ZAGREB, July 21, 2020 – Croatia’s economic recovery will depend on the moves by the new government, and the way out of the crisis should also be sought in increasing exports, participants in the Zagreb Invest&Export 2020 conference concluded on Tuesday.
“A country’s success does not depend on someone else’s assistance but on the efficiency of its government,” economist Ljubo Jurcic said at the conference.
He said that boosting exports should be “a lodestar” for every small country, adding that the share of exports in Croatia’s GDP is lower than in the case of its peers, and in this context, he called for raising the portion of exports in GDP from the current under-30% level to above 60%.
Jurcic said that in the current globalisation, the focus should be placed on exporting specific products that are part of more complex products such as cars, machinery, and airplanes.
“We have the infrastructure, the know-how and human resources necessary for that,” he said.
A former Croatian member of the European Parliament, Marijana Petir, said that the Croatian agricultural sector had a lot of things to offer on the local and European markets, however, agricultural production was still not competitive.
Therefore, we need the funds from the EU to invest in innovations and technology which will enable us to make more products with added value and everything else that consumers demand, and those are organic, fresh and high-quality products, she added.
In this context, she said that some of the €22 billion that will be made available to Croatia from the post-pandemic recovery fund would be disbursed for rural development and aid to farmers.
Mirko Habijanec of the Croatian Employers’ Association spoke about the importance of the construction sector for job creation and investment cycles.
