In the last two years, one small Croatian municipality that many haven’t even heard of has managed to successfully withdraw almost 18 million kuna in European Union money.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 17th of October, 2019, out of 428 municipalities in the Republic of Croatia, the champion in withdrawing European money from the Rural Development Fund is Promina, a little municipality in Šibenik-Knin County. It has only one thousand inhabitants and there a mere four employees in the municipality. However, in the last two years they have managed to withdraw almost 18 million kuna in EU cash.
They say they are ready to welcome tenders, and right now, the whole place looks like a construction site.
The former regional school in Promina is being transformed into a cultural centre, but the renovation of the building would not be able to be done at all without access to very welcome European Union money. A kindergarten will be built with almost seven million kuna thanks to Europe, and even the youngest residents of all will no longer ”forced” to be tenants at the primary school for much older children, writes Dnevnik.hr
Every new project is welcomed by the locals. Although, according to Marinko Dizdar, there’s a bit more work to be done.
The mayor of Promina, Tihomir Budanko, says that they have no problem with this because there are no unemployed people at all in the entire municipality. He claims that they will not be there in the future, either, because about twenty praiseworthy projects are currently in the preparation phase.
Once ownership issues are resolved, an entrepreneurial incubator should emerge. ”It should also attract the return of our people, and certainly those who are most welcome who aren’t from our area,” Budanko says.
Because of the infamous Croatian bureaucracy and unresolved ownership issues, the mayor admits, some projects have been unfortunately shoved in the ”back of the drawer” for years. However, tourism is one thing that is far from stagnant.
Old houses and other buildings are being restored at a great pace, and Oklaj, a small village within the municipality, sees tourists come and visit for some peace and quiet 180 days a year. The proximity of the Krka National Park also helps them out.
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