ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - The U.S. State Department has added about 100 countries this week to its "Level Four: Do Not Travel" advisory list, putting Croatia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Mexico, Germany and others on the list, citing a "very high level of COVID-19," Reuters reported.

On Monday, the State Department said it would boost the number of countries receiving its highest advisory rating to about 80% of countries worldwide.

Before Tuesday, the State Department listed 34 out of about 200 countries as "Do Not Travel." The State Department now lists about 131 countries at Level Four, says Reuters.

The State Department said Monday the move "reflects an adjustment in the State Department's Travel Advisory system to rely more on (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's) existing epidemiological assessments."

Other countries in the "Do Not Travel" list include Finland, Egypt, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Some countries like China and Japan remain at "Level 3: Reconsider Travel."

Most Americans already had been prevented from traveling to much of Europe because of COVID-19 restrictions. Washington has barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in most of Europe, China, Brazil, Iran and South Africa, Reuters says.

On Tuesday, the United States extended by another 30 days restrictions barring non-essential travel at its Canadian and Mexican borders.

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ZAGREB, 14 April, 2021 - US actor and producer Don Victor Cisternino has found himself on an international arrest warrant because the United States wants him for fraud of millions of dollars in subsidies for his employees affected by the pandemic, the Jutarnji List daily said on Wednesday.

I was afraid that the new administration under President Joe Biden would prosecute me for this kind of business, even though it was allowed during the Trump administration. That is why I decided to flee to Europe after the election in the US and seek asylum in Russia or some other country. And that's how I came to Croatia where I wanted to seek political asylum, Cisternino was quoted as saying.

The 45-year old actor and producer, known for his episode role in the television series ER, was arrested on an international arrest warrant on Sunday evening when he entered Croatia from Slovenia in a vehicle.

Over the past few years Cisternino has been running his own company, Magnifi Co, providing consulting services in the film and art industry. The state attorney in Orlando, Florida has charged Cisternino with embezzlement of $7.2 million of a state loan for support to companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cisternino submitted fraudulent details to obtain a jobkeeping loan claiming that his company employed 422 employees, yet it only has two - Cisternino and his wife.

Irregularities were discovered by the tax authorities as Cisternino's tax return noted that all his workers paid the same tax of $3,356. However, due to tax deductions related to the number of children, unemployed spouse and other benefits, taxation varies from employee to employee which then raised suspicion as all 422 workers paid an identical tax amount.

Cisternino has declared that he objects to being extradited to the US. That means that his extradition won't be expedited and the formal extradition procedure will follow, the daily reported.

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ZAGREB, 16 March, 2021 - The refurbished building housing Rijeka's Maritime Crisis Centre for Faster Response to Any Disaster off Croatia’s Coastline was officially opened on Tuesday.

The investment into the upgrade of this offshore emergency response centre in the biggest Croatian seaport totalled US$ 480,000, and the lion's share of the investment was provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

During the ceremony, the state secretary of the Croatian Sea, Transport and Infrastructure ministry, Josip Bilaver, thanked the U.S. administration and military as well as the US Embassy in Zagreb for this donation in the amount of HRK 3.2 million.

The ministry has invested a million kuna, while the local county authorities provided 100,000 kuna for the project.

"The U.S.-Croatia partnership at sea is essential to the two countries’ NATO military cooperation and shared security. That is why the United States, through the U.S. Military’s European Command (EUCOM), provided assistance to the Croatian Ministry of Sea, Transportation and Infrastructure and the Rijeka Harbor Master’s office to advance training and emergency-response capabilities at sea," the embassy said on its website.

The U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Victoria Taylor, who today joined State Secretary Bilaver for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, expressed satisfaction with the completion of this project.

Over the last decade, the USA has set aside HRK 4.5 billion to support numerous civilian and military projects in Croatia, she said.

The Rijeka centre is described as a a renewed facility that will become "the central point for planning, training, and management in response to emergencies at sea, from supporting persons and vessels in need to addressing maritime accidents and oil pollution."

