yugoslavia.

Despite controversies and disputes between historians and those who lived in Tito's time over his role in the post-WWII executions of members of the defeated armies and political opponents, modern history ranks him among the most prominent leaders and statesmen of his era.

Thousands of people from the former Yugoslavia visit the House of Flowers every year on May 4, his death anniversary, and on May 25, a public holiday in the former federation.

Tito is linked to the communist and Partisan movements and the antifascist struggle which, in WWII, was crucial for the establishment of the Yugoslav federation, and to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

More than 200 heads of state or government and senior delegations from 127 countries attended his funeral in Belgrade on 8 May 1980. Since then, more than 17 million people have visited the House of Flowers. Annually, the most numerous are tourists from Western Europe and the US, and increasingly from China, Japan and South Korea.

More news about Tito can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 24, 2019 - Chinese investors will invest EUR 20 million in Hotel Zagorje in Kumrovec, which used to be a political school in the former Yugoslavia, Chinese businesswoman Yu Jiang, co-owner of the Zhongya Nekretnine company, the only company that submitted a bid for that property in a recent tender, said on Friday.

Yu attended a ceremony in Kumrovec, some 60 kilometres northwest of Zagreb, at which State Assets Minister Goran Marić presented municipal head Robert Šplajt with a decision whereby the recreational area in the municipality's Razvor settlement would be transferred to the ownership of Kumrovec municipality.

The Chinese businesswoman answered questions from the press about her plans for investments in the former political school. She said that according to an initial estimate, around 20 million euro would be invested in the project.

We are interested in developing some types of tourism and I believe that this area is suitable for congress and health tourism, Yu said, adding that cooperation with the tourism sector on the coast was possible but that the plan was to develop year-round tourism in Kumrovec.

Asked how much the fact that former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito was born in Kumrovec would be used for tourism purposes, Yu briefly said that they respected history and that Tito was a very important part of the region's history. We hope to introduce a new style in tourism, increase gross domestic product and help the local community in its development, the Chinese entrepreneur said.

Yu has visited Kumrovec a number of times and said she wants to convert Hotel Zagorje into a real hotel as well as create a memorial park honouring Tito.

Bids for the devastated state-owned Hotel Zagorje, which covers 27,000 square metres, were opened on May 7. The only bid submitted was that of the Zhongya Nekretnine company, worth 14.09 million kuna.

Marić said that the ministry had accepted the bid and forwarded a proposal to the government to sign an agreement with the bidder. Currently, the opinions of the relevant ministries are being awaited, Marić said.

More Kumrovec news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 7, 2019 - The Zhongya Nekretnine real estate company has submitted a bid to the State Assets Ministry of almost 14.1 million kuna for the Hotel Zagorje in Kumrovec, northern Croatia, instead of the almost 12 million kuna asked, and the government is expected to decide on the bids soon, the ministry said on Tuesday.

Bids for the property were to be submitted from March 23 until today and Zhongya Nekretnine's is the only complete and valid bid.

The devastated state-owned Hotel Zagorje is a former Communist Party political school which covers 27,000 square metres. Chinese businesswoman Yu Jiang has visited Kumrovec a number of times and said she wants to convert it into a real hotel as well as create a memorial park honouring former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, who was born there.

Yu is behind the Zhongya Nekretnine company. If the government okays the bid, a contract will be signed with her.

More Kumrovec news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

At a recent session of the Croatian government, a decision was made on the sale of the former Communist Party political school in Kumrovec, now known as the Zagorje Hotel. The complex was built in 1981 and has a hotel, a cinema, a swimming pool and a library, but was completely devastated after 1990, reports Poslovni List on March 9, 2019.

The state has been trying to sell it for 15 years, but the asking price does not make it likely that this attempt will be any more successful, even though it is less than half of the 26 million kuna which the state demanded for the facility in 2003. The facility is mostly devastated, and significant investments are required for any restoration project.

The property currently includes the Hotel Zagorje building (the former political school in Kumrovec), with a floor area of 5,901 square metres, with a total gross building area of 11,310.00 square metres, divided into four floors and with a gross volume of 34,464.20 cubic metres.

The public call will be published on the website of the Ministry of State Property, on the website of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, and in one of the high-circulation daily newspapers.

The starting price is 11,960,000 kuna. It was determined on the basis of the assessment report prepared by the certified assessor Zrinoslav Ceranec, a permanent court expert for construction and real estate assessment, confirmed by the Technical Services Department at the Ministry of State Property.

The buyer of the real estate, besides the purchase price, will also incur the cost of real estate market valuation by the authorised expert witness in the amount of 32,905 kuna and the cost of producing an energy certificate in the amount of 16,000 kuna.

The Ministry of State Property is responsible for the implementation of this decision.

The former Josip Broz Tito Political School was opened in 1975, as the central educational institution for the staff of the Communist Union of Yugoslavia. It was initially located in a memorial house, located on an adjacent hill. When that space became too small, the new building was opened in 1981 and was used for political education until 1990, when the League of Communists of Yugoslavia collapsed. The last president of the Political School was Ivica Račan, who in 2000 became Croatian prime minister. After 1990, the school was first taken over by the Ministry of the Interior and then by the Ministry of Defence for the training of members of the Croatian Army. In late 1991, displaced persons from Vukovar were accommodated in the building for a while.

More news about the Communist Party can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 27, 2018 - Several thousand people gathered in Kumrovec, northwestern Croatia, on Saturday to celebrate the birthday of the Yugoslav communist leader, Josip Broz Tito, which had been known during his rule as the Youth Day.

There has been no stronger or more divisive leader in the region than one Josip Broz Tito. A visit to the village of his birth on the Croatian-Slovenian border on December 3, 2017.