Ivanec is coming on leaps and bounds.
Last year, the respected Financial Times proclaimed Ivanec as the most desirable investment destination made up of up to 100,000 inhabitants, and this year, among 200 competitors, the town has been awarded for its entrepreneurship development.
As Sasa Paparella/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of June, 2018, just a few months ago, at a ceremony held in Dubrovnik, Ivanec received a significant award and further recognition for contributing to the development of entrepreneurship in central and south-eastern Europe. Ivanec and its mayor, Milorad Batinić, were nominated for this award by renowned economic experts and entrepreneurs, and the winners were chosen by an independent international awards and recognition committee, composed of university professors and experts in economics, marketing, management, finance, and entrepreneurship.
Ivanec won the award in a competition made up of nearly 200 cities from Germany, Italy, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia. Mayor Batinić stressed that “the award of recognition at such a high level by independent analysts confirms that we’re doing a good job. The city didn’t know that we’d been nominated,”
The mayor went on to state his satisfaction with the recognition of Ivanec’s activities on the creation of better conditions for entrepreneurial investments.
”The fully equipped Municipal business zone – Ivanec East, as well as the industrial zone, and entrepreneurs have a set of benefits and facilities for investment available to them, and in the spring, we’re expecting the already announced realisation of new entrepreneurial investments in those zones,” said Mayor Batinić.
Ivanec has also established a project office for European Union funds and has made it available to all entrepreneurs and OPGs. In addition, they have initiated and are actively participating in targeted training activities for the specific needs of the local economy.
Otherwise, this isn’t Ivanec’s first tale of recognition and awards. Back in September 2017, economic analysts from the Financial Times declared Ivanec as the most desirable investment destination at the level of European cities of up to 100,000 people. 18 million kuna was invested in the aforementioned Ivanec-East business zone development project.
In addition to foreign and international awards, domestic awards have also been received. Back in 2016 at the final conference of ”Cities of the Future”, which took place under the organisation of Poslovni Dnevnik and Večernji List, Ivanec received the award in the category of smarter management in order to create a framework for a modern policy that supports entrepreneurship, guides and helps the industry to be ready to face new challenges, and growing competition. Ivanec’s project office solution was then rated as the one with the most direct benefits for entrepreneurs and the entire local community and its economy. Ivanec is among the Croatian ten cities with the most significant drop in unemployment, along with Prelog, Zaprešić, Ozalj, Rab, Sveta Nedjela, and Đurđevac. Most employees work at the Ivančica footwear factory.
Ivanec’s local authorities haven’t stopped their hard work and will continue to build in the area and its surroundings until 2021. The Aglomeracija Ivanec (Agglomeration Ivanec) project, worth about 130 million kuna, is being co-financed by the EU Cohesion Fund, this huge project has been being worked on intensively since 2013 and is now being brought to its final stages. A total of 10,550 Ivanec inhabitants will be covered by the Aglomeracija Ivanec system and the benefits of this project are great for the local sewage and drainage system.
In addition to all of this, Ivanec’s council has adopted an action plan for the implementation of the strategic projects for Ivanec for 2018. The plan contains key projects which are to be implemented this year, amounting to a massive 22.4 million kuna. The document stems from the strategy for the development of Ivanec (2014-2020), and it defines all the strategic projects for 2018, more specifically, all of the activities that will be carried out in connection with key projects (including documentation, bids, the choice of contractor(s), and their eventual construction).
Some of the projects listed in the aforementioned action plan will be funded by Ivanec with its own funds, while some of them will be implemented with the welcome participation of EU funds, various ministries, and more. The largest amount of money, 7.94 million kuna, will be invested in communal and transport infrastructure projects this year. In this segment in particular, planned activities related to the renovation of the main city square, park and skate park are inluded. The cost of the planned strategic projects in social and sports infrastructure in Ivanec for this year stand at roughly 6.5 million kuna.
Click here for the original article by Sasa Paparella for Poslovni Dnevnik
