The Croatian Business Women’s Association today marked the World Entrepreneurs’ Day at the Croatian Chamber of Economy and celebrated fifteen years of existence with a special award ceremony for the best entrepreneur and the best manager for business in 2009.
The best among the members of the Circle Association in the entrepreneur category is Neda Makjanić Kunić, owner of the Split fashion house MAK, which employs 60 staff. The best manager in 2009 was declared to be Sofija Šmitran, director of the family company IND-EKO from Rijeka, which employs 70 staff. The awards were presented to this year’s winners by the president of the Circle Association, Marija Šola, together with Croatian President Ivo Josipović. Šola expressed particular satisfaction that in the previous, crisis year, none of the 200 members of the association, who are also owners or co-owners of various companies, went bankrupt and that they regularly meet their obligations to the state and employees. She emphasized that today women hold 20,700 companies and that the revenues of these companies grew from 68 to 76 billion kuna in the previous year. However, she warned that still only five women enter entrepreneurship for every ten men who do so annually. President Ivo Josipović stated that he hopes Croatian society will maintain the comparative advantages of both sexes and that in the foreseeable future, it will not be necessary to recognize gender differences in entrepreneurship. – I want us to be in a society tomorrow that statistically corresponds to demographic indicators where women make up 51 percent of the population – said Josipović. (Marija Čekada)
