With the Croatian parliamentary election just five days away, the parties present their IT plans.
According to the World Trade Organization, Croatia had the highest growth in exports of software and IT services in the world last year. The news was announced at the panel about political parties and the digital economy and ICT, which was held in Zagreb on Monday, reports Poslovni.hr on November 3, 2015.
Croatia is, with growth in exports of software and IT services exceeding 40 percent, two times better than Poland and Romania, three times better than Ireland, and four times better than Sweden, Austria and Serbia. Hrvoje Balen from Algebra, who gave the opening presentation, noted that the software sector is growing despite the crisis. “The World Trade Organization has announced that Croatia last year had the highest rate of export growth in IT sector in the world. It speaks not only about the potential of Croatia, but also about what is actually being achieved”, said Balen.
Croatian Employers’ Association has warned about the damage being done to the economy since ICT has not really been recognized as a separate industry. Davor Majetić, general manager of Croatian Employers’ Association, said that Croatia is losing 300 billion euros a year for not taking advantage of the digital economy. “ICT industry is the one which demonstrates that Croatia can be competitive”, Majetić said.
Darko Parić, who on the panel represented the ruling Croatia Is Growing coalition, said that in the last four years the government has worked to make this possible. He explained that the digitization of processes and ICT are pathways to economic recovery. “In the next term, ICT will have an even more important role, but we have still not made a decision about the details”, Parić said.
Ivan Barać, who represented the opposition Patriotic Coalition led by HDZ, said that in their government the ICT sector will be covered by the prime minister himself. “In the last year or two, the state has been a competitor to ICT which has not allowed companies to obtain their first references, which is not good and should be changed”, Barać said. He added that Patriotic Coalition will advocate the abolition of taxes for start-ups during the first three years.
Drago Cmuk represented Pametno party and said that ICT is an important sector which should have its dedicated assistant economy minister who would assist in its development. “The country leadership must consider science and education to be the foundation of society”, Cmuk said. Miroslav Mađarić on behalf of ORaH party said they would devote a special agency or ministry to the ICT sector, while Sergej Seferović on behalf of Successful Croatia coalition said that he firmly believed that ICT should have a separate ministry of its own.
