The initiative will create thousands of new jobs.
If just 100 million euro were to be invested in the development of broadband network infrastructure in Croatia, that would create almost 4,000 new jobs, said Maruška Vizek, the head of the Zagreb Institute of Economics, at the Zagreb Forum 2018, reports Poslovni.hr on June 2, 2018.
In the next few years, Croatia is planning to withdraw from EU funds three times as much money. Vizek said that the digital infrastructure development would increase the digitization level of the country. If it increases by just one percent, the industry productivity will grow by 2.1 percent and employment by 1.2 percent.
“Cities have already felt the benefits of digitization, and that is the reason why we have so many initiatives for the introduction of the smart cities concept, but research suggests that rural areas would feel even more benefits from the digitization drive, especially the manufacturing industry,” said Vizek.
Bernard Gršić, the state secretary at the Central State Office for Digital Society Development, said that life without digital technologies is unthinkable. “The digital transformation which has begun at the city level now needs to be accompanied by the development of digital skills of citizens. The path towards smart cities is open, but we still have a lot of work to do,” said Gršić.
Zagreb, the host city of the event, presented its good initial results and even better possibilities for the future development. According to the latest data, Zagreb has 790,000 inhabitants in the immediate area and 1.2 million in the wider region. It is trying to position itself as a university centre, suitable for launching startups and technological development. The city has 71,900 students and an increasing number of tourists, of which more than 75 percent are foreigners. It has created the largest startup co-working space in Croatia, with the usable area of 7,500 square metres. The city wants to present itself as a centre for innovations and entrepreneurship.
According to data, more than 50 percent of foreign direct investment goes to Zagreb, and the GDP per capita in the capital is 80 percent higher than the Croatian average, amounting to 18,400 euro per capita. About 32% of Croatian exports are produced in Zagreb, the city hosts 33% of all entrepreneurs in Croatia, and it has an annual budget of more than one billion euro.
Jerome Richard, an advisor to the mayor of Orleans, France, said that the process of the introduction of smart cities in France was proceeding slowly. “In Orleans, the smart city project is being launched through three initiatives: the project of collaborative development of the city through the Lab City initiative; the reduction of the digital divide which includes at least a third of the population; and the project of a smart green city, given that as much as 60% of the Orleans area are forests and agricultural land,” concluded Richard.
Translated from Poslovni.hr.