"The upgraded center will therefore play a critical role in maintaining the safety and environmental stewardship of Croatian coastal waters, ensuring quick action in response to a potential environmental disaster. Protection of the environment is a key priority for both Croatia and the United States, and joint capacity to mitigate against incidents and accidents at sea can make all the difference in a crisis."

The embassy recalls that "Rijeka is already a hub for U.S.-Croatia cooperation, with the port city benefiting economically from nearly 900 million kuna in contracted services by the U.S. Navy for ship maintenance and support since 2011."

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February the 25th, 2021 - The Zagreb Faculty of Civil Engineering is known for its innovation and the type of successful students it ''breeds'' within its walls, and recognition from the United States is the latest accolade this Croatian institution has received.

As Novac writes, the American Concrete Institute (ACI) is the world's leading organisation in the field of design and construction of concrete structures, which deals with the development and preparation of proper standards, technical recommendations and reports, as well as the organisation of various educational programmes. It is an impressive organisation which can boast of over 30,000 members in over 120 countries. ACI publishes the "ACI Concrete SmartBrief" e-news on a monthly basis, with highlights for its members in the field of innovation.

It was precisely that monthly publication in which ACI recommended the work of researchers from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb earlier this month. The article is called Non-Destructive Corrosion Inspection of Reinforced Concrete Using Ground-Penetrating Radar: A Review and was published in Materials magazine, published by MDPI (ISSN 1996-1944) by Ksenija Tesic, Ana Baricevic and Marijana Serdar, employees of the Department of Materials at the Zagreb Faculty of Civil Engineering. The American review analysed the advantages and challenges of using radars to determine the corrosion of reinforcement in concrete in real time.

The article was created as part of the doctoral research of Ksenija Tesic, a doctoral student employed on a project entitled "An autonomous system for reviewing and predicting the integrity of transport infrastructure - ASAP", which is co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund.

The Zagreb Faculty of Civil Engineering (GF) of the University of Zagreb is otherwise the main beneficiary and coordinator of the ASAP project, which is implemented in cooperation with its partners, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) of the University of Zagreb.

By connecting the fields of construction, robotics and computing through the ASAP project, an interdisciplinary core has been created that offers an innovative solution for maintenance, monitoring and management of buildings, and is a future strong strategic partner to the public and private sector in the field of construction modernisation, and the Americans think so too.

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February 16, 2021 – It's official! The American Embassy in Croatia today formally confirmed Croatians USA Visa-free travel. Croatians will have the right to travel to the USA without a Visa from later this year.

The American Embassy in Croatia today officially confirmed Croatians USA Visa-free travel. Having met the final stipulation set by the USA in 2020, Croatians right to travel to the USA without a Visa will be open later this year.

Tweeting from the official account of the American Embassy in Croatia, the news of Croatians USA Visa-free travel was released at 16.49 on Tuesday 16 February 2021. This is the first time that official confirmation of Croatians USA Visa-free travel has come from America authorities.

The main precondition set by the USA for the abolition of visa requirement for Croatians visiting America was a drop in the number of denied Visa applications to below 3%. Croatia attained that result back in September 2020. Total Croatia News was the first English language media in the world to reveal the stipulation had been met, granting Croatians USA Visa-free travel.

It’s official! The final refusal rate for Croatian tourist/business visa applicants fell to 2.69% last year, an essential step forward in joining the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. We look forward to Croatians travelling to the United States visa-free in the near future.

— Chargé d’Affaires Taylor (@USAmbCroatia) February 16, 2021

"It's official! The final rejection rate for Croatian tourist / business visa applicants fell to 2.69% last year, an important step forward in joining the US visa waiver program. We look forward to Croatians travelling to the United States visa-free in the near future, ” wrote Victoria J. Taylor, Deputy American Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia. She went on to thank the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Interior Affairs of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian government for their help in securing Croatians USA Visa-free travel.

Many thanks to @VladaRH, @mup_rh and @MVEP_hr for U.S.-Croatia teamwork and substantive progress on key Visa Waiver Program (VWP) requirements, from data sharing to border security. We will continue to cooperate closely with Croatia and complete all remaining VWP requirements.

