What can Croatia do to up its currently extremely poor investment game? With non-EU countries like Macedonia and Serbia, which are typically considered to be less developed than Croatia, making things far easier for entrepreneurs than Croatia, and our neighbour to the north, Slovenia, pulling huge sums of cash for investment from Europe, just where is Croatia going wrong?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 22nd of February, 2019, Croatia has one of the most incentive boosting legal frameworks for investment in Europe, which is openly recognised by everyone in the EU, but there is a problem in implementing these investments, as there is in the projected image of Croatia as a tourist destination rather than an investment destination. This was stated at the opening of the recent conference " InvestCro - Is Croatia Ready for New Investments'' which was organised in Zagreb, it is held as a year-round multimedia project jointly organised by Poslovni Dnevnik, Večernji list and 24sata.

Darko Horvat, Minister of Economy, addressed the conference:

"Everyone sitting here today has the same desire: If we can't make Croatia more desirable for investments, we at least should become aware that we're not that bad either. We have to work on our own confidence, because if we don't believe in ourselves, how will those who come here to invest feel when they encounter problems. It's especially important that people from the field - mayors and entrepreneurs, who can share the problems they encounter on a daily basis - also participate in the conference.

When you analyse today's renowned global and Croatian TV stations, portals, newspapers... you'll see that Croatia is a country offering the sun and the sea. To sum up how much Croatia has invested into being recognised as a tourist destination, it's clear why we're not seen as an investment Mecca. We don't have any marketing that would allow investors to see and recognise our country as being desirable for investment.

Our only "marketing" is a negative one through investors who did come to Croatia and haven't managed to succeed, and are talking about that abroad. Those who succeeded and didn't encounter any serious problems, and that's the majority, are generally silent and just do their work because nobody else asks them anything,'' Horvat said.

He added that the huge problem Croatia has is that during the accession period for EU membership, negotiations were carried out and the EU's laws were taken on without question, and they weren't "localised'' through the implementing of acts, which is why the bureaucracy and the judiciary system are so slow and dysfunctional today.

"Now that we're a full member [of the EU], we have to work harder to purge the regulatory framework that hampers us and prevents us from developing. With all the problems we have, Croatia has been growing steadily by 2-3 percent, but the problem is that those around us are growing 2-3 times faster than we are. Therefore, we must implement processes that will accelerate investment and the ease of doing business. When it comes to opening a company, we have seven steps and the whole process for the company to start doing business lasts longer than 30-40 days, although the registration itself lasts just fifteen minutes. We must take for example Estonia or Macedonia, which are at the top of the competitiveness ladder, and not be 150 places behind,'' noted Minister Horvat.

He also pointed out that the issue of the speed of issuing building permits is the biggest problem in big cities, primarily in Zagreb.

"Things are happening and they just need to be promoted. If the Slovenes have managed to attract 14 billion euros in investment from Western Europe, and we've only had 3.8 billion, then it's clear to see that we have some serious problems," said Minister Darko Horvat.

Zdenko Adrović, Director of the Croatian Association of Banks (HUB), highlighted the importance of public debate on the challenges of investing in Croatia.

"The aim of this project is to open up a series of investment issues in Croatia, and this year marks the 20th anniversary of HUB, and this year we want to stimulate the discussion about investments and the role of the banking sector in it. The IMF concluded that there is a need to alleviate bureaucratic obstacles and that would be very welcome, as would providing stronger legal certainty involving a fast and efficient justice system. Without a proper justice system there's little hope in expecting any sort of investment wave, we're not even among the top thirty [countries for investment]. A very well-known British business paper recently concluded that the sun and the sea  aren't enough,'' Adrović warned.

He also added that the establishment of a company in Croatia lasts several times longer than it does in our immediate neighborhood, including in countries like Serbia and Macedonia, both of which are outside of the EU, and which we usually consider to be considerably less developed than Croatia. Vladimir Nišević, editor-in-chief of Poslovni Dnevnik, stressed the importance of the media in promoting important social values, and Croatia's investment climate is certainly one of them.

"Without healthy investment and economic development there will be no other social advances such as curricular reform and the like, although the current Uljanik problem is one of the burning issues of the Croatian economy and society, it's much more important to look at how our country and our society will look in twenty years,'' Nišević rightly concluded.

Make sure to stay up to date with news on Croatia's investment and business climate and everything you need to know by following our dedicated business and politics pages.

Click here for the original article by Darko Bicak for Poslovni Dnevnik

What could have very easily been a potentially devastating story of two Croatian and Slovenian surfers who decided to take to the extremely rough and dangerous waves on the Adriatic sea a few days ago have miraculously been found safe and well. While one of the surfers, a Croatian citizen, managed to somehow reach the shore in Croatia, his Slovenian counterpart went missing, only to have managed, rather incredulously, to have survived the high seas and end up on the shore not too far from Trieste, Italy.

As we reported yesterday, the waves recorded in certain parts of the Adriatic, more specifically around Palagruža, Croatia's most remote lighthouse island, were the highest they have been since back in 2004, reaching over seven metres in height, and when the news broke that a search for the missing surfer had begun, nobody could have imagined a happy ending. Incredibly, a happy ending came.

As Index writes on the 31st of October, 2018, the alarming story of the two missing people, Croatian and Slovenian surfers, broke yesterday. As stated, things looked far from promising that afternoon, when the two surfers disappeared in the stormy sea near Umag in Istria. Almost immediately,  the search began, which was largely limited due to dangerous weather conditions wreaking havoc on both the Croatian and the Italian sides of the Adriatic sea.

Despite the fact that the situation looked dire, that very same day, after several hours of searching, the Croatian surfer was found. He managed to battle the waves, and swim to the shore, saving himself.

The search for the Slovenian surfer, 47-year-old Goran Jablanov, had to be cut short due to darkness and terrible weather conditions out at sea. The search continued yesterday morning, but ended with no results, leaving everyone naturally expecting the worst. In the afternoon, however, some truly incredible news arrived from Italy. The Slovenian surfer, after more than 24 hours stuck in the stormy sea, managed to get to the shore not far from Trieste.

During these incomprehensible 24 hours spent in a stormy sea, he managed to cover about forty kilometres, according to a report from the Italian portal Il Piccolo, which brings about some new details about the rescue of this amazingly lucky Slovenian surfer.

As the Slovenian media also writes, the surfer came out of the sea himself, arriving on the beach of Costa dei Barbari, which is located about twenty kilometres from Trieste. He simply went into a nearby cafe and called for help there. He was quickly hospitalised, but was given the okay and released that same night.

''Lucky'' doesn't quite do this situation justice!

The value of the transaction is estimated at approximately 21 million euro, which allegedly includes 7.5 million euro of debt.

Croatia's immediate neighbours to the north are determined to get their way.

It isn't just petrol and clothing drawing people over the borders...

The neighbours are unhappy, once again.

Startup support from next door's political elite as one Croatian startup which found difficulties setting up at home sees more opportunity in Ljubljana.

Another labour market fully opens its doors to Croatian citizens.

A step forward.

Political relations might not be at their best, but the environment is a big enough reason to get the kids from both countries together.