October 21, 2020 – Among 28 nominated cities in the categories of quality of life, economy, and education and demographic policy, 10 of them received the award and the title as the best cities in Croatia.
As we already reported yesterday, Sveta Nedelja was named as the best city in the economy category for the third year in a row and is among the top five best Croatian cities for quality of life. Gradonačelnik.hr emphasizes the fact that Sveta Nedelja is the only city that managed to beat the competition three times in a row and win the title of the best city for the economy in the country. Besides the great success of this perspective city in Zagreb County, it is also worth mentioning other Croatian cities that excelled in this election.
The best cities in the category of the economy are also Hvar and Samobor. In the category of demography and education Cres, Labin, and Šibenik won, and in the category of all categories – the quality of life – the best Croatian cities are Krk, Rovinj, and Čakovec. The champion of the EU funds is Virovitica.
As many as four Croatian cities – Labin, Cres, Krk, and the already mentioned Sveta Nedelja – managed to defend the title of the best in our selection this year.
Four out of ten winning cities come from Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar Counties, but those counties also had the biggest number of nominated cities and nominations in all mentioned categories. Recall, eight cities of Istria County were competing with as many as 14 nominations, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar Counties were following with its six cities and nine nominations.
This year’s selection for the best Croatian cities was held in Zagreb on Tuesday, and it has been successfully organized for the third year in a row by the Gradonačelnik.hr portal, Jutarnji list, and the Ipsos agency. Unfortunately, due to the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, a large number of finalists, and even winners, did not attend the award ceremony.
Unlike previous years, this year the Smart and Eco City categories were separated into a special selection, which is still ongoing, but a new category was introduced – the best county EU project.
Counties also received awards
After the public chose their favourite through online voting – the project PISMO of Sisak-Moslavina County and their agency SIMORA – the expert jury chose the winners in four categories. Virovitica-Podravina County with its project Be STEMpatičan! (Be STEMpathetic) is selected as the winner in the Contribution to the science and innovation category.
In the category Contribution to the local and regional community, the best project was NEWLIGHT of Krapina-Zagorje and Zagreb counties, ie the Regional Energy Agency of Northwestern Croatia (REGEA). Second place in the public selection, Mala Barka 2 of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County won in the category Contributions to cross-border cooperation, and Split-Dalmatia County won in the category of Contribution to entrepreneurship with the project Sustainable growth of small and medium enterprises with emphasis on cultural and creative industries.
Project PISMO Novska of Sisak-Moslavina County / PISMO