— Chargé d’Affaires Taylor (@USAmbCroatia) February 16, 2021

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January the 20th, 2021 - The US Government has changed, and with Joe Biden as the new president, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce's Ivan Barbaric has looked at precisely which questions must be answered, and which issues must be solved by the countries on either side of the vast Atlantic.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the change of Government in the USA could pave way to an additional impetus to the economic relations between Croatia and the USA, and so far the highest priority is to solve the problem of double taxation and abolish visas for Croatian citizens, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) announced.

The Croatian Chamber of Commerce states that Croatian exports to the United States are continuing to grow solidly and constantly, and that a change of government in one of the world's strongest economies could give an additional spring to the step of the two countries' economic relations. 

Back in 2019, the total trade exchange between Croatia and the United States amounted to an impressive 649 million US dollars, of which 461 million kuna was made up by Croatian exports (14 percent more than in 2018). In the first nine months of 2020, the amount of exports of goods to the United States also reached almost 370 million US dollars, an increase of almost three percent over the same period a year earlier. Ivan Barbaric, Vice President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce for International Affairs, believes that the economic and trade policy of the new administration of President Joe Biden will change the current direction, will go back into the direction of the process of economic globalisation, cooperation with international organisations and possible inclusion in some new/old trade agreements.

"The currently weakened strategic partnership between Washington and the European Union could now also be repaired, with the hope that the new US administration will enable stability and predictability of EU-US relations and trade. In the end, it would certainly benefit Croatia, ie Croatian companies that do business internationally,'' said Ivan Barbaric, adding that double taxation is one of the burning problems of economic relations between Croatia and the United States and has been for a long time now.

Namely, as he stated, Croatian companies export a significant number of services to the USA, during the first nine months of 2020 revenues from such services amounted to 152 million euros, and the companies that export services will be most helped out by signing the Double Taxation Agreement.

"We believe that the new US administration will realise the importance of this agreement and sign it as soon as possible," Ivan Barbaric stressed. The current topic is the abolition of visas for Croatian citizens, and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce also cooperated with the US Embassy in Croatia in resolving this problem. According to the latest unofficial information, Croatia has met all the conditions, so visas could be abolished soon.

An example of quality economic and political cooperation, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce points out, is the LNG terminal on Krk, which was put into commercial operation at the beginning of the year. This is a project of great strategic and geopolitical importance for both Croatia and the EU as a whole, because the import of American gas reduces the dependence of European consumers on Russian gas, meaning that it diversifies energy supply sources.

President-elect Biden has already announced the return of the United States to the Paris Agreement, which means a greater possibility of American investments in the field of energy, and Croatian companies should also look for their chance in this field. The Croatian Chamber of Commerce also added that wines from Croatia, more precisely Peljesac dingac and zinfandel, will be poured at the inauguration of the new American president, which is just the culmination of long-term trends of successful export and promotion of local wines over on the American market.

Croatian wine exports are growing at a rate of 10 to 15 percent per year, and according to data for the first ten months of 2020, it reached the amount of 860,000 US dollars, meaning that despite the pandemic, it remained at the levels from 2019.

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December the 6th, 2020 - Roberto Kutic, the founder of the wildly successful Vodnjan-based Croatian company Infobip, has discussed how the pandemic has affected the industry in which Infobip has taken an enviably strong position.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Roberto Kutic writes, many things have fundamentally altered over the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and what has still managed to experience enormous acceleration is technological advancement.

There is a visible difference in how people currently use different services, especially when it comes to the communication segment. The market in which Infobip operates is growing rapidly, technology is evolving and companies are increasingly improving their communication channels, because with them, they manage to reach their customers in moments of this sort of physical disconnection. However, this accelerated digital transformation and all the significant technological changes that have taken place will remain and will continue to develop strongly even after the coronavirus period has passed - because the benefits have become very obvious to everyone. We expect to continue to be an important factor on this market, precisely because of the need for the technology we provide.

