May the 22nd, 2022 - The German Lurssen Group has opened its Rijeka engineering centre, which will come very handy when it comes to the development of ideas and design.

As Morski writes, the German Lurssen Group, which specialises in the design and production of luxury megayachts, has opened the doors of its brand new Rijeka engineering centre. It will develop ideas and design some of the most modern and expensive vessels in the world there, and after the Rijeka engineering centre, the German group has announced further investments.

Since entering the Croatian market just a couple of years ago, the German Lurssen Group has become one of the most frequently mentioned names in all of Kvarner when it comes to investments. It first became the majority owner of the largest hotel chain in Opatija - Liburnia Riviera Hotels, and then chose Rijeka as a centre of excellence for the development and design of vessels, hence the new centre.

''This is a city in which we've found highly motivated and quality employees. This is where we see great potential in terms of engineering, as well as the development of tourism,'' said Peter Lurssen, the co-owner of the Lurssen Group.

Hundreds of Croatian experts are already working on projects that represent the future of the maritime industry, according to a report from HRT.

''Our people aren't heading abroad, they're staying here and carrying out high value-added jobs as parts of international teams and we believe that this is a great thing for our region,'' said Teuta Duletic, Executive Director of the brand new Lurssen Design Centre in Kvarner.

Yet another capital investment in this sense can also be boasted of, as in cooperation with ACI, they're also working on the construction of a nautical port, worth more than 360 million kuna in total.

''These are significant investments and will certainly affect the quality of the nautical offer in Croatia. We've already outlined this through the strategy of sustainable tourism development,'' emphasised Nikolina Brnjac, Minister of Tourism.

''Over the next five years, the face of the City of Rijeka will change, especially when viewed from the sea. Let's look at this investment as an investment in highly educated people, so it's definitely something good that is happening in Rijeka,'' said Marko Filipovic, Mayor of Rijeka.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

ZAGREB, 22 Jan 2022 - The mayor of Rijeka, Social Democrat Marko Filipović, said on Saturday he welcomed any move towards decentralising governance but that he could not comment in greater detail on a proposal by Split Mayor Ivica Puljak for Split, Rijeka and Osijek to be given powers that the capital of Zagreb has.

Asked by Hina if he had discussed the topic with Puljak, Filipović said that he had not and therefore could not comment on it in greater detail but that he definitely welcomed any move leading to the critically necessary decentralisation.

The Rijeka mayor said that any decentralisation of powers had to be accompanied by financial decentralisation to facilitate the exercise of those powers.

Split Mayor Ivica Puljak (Centre party) announced on Friday that the city administration would ask the national parliament to pass a law to enable that city, as well as Rijeka and Osijek, to govern their entire territory.

He explained that that way, those three cities and possibly other cities "would be able to...  make order in their territory wherever they wanted, avoiding red tape at the higher levels of government."

Puljak said he had discussed the matter with PM Andrej Plenković during his recent visit to Split, which was their first official meeting after the May 2021 local election, when Puljak was elected mayor.

Puljak said Split-Dalmatia County head Blaženko Boban (HDZ), who also attended the meeting, did not agree with his initiative.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.