Innovation is a Forbidden Activity in the Banski Dvori

How innovative is the Croatian government? This question arose during this week’s awards ceremony as part of the ‘Croatian Innovation Quotient’ project (a joint initiative of Lider, Sense Consulting, and Vern Polytechnic).

Awards were given to companies that pay special attention to innovation and innovativeness (more in a special feature in this issue). No matter how much entrepreneurs and managers are preoccupied with innovations in debt collection or their ‘restructuring’ in various ways, there are many examples of innovation in the business and production sense within the business community.
What would happen if the current Croatian government were treated as a company? How much of their intellectual work do the Prime Minister, his ministers, their deputies, assistants, heads of departments, chiefs, agency heads… dedicate to innovation? The answer is – almost none.

Politics is not for export Innovation is a forbidden activity in the Banski Dvori. At least when it comes to innovative solutions that have added value, meaning that they are not just the invention of new obligations for subjects. Both companies and individuals.
By innovative solution, I mean the entirety or parts of economic and other government policies that are not mere copies of solutions from the rich library of the European Union, IMF, World Bank, or other idea nurseries that have brought the world to the brink of economic disaster. Just as innovations in business are generally validated in the international market, so the criterion for brilliant ideas from Markov Trg would be whether there are other governments in the world interested in ‘buying’ some Croatian solution.
I apologize if I have overlooked some original solution, but it seems that the only candidate from this government is Finance Minister Slavko Linić. This refers to his project of pre-bankruptcy settlements. Regardless of the very unfortunate name of the law, the concept is largely original. It is true that it is a project inspired by the American bankruptcy law that provides protection for creditors for a certain period to restructure and survive, but Linić’s work has originality. If the current pre-bankruptcy procedures do not fail later in the courts, this could be an export product of Milanović’s team.
Everything else is completely uninventive. Starting from the basic idea of conducting macroeconomic policy. After this week’s appearance of Prime Minister Zoran Milanović on HTV’s Dnevnik, it seems to me that it is possible to assemble the final mosaic. Thus, in the Banski Dvori, they decided not to complicate their lives. Instead of including a broader group of experts and creating a quality new version of ‘Plan 21’, they opted for a very ‘innovative’ solution.

Waiting for the Recovery of the Eurozone The logic is as follows: We have failed to attract investments. We need justification. Here it is! There is stagnation in the Eurozone. Therefore, there will be no investments until the Eurozone recovers. Since, until then, nothing can be done, we will bring order to the state. The goal is to be ready for the recovery of the Eurozone, the Prime Minister clearly stated.
This resembles the logic of an average agricultural producer. When it rains, you cannot go to the field, so that time is used to repair the tractor. Just as such a farmer will fail in global competition if he limits his activities to repairs while waiting for the weather to improve, so will an innovative government fail (i.e., its subjects will fail) if it waits for the recovery of the Eurozone.
And what if the Eurozone does not recover for another two years? It is true that Mario Draghi from the European Central Bank announces a ‘recovery in the second half of the year’ (and our politicians and their close analysts are copycats), but when someone mentions that formulation – it is very likely that nothing will come of the announcement.
Can really well-paid people from the state leadership not come up with anything more original?
Of course, the answer may be that innovation is only expected from those incompetent people in the business sector, while economic policy creators should stick to classic solutions, such as balancing the budget, structural reforms, strengthening competitiveness, and similar ‘brands’ that consume all the incompetent governments of this world.
Of course, innovation is not easy. Equally dangerous as doing nothing original is doing original nonsense. Thus, ideas from Milanović’s opponent Karamarko, who would build tunnels under the sea, do not count as innovation in macro policy. In the global world, nations that have innovative politicians and businessmen will survive.