For us at Infobip, every year represents a completely new beginning, a new start for the company. This is how we're looking at 2021, which we're entering with a mindset of exponential growth. In front of Infobip lie more new milestones and goals. One of our most important moments in Croatia will be the opening of the Zagreb campus Alpha Centauri, also Infobip's strongest engineering HUB. On top of all that, we also have a considerable and challenging job ahead of us in terms of business growth and employment.

It is a year in which we'll move towards our stronger positioning in the always competitive American market, which is gravitated to by the world's largest technology companies. We have a large space in front of us there and it is the only region in the world in which we we have yet to step forward in a stronger way, and we're rapidly preparing for precisely that move.

Here in Croatia, the IT sector has left a significant mark this year. The strength of this industry has been confirmed by the recent successes of many Croatian technology companies. That part of the economy is full of potential and can provide a really strong spring in the step of other branches of the economy as well, if it's allowed to fully do so. We're sure that next year will bring many new success stories from Croatian technological circles, which we'll all be very proud of indeed.

Written by Roberto Kutic of Infobip

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 16th of November, 2020, the Croatian-American company Sportyn INC presented the free Sportyn application (app) in Zagreb. By exchanging video content, as the main medium, the app enables the promotion of athletes on a global level, changes the image of sport scouting and financing the development of athletes, using all aspects of modern social networking concepts.

Experts in the field of developing new technological solutions from Sportyn are otherwise experienced entrepreneurs and world-famous sport ambassadors, and they consider this application a kind of revolution for the sporting community and redefining the path of young athletes to success.

Sportyn, they say, wants to become a platform to promote athletes globally, and is the first on the market to offer real benefits to those who are serious or amateurs in sport, such as athletes, spectators, coaches or scouts. It is the first and only platform in the world that, by the use of an advanced algorithmic search engine, enables agents and scouts, but also all sport lovers, to quickly find any athlete, amateur or professional, regardless of their age, country or sport, even if the athlete's name is completely unknown.

''Millions of talented athletes face the same problem today - insufficiently targeted visibility and connectivity with desired audiences, sport recruiters and organisations. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are massive channels that offer fast, unfiltered and typical content for viewing by the general population, but they lack the special focus needed for athletes, especially younger people, for competitions and sporting entertainment that is only served casually. This means that there are no real and functional filters, and the videos are scattered around and virtually invisible to the target audience for which they were created. Sport recruiters therefore don't rely on these channels as reliable resources or talent search platforms. We saw space for Sportyn there,'' said Ivan Ilecic, the founder and CEO of Sportyn Inc.

With the help of the special Sportyn algorithm, it is possible to rank and compare athletes according to different criteria. The platform will also contain detailed biographies of the athletes, their athletic characteristics, achievements, statistics, club history, contract and agency status. It is easy to use, available at sportyn.com/app/, and the main communication tool is video clips lasting up to 60 seconds, which are archived and easily accessible, even if the data was published in the application as long as a few years ago. Special emphasis is also placed on data security.

"No matter what part of the world you live in and in what conditions you train in, Sportyn helps you show off your talent to a global sporting audience and those who, recognising your potential, can change your life literally overnight," said Ivan Rakitic, an ambassador of Sportyn.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of November, 2020, the luxury cabins of an impressive polar cruiser are being built in the Split shipyard for an American client. The cabins are truly luxurious and boast everything an American client might need and want.

The cabin being worked on currently is a demonstration cabin located in the hangar in the aforementioned Split shipyard, Brodosplit. If the client is satisfied with what he sees and what is being offered, then it will be installed in the ship, HRT reports.

''The shipowner is the one who sets all of the requirements, we're here to fulfill all of those requirements or to offer some replacements for what he would like within the budget he has,'' explained Ana Perisic, interior designer.

''We're in the final phase of work on this new construction, and that is the Ultramarine that we're building for the American company Quark. So, after these works, we will start testing it out and expect the final field works by the end of this year, followed by the handover of the ship,'' stated Dalibor Komatina, production director at the well known Split shipyard.

The shipowner's representative is more than satisfied with the construction process so far, as all of the deadlines and all their other requirements have been met. They already know when the ship will leave and where it will head on its very first voyage.

