With ten percent more residents, Ireland has GDP that is five times higher than Croatia’s.
With only half a million residents more than Croatia, Ireland had gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 250 billion euros in 2015. And Croatia? Not even 50 billion euros. Croatian GDP was only 44 billion euros, according to Eurostat. These figures are only an illustration why the country in the far north-western part of Europe became so attractive to immigrants from many countries, including those from Croatia. It seems that the Irish have an abundance of jobs and employment opportunities, reports tportal.hr on August 7, 2016.
Croatia and Ireland are not only similar in terms of population. Ireland is only about one quarter larger than Croatia, both countries are rich in natural beauty, but they are marked by a lack of ores and related resources. Also characteristic for the two is emigration as a result of poverty and poor economic conditions. But, unlike Ireland, Croatia is very far from being a place where a number of young people would like to come in search of good employment possibilities.
This difference is due to each country’s economy. The current popularity of Ireland is not an accident. Towards the end of the 1990s, the country, then known as the Celtic Tiger, had been achieving an annual growth of ten percent and this strong economic growth continued for years. The problems that ensued as a result of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008 have been, as it seems, finally overcome in recent years. The Irish GDP per capita in 2015 was 45 percent higher than the European Union average. Such a high average is largely a result of the Irish companies’ operations.
At the very top is the CRH conglomerate (Cement Roadstone Holdings). It produces building materials and last year had revenues of as much as 23.6 billion euros. CRH operates around the world, including the US and Eastern Europe. The second place is held by Microsoft. With 2,000 employees, it had 19.3 billion euros in revenues. The IT firm is only one in a long series of similar companies that are essential for the Ireland’s economic success. Dozens of major global companies, mainly from the high-tech industry, have their headquarters in Ireland due to very favourable tax regulations. Another such example is the number three on the list – Eaton Corp. Eaton employs only about a hundred people in Ireland, but had recorded revenues of 18.3 billion euros. In reality, this is a global corporation with about 100,000 employees, founded in the US more than a hundred years ago and dealing in power systems for industrial plants. The list goes on.
Meanwhile, just for the sake of comparison, the biggest company in Croatia is the Agrokor conglomerate. It boasts 6.5 billion euros in annual revenues, generated by dozens of companies in several countries, with tens of thousands of employees. On the Irish list that would be equal to the 15th place held by the world’s largest low-cost airline Ryanair. INA Group (oil and gas business) generates the second highest revenue in Croatia – 2.5 billion euros, and it has about 11,000 employees. This would ensure it the 40th place in Ireland. HEP Group is the third company in Croatia and it also comes from the energy sector. HEP has revenues of almost 2 billion euros per year and it has 12,000 employees.
While it would be an illusion to expect that Croatia could achieve the Irish GDP levels anytime soon, at least with the policy it is implementing at this point, the information about the biggest companies in Ireland provides one part of the explanation why the unemployed in Croatia are looking for jobs in Ireland.
