As Lea Balenovic/Novac writes on the 3rd of June, 2019, the Croatian Ministry of Economy recently awarded Croatian entrepreneurs twenty contracts totalling an enormous 85 million kuna. To be more specific, these are contracts funded by non-refundable EU funds for which the tenders were announced at the end of last year.
The aim of these tenders, as Minister of Economy Darko Horvat explained, is to “increase production and exports and create jobs, as well as to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises through the presentation of their products and services on the international market”.
One of the companies that which will use these opportunities for job creation and business optimisation is certainly the Croatian company IT-Graf, which deals with printing, and which has plans to invest almost 15 million kuna. Non-refundable EU funds in the amount of 6.6 million kuna were awarded to that particular Zagreb-based company.
“We’ll all invest in new machines and modernisation, ie, the automation of printers, with the goal of going to foreign markets and exporting, and our sophisticated products will mean we need high quality staff and we will open about twenty new work positions,” stated Tomislav Ivičinec, Managing Director at IT-Graf, who doesn’t have any issues with the lack of a workforce in Croatia or finding workers because, as he himself said, “you just need to pay the man and then there’s no problem”.
In addition to this Croatian company, Hangar 18 has also received funds to increase its overall international competitiveness, which is due to its permanent investments remains “a permanent guest of such events”, according to Damir Kralj, the director of the company.
”We’re dealing with information technology and mobile technology, ie, we produce smartphones, TVs and all of their accessories, and we’ll use this 950,000 kuna to present our products at the Barcelona fair,” said Kralj, adding that Hangar 18 is planning to build a new factory in Koprivnica in which an additional fifteen to twenty people will be employed.
With the help of these tools, Neon Bjorn, a Zagreb-based company offering a software solution for travel agencies, as well as for travelers who prefer to organise their own travel plans, has the opportunity to internationalise their business and product presentation. As explained by the director of this Croatian company, Vesna Kota, “it helps in the overall process and shortens the time involved in travel organisation”.
”With the allocated 433,000 kuna, we’ll place our product on foreign markets and sell it in far-off locations. We’re expanding to Cape Town, Dubai and Beijing and in European destinations such as Barcelona and London, and the solution is available to tourists who wish to visit destinations both in Croatia and those outside of it,” Kota explained, adding that their desire “to bring more tourists to Croatia”.
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