As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Nanobit founder Alan Sumina has commented on the slowness of Croatian bureaucracy and a system which appears to seek to actively prevent progress being made in business in this country. He posted a status on Facebook in which he described the process of opening a new company in Croatia. He spent as long as two weeks on the process and still hasn’t solved everything yet. He had to personally go to the counters at various offices, to the notary, to the bank, etc. An endless and mind numbing process those of us who live here know only too well.
Here is Nanobit founder Alan Sumina’s Facebook status translated and delivered in full:
“It seems to me that twelve years ago it was easier to open a company here than it is today.
It’s truly frightening to what extent the bureaucracy has destroyed this country and the extent to which it continues to destroy it. I’m just trying to open a new company, of course I naively thought that a power of attorney could be given to sort it all out on my behalf, but no, no. One must make a personal pilgrimage to the public notary, to the bank, to FINA, to the office for statistics… Then, ah, you don’t need a stamp, but you do still need it, so don’t end up just not making a stamp [because you’ll still end up needing it], I was told that by the public notary).
Then comes the register of real owners. So, the sole founder needs to be entered into the court register, the matter couldn’t be simpler than it is, but that needs to be entered into the register of beneficial owners which is dealt with by no more and no less than that fictional agency called FINA.
Great, I gave the power of attorney to my accountant to do it – but no, no, he can’t do that. It has to be done in person. Or go and notarise the power of attorney at the public notary.
And so, as I have been for two weeks now, I’m still touring various counters just to start up a new company.
What’s wrong here? Where is the abolition of those stamps? I’ve opened companies in the United Kingdom, Hungary and Romania. I’ve never had to stamp anything anywhere. I never had to go around the counters anywhere. This really is ab absolute horror, and it’s not that we haven’t moved forward, it’s that we’re actually going backwards!”
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