ZAGREB, October 19, 2020 – President Zoran Milanovic on Monday visited the Knowledge Centre and the Centrometal company in Medjimurje County, saying his impressions were excellent and that Medjimurje “has no special resources other than people.”
Asked by the press what he would highlight, he said “work, organisation and resources… there are no special resources (here) other than people.”
“This should be a model to everyone in Croatia,” he added.
Centrometal is one of the leading manufacturers in Medjimurje, primarily manufacutring central heating boilers and solar systems, and it is mainly focused on renewables.
Its director Davor Zidaric said the company managed to weather this year’s crisis without asking for assistance despite a three-week closure during the spring lockdown. The company was established in 1965 and employs 245 workers.
He said the company exported 70% of its products, not just to Europe, and that last year’s revenue was HRK 270 million, “an increase of some 10%.”
In Cakovec, President Milanovic also visited the Knowledge Centre and the first mechanical engineering research institution in northwestern Croatia, the Development and Educational Centre
for the Metal Industry – Metal Centre.
After visiting the Knowledge Centre, housed in a former barracks, he said these facilities were built for an empire more than a century ago, after which they were taken over by the former Yugoslavia and then Croatia which, he added, did not need them so they were given to local government.
“This is just one small example of how to approach ideas responsibly, diligently and constructively,” he said, adding that good organisation in order to obtain European money was also necessary.
“This Knowledge Centre has a dozen institutions in which more than HRK 95 million has been invested in the last decade, mostly absorbed from European funds,” county prefect Matija Posavec said, adding that more than 1,500 people work or study there.
“We have two research centres, the Medjimurje College, three Technology and Innovation Centre buildings, a student dormitory, development agencies and institutions, and software used by Porsche is also maunfactured here,” he said.
(€1 = HRK 7.57)
