ZAGREB, June 4, 2018 – Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Minister Darko Horvat announced on Monday a radical turnaround in the government’s policy to attract investments, including stepping up activities to more actively look for investors as well as dealing more radically with red tape.
Horvat said this ahead of the start of a working visit by a delegation of leading Japanese companies to Croatia, to take place as part of events marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Croatia and Japan. The Japanese delegation consists mostly of representatives of Japanese companies’ European subsidiaries such as Mizuho Bank, Mitsubishi, ITOCHU, Hino Motors Europe, Yokogawa Europe, Kajima Europe, Japan Tobacco International and Mitsui & Co.
The three-day visit was organised by the Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Ministry, the Japanese Embassy in Croatia and the regional office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), in cooperation with the Agency for Investments and Competitiveness, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Foreign Investors Council in Croatia. Among other things, the purpose of the visit is to present Croatia’s business environment and investment potential.
Commenting on the announced radical turnaround in Croatia’s investment policy, Horvat said that “we will no longer sit and wait for investors to come here but will look for them around Europe and the rest of the world.”
Horvat said that he wanted to inform Japanese business people that Croatia was not only a tourist destination but that over the past 26 years it had invested significant funds in the development of business infrastructure, with many industrial locations and enterprise zones having been established. The minister said that he also wanted to acquaint them with the regions where property-rights relations, project documentation and other documents were dealt with very quickly, noting that he was confident that in the next few years Japanese companies would start making significant investments in Croatia.
The minister said that he would also speak to potential Japanese investors about the tax reform. As for administrative obstacles, he said that there were many, and that one should adopt a more radical approach to that problem. “We want to make Croatia attractive for domestic and foreign investments so that it could be recognised internationally as an innovative and promising country,” said Horvat.
He said that in 2017 the value of Croatian exports to Japan rose 57% to 51 million euro, while imports from Japan dropped 15% to 27.4 million euro. These figures bear witness to the fact that the potential for economic cooperation is large, Horvat said, adding that Croatia wanted to diversify its exports.
Currently, Croatia exports to Japan wine, olive oil, truffles, high-quality wood and some other products but their quantity is very modest. “Apart from energy projects such as the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, Croatia would like Japanese investors to invest in infrastructure projects such as the Port of Rijeka, notably its container terminal ‘Zagrebačka Obala’,” Horvat said, adding that the point of entry and the European transport corridor 5C could shorten the time needed to transport Japanese goods to Central and South European markets by almost five days.
Japanese Ambassador Keiji Takiguchi said that current economic relations between the two countries were not much active and that both sides should make efforts to strengthen them. Unfortunately, there are not many examples of investments by Japanese companies in Croatia and most Japanese companies do not recognise the advantages of investing in Croatia, the ambassador said.
He added that around a thousand Japanese companies did business in Central and East Europe and that 300 of them were manufacturing businesses. Most operate in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, while 24 operate in Croatia but do not have manufacturing plants here.
