The Association of Croatian ICT Associations CRO ICT Established

The founding assembly of the Association of Croatian ICT Associations CRO ICT, which was joined by six regional ICT clusters with the aim of increasing competitiveness and cooperation in the domestic ICT sector, was held today in Rijeka, and Boris Krstanović was elected as the president of the Association.

The founders of the clusters are the Rijeka association GRIT ICT, the Međimurje IT cluster, the Dalmatian IT professional cluster, the Slavonia IT cluster, the Varaždin ICT cluster, and the Istrian Information Technology cluster, as well as the Institute for IT Innovations, the Association for the Promotion of Software and Online Entrepreneurship Initium, and the Internet Institute. The six clusters, which are co-founders of the Association, have a total of about 40 member companies and around 500 employees, and their regional partners are regional development agencies, business incubators, and technology centers. The initiative to establish ICT clusters in several Croatian cities and create the conditions for the establishment of the Association was launched by the Rijeka GRIT ICT cluster and the Rijeka Regional Development Agency “Porin”, with the support of USAID – the Entrepreneurial Croatia Project and the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

The GRIT ICT cluster was established in May 2005 by eight Rijeka companies and operates from an office with the support of the regional development agency “Porin”. The Rijeka ICT cluster jointly operates in the market and works on projects, organizes consolidated training for member employees, and collaborates with the University of Rijeka. However, in that cluster, they believed that a better, synergistic effect could only be achieved by uniting ICT companies in other regions, i.e., by creating an alliance of regional clusters, and they initiated the establishment of ICT clusters in other cities. So far, six ICT clusters have been established in Croatia, in Rijeka, Osijek, Varaždin, Čakovec, Split, and Pula, and initiatives have been launched in about ten other cities.

The president of the Association of Croatian ICT Associations, Boris Krstanović, told reporters after the assembly that a lot of funds are spent in Croatia on purchasing new technologies and that part of that money should be directed towards development. Krstanović believes that the Croatian ICT industry is not sufficiently recognized and does not have enough resources for a broader market, and that the domestic ICT sector should focus on connecting into clusters, i.e., on the development of innovative software products, specialization, and profiling of ICT companies. (H)