Croatia appears to be moving very much in the right direction, but what does the country need to invest most into?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 12th of August, 2018, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey on sustainable economic development estimates for 2018, the Republic of Croatia is ranked at 40th place among 152 countries, placing it within a group of countries with apparent high prosperity.
SEDA (Sustainable Economic Development Assessment SEDA) is a tool that BCG launched back in 2012 and is designed to provide an educated insight into the relative prosperity of a country’s citizens and the success in the ability of states to turn wealth into eventual prosperity, measured in terms of revenue, according to a BCG statement.
Croatia has managed to gain 64.5 points according to the same BCG statement, so its SEDA list ranking is behind a good amount of the countries which have passed through the transition process into market economies back during the 1990s, and were therefore able to transform wealth into the welfare of citizens. These countries include Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Hungary.
Of all the values, i.e, the dimensions which make up SEDA scores, Croatia received the highest rating of 85.5 for equality, while the lowest rating for Croatia was given on the topic of income, just 30.8. Furthermore, Croatia received 84 for economic stability, 80.9 for healthcare, 74 for civil society, 72.6 for infrastructure, and 65.8 for education.
The second and third lowest ratings received by Croatia were for environmental protection, at 53.8, and for employment, at 45.6. BCG’s Tomislav Čorak commented on the results that point to Croatia, according to SEDA, being part of a group of more developed CEE countries.
“This is a definitive move away from the neighbouring Southeastern European countries, but Croatia is still lagging behind the countries with which we’ve recently been compared for the transition to a market economy like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, or Poland. The high infrastructure rating shows how Croatia is developing in the right direction, but the room for improvement is indicated by a relatively low level of education and employment,” stated Čorak.
He also pointed out that, according to the advice that comes from the study, countries that already enjoy a relatively high level of prosperity should continue to invest in education and employment, which means that Croatia must work best to preserve existing jobs and to continue to open up new ones.
“None of that will be possible without serious investment into education too, especially in the field of new technologies without which the citizens of our country will not be prepared for the challenges posed by globalisation and constant technological changes,” noted Čorak.
Otherwise, when it comes to the countries that once made up Yugoslavia, Slovenia finds itself in the best position at 21st place with an enviable score of 72.6, just behind two Western European economic bastions, the United Kingdom and France.
