Entrepreneurship and Crafts Minister Darko Horvat announced on Wednesday the identified potential in the private sector in Croatia at this moment is larger than 1.86 billion Euro, while the investment tempo will depend on state administration and businesses themselves
During his visit to Vinkovci town, Minister Horvat toured the new aluminium plasticisation plant of the local Grad-Export company, a 2 million Euro investment creating 15 new jobs, Tportal.hr reported on July 21, 2016.
In his media statement after the tour, he also said the Ministry will announce today the Entrepreneurship Impulse programme through which non-refundable EU funds will be available to Croatian businesses in the amount of nearly 33.3 million Euro.
According to the owner of Grad-Export Petar Šimić, the largest share of costs for the new plant came from internal reserves and smaller part from a bank loan with subsidised interest rate by the town of Vinkovci and Vukovar-Srijem County. He also mentioned this investment did not gain the financial support of the government last year.
“We applied for EU funds last year, but were not recognised as a company that deserves to receive a 35% co-financing from the EU,” said Šimić, adding that Grad-Export is set to begin a new investment cycle through which they will build two new buildings with 1,600 square metres of space each. He reminded his company employs 157 workers and exports to 29 countries.
Minister Horvat is also set to visit the Triko company in Ilok with 270 employees, most of them women. He will present to them the options of new financial instruments by HAMAG-BICRO that can aid in preserving jobs and increasing competitiveness.