''It will make its first trip to the Arctic next May. In the summer season, we'll go to the Arctic area. The ship will set sail in Norway for the ocean, and sail around Iceland and Greenland moving west following the movement of the ice,'' says Elliott Tulloch, a client representative of Quark Expeditions, USA.

The construction of polar cruisers is an extremely demanding and complex job, which they readily prepared for at the aforementioned Ship shipyard in order to seize the best possible position on the global market, and they succeeded in doing precisely that.

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October the 11th, 2020 - Mike Pompeo in Dubrovnik attracted a lot of media attention, and the former head of the CIA had a clear message to Croatia when it comes to doing business with the Chinese - Be careful.

As Novac/David Lekaj writes, "Open your eyes when doing business with China," was the message of the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, who received his military training at the prestigious West Point and his doctorate in law from Harvard.

Mike Pompeo in Dubrovnik explained the geopolitical dangers and pitfalls of cooperation with China in great detail as part of the "17 + 1" initiative. His statement that "the Chinese just want to take money from Croatia" surprised the Croatian public, considering that newspaper columns have been filled with articles about Chinese investments in various projects within the country for several years. However, what was happening far from the radar of the Croatian public was the presentation of Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma to Chinese businessmen at the "Green Forum" on Tuesday (September the 29th) when he uttered almost the same words as Pompeo in Dubrovnik. All in all, we should encourage our government to seriously consider Croatia's further role in the "17 + 1" initiative.

What has been achieved from the announced Chinese investments in Croatia? Well almost nothing. In the absence of the realisation of the promised investments, Peljesac Bridge often gets referred to as a Chinese investment, although it isn't. Peljesac Bridge is an investment by the Croatian Government, mostly financed by European Union (EU) funds. The Chinese simply picked up money to carry out the work. The then Chinese ambassador in Zagreb, Hu Zhaoming, in the midst of some strong media lobbying for Chinese companies, publicly promised that the money that the Chinese state-owned company would receive for doing the work on Peljesac Bridge would be invested in Croatia. As soon as the transfer was made, the Chinese directed all the money to the Italian Port of Trieste, and Ambassador Hu Zhaoming left Croatia for half a term, and was promoted to the high position of Director of the Information and Communication Office of the Central Liaison Department at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Such a modus operandi was pointed out by Pompeo in Dubrovnik. As were China's combinatorics through the "17 + 1" initiative, whereby China has networked the transition countries of Europe in order for Chinese companies to gain initial business experience that they currently lack to enter the ''game'' with developed EU countries. In fact, the "17 + 1" initiative brings together the "b" and "c" leagues of European countries according to Chinese criteria. In all this, Croatia hasn't achieved any economic interest and this quite legitimately calls into question the further membership of Croatia in such an organisation from which only China benefits.

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma appealed to Chinese corporations at the Green Forum on Tuesday (September the 29th) to strive to be at the service of the world to restore China's degraded image, rather than trying to conquer the global market. In addition, Ma told Chinese businessmen that they should stop considering globalisation a mere effort to conquer the global market and nothing more. Instead, they should properly develop their ability to provide quality products and services, the tycoon noted.

In other words, China’s image is currently and expectedly dismal, as Chinese companies are the world’s biggest plagiarists, unscrupulously using other people’s patents and intellectual property. But you don't have to go to China to understand what Jack Ma is talking about, just visit the Smederevo steel plant or the Bor mine in neighbouring Serbia, which taken over by the Chinese, and after talking to the locals there it will be clear what environmental issues are at stake in that part of Serbia. If China doesn't finally make a real turnaround, if it doesn't become a reliable country that instills confidence in others, that doesn't "mask" things that can endanger human lives around the world (as it did at the beginning of the current coronavirus pandemic), then such a China quite simply cannot expect the rest of the world to harbour decent relations with it, instead, the world will continue to experience China as it did before - the global cradle of cheap copies.

The harsh criticism of the Chinese Embassy in Zagreb on the statements of the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Dubrovnik was obviously wrongly addressed, as Pompeo spoke in Dubrovnik almost in the same tone as Jack Ma did just a few days ago in China.

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