ZAGREB, October 16, 2018 – Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković met with representatives of French employers in Paris on Tuesday and briefed them about cooperation possibilities between the two countries, a topic he will discuss later today with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Plenković took part in a meeting of French and Croatian business people in the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF), which is the largest employer federation in France with more than 750,000 member firms, 90 percent of them being small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 50 employees.
A delegation of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), led by HGK president Luka Burilović, is also in Paris with Plenković.
Addressing the French business people, Plenković presented Croatia and spoke about efforts the government was investing to make doing business in Croatia easier. “We are making maximum efforts in structural reforms and consolidation of public finances,” Plenković said.
The prime minister underscored the tax reform, lower taxes for companies, simpler administrative procedures, and changes in the public procurement procedure under which the best and no longer the cheapest bids will be considered.
Plenković says these efforts have resulted in an upgraded credit rating of the country which is now only one degree below the investment rating, adding that the objective was to reach the investment rating by the end of the year. He also talked about government’s effort to save the ailing food group Agrokor from bankruptcy. “The reforms we are implementing are improving the business environment which is now more favourable for investments,” Plenković said.
Last year, foreign investments in Croatia reached 1.8 billion euro and this year they should reach a record-high amount of two billion euros.
Plenković stressed that a large investment cycle had been launched, adding that he expected it to increase investments to three billion euro by 2030, notably investments in the outdated railway infrastructure.
Croatia and France have good economic cooperation which is regulated in the Strategic Partnership document signed in 2010.
Last year, trade between the two countries amounted to 900 million euro and in the first six months of this year it totalled 618 million euro.
France’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Croatia since 1993 has reached one million euro and France is the ninth biggest foreign investor in Croatia.
The event in Paris was also addressed by HGK president Luka Burilović and Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli who spoke about investment possibilities in the tourism sector.
