Minister Darko Horvat said that all forty required parameters for the investment have now been satisfied and that the government had put together a proper offer. On Wednesday, the Croatian Government will open talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the arrival of Volkswagen in Croatia.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 20th of November, 2019, this information was announced by Economy Minister Darko Horvat at the HUP conference “Industry 4.0 – Opportunity and/or Challenge” held on Tuesday in Varaždin.
Although just three weeks ago, VW production chief Andreas Tostmann told Reuters that they were not looking for an alternative location for their new one and a half million euro factory, Horvat claims that the government has prepared a bid for a German investor, and that it is determined to try to get a positive decision for this investment to be realised here in the Republic of Croatia. Horvat states that the government has received and processed all of Volkswagen’s management requirements and even found three potential locations for the plant.
“The talks are beginning tomorrow (today, op.a.) with Ms. Merkel about VW realising its investment here in Croatia, The government has put together a bid for VW and found three locations where there are one million square metres of land, and all of the other conditions, which regard 40 parameters, are ready as were requested in order to realise that investment,” Horvat said.
He added that there were three potential locations for the factory: Varaždin, Ivanić-Grad and Dugo Selo. In no other part of Croatia have they found so much available land ready for investment combined with all of the other conditions, such as human and educational capacity and development plans for twenty years.
“We want to brand Croatia as a destination of excellence and we’ll either create such opportunities ourselves or we’ll just remain the domain of selling the sun, the sea or healthy food, although we’re aware that a good deal of our food is actually imported,” Horvat says.
The minister said the Croatian Government was also working on several other things to steer Croatia in the direction of Industry 4.0. He confirmed that talks on the new Labour Law had now begun at the Ministry. The new law, he explains, should acknowledge the reality that a framework for project-oriented jobs must be created.
“Ultimately, we have to allow someone from abroad to be able to come to Croatia to work for two or three years, do their job and then move on, because this is legal migration that is happening in our neighbouring countries and this is a trend that would help us out too,” Horvat noted.
He added that changes were also being made to the Investment Promotion Act. It would allow that the condition for obtaining benefits under this law need not be the hiring of new people. In addition, the status of unused state property will be redefined, which will particularly benefit tourism.
However, the minister says they want the positive effects of the bill to be specifically targeted at industry.
“Next week, we’re launching a new IRI tender, the so-called IRI2, which will for the first time enable large companies with more than 250 employees to compete for funds, and thus have access to 770 million kuna in capital, and the government is ready take it a step further next year and do an IRI 3 contest,” says Horvat.
He emphasised the fact that there are around 400 large companies operating here in Croatia, which have the highest capacity to absorb R&D funds and that they’re expected to make the greatest economic shifts from using these funds. In addition, the Ministry of the Economy expects that Ernst & Young’s consultancy will help Croatia to complete the National Artificial Intelligence Development Program by the end of the year.
The ministry also expects the completion of the Centre for Innovation, Advanced Technology and Skill Development, which should be operational soon. Additionally, Minister Horvat announced the first concrete move this Friday.
“Today, we’re going to test the new system out internally, and on Friday, everyone in Croatia will be able to open obrts, j.d.o.o.’s and d.o.o.’s from their living rooms through the Start application, through which eight institutions are networked, including HZMO and HZZO and banks, so you’ll be able to immediately open a bank account,” Horvat concluded.
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