Why are they growing while we are declining?

“The head of the Croatian government has invited Erdogan to visit Croatia soon” – is the concluding sentence of a news report from Turkey on Friday. Well, that’s just what we need. After a hundred emboldened Serbian businessmen, we now have to welcome a few hundred Turks! I hope that Jadranka Kosor at least signaled to her host Erdogan with her expression that she is not serious.

On Thursday, while the Croatian-Serbian economic forum was taking place in Zagreb, I was speaking on the other end with the director of a large Croatian company, which is also present in Serbia with its export program. I asked him why he was not at the Forum, and he replied that he had no interest in that gathering, as it was attended by Serbian entrepreneurs who want to earn in Croatia. Quite legitimate, but the fact is that the Croatian economy currently has an urgent need to earn something from them. In Serbia, in Turkey, in Germany, in Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, or the USA. Anywhere the state leadership would take them. However, the state leadership is not leading Croatian entrepreneurs anywhere but only inviting others to Croatia. Both President Josipović and Prime Minister Kosor hope that at least some euro invested in Croatia will yield some results. But it won’t.

The Croatian economy will not experience a surge on the wings of foreign investments but only on the wings of investments in foreign markets. In other words, on exports. And for that, Croatian businessmen need to be taken to some country, not brought here. Instead of taking all possible entrepreneurs from Croatia with her, the head of the Croatian government on Friday in Turkey (which, by the way, has an incredible GDP growth of 11 percent this year!) handed her hosts a list of companies interested in investing in Turkey.

Mashallah! And what are the Turks supposed to do with that list? Start calling each company on the list and politely ask them to come present what exactly they are interested in Turkey? You can imagine! On the other hand, you can be quite sure that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan will take Jadranka Kosor’s invitation to come to Croatia soon very seriously and will bring with him several hundred Turkish businessmen. And not one of them will come to Croatia without a serious plan on how to earn in Croatia. Even Prime Minister Erdogan himself has noticed how his businessmen could profit with the help of Croatian ones. He pointed out to Prime Minister Kosor that trade between the two countries is underutilized and expressed a desire for it to increase to one billion euros by 2013, mentioning the possibility of jointly entering third markets, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina.

If anyone has forgotten, let me remind you: Croatia is the largest exporter to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is a fact that the Turks would like to benefit from. And that is legitimate. The question is whether we will be able to benefit from the Turkish interest in penetrating Bosnia and Herzegovina more strongly through us.
 The fact that the Turkish economy is growing at a rate of 11 percent this year clearly shows that we do not know how to benefit from it. If we did, the Prime Minister would have taken many more businessmen on her two-day official visit to Turkey than the Serbian President Tadić brought to Zagreb on Thursday or than the Turkish Prime Minister will very likely do soon. And therein lies the essence of the answer to why the Turkish economy is growing by 11 percent this year, why Serbia will grow by 1.5 percent, and why Croatia will decline by that much.