Dugoreška Arkada has launched an investment project worth 10.3 million kuna

The company for the production of stone aggregate and civil engineering works “Arkada” from Dugoreš signed a contract with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts on January 25, 2016, officially commencing a nine-month implementation of an investment project worth 10.3 million kuna, in which the share of non-repayable funds from the EU Regional Development Fund amounts to 3.6 million kuna.

According to Marija Ivanić, the owner and director of “Arkada”, a company that consistently employs around 60 workers, “Arkada” has been granted the maximum anticipated share of 35 percent of non-repayable co-financing for private enterprises in this Fund, and the path to obtaining these funds, which began on April 9 of last year with the announcement of a competition by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts, was assessed by Ivanić as easy.

– We decided to compete for these funds because we, together with the consulting firm “Projektna vizija”, assessed that we meet all the conditions of the operational program “Competitiveness and Cohesion” and the call for investment in production technology. Despite the fact that the application process required a lot of additional work for our services, I can say that it was relatively easy for us, and that is because we have been operating in accordance with high international standards imposed in these competitions, suitable for the business of companies in an organized society for years. After successfully passing the evaluations of the submitted project, we must realize the approved funds and investment within nine months, and the set goals and indicators we must achieve by the end of 2018, said Ivanić.

In order to achieve the project’s goals, which are to increase competitiveness and a 20 percent increase in the production capacity of stone aggregates to boost the initiated exports to Slovenia, as well as greater opportunities in civil engineering, “Arkada” will acquire seven new working machines of various purposes that will not only increase productivity but also yield effects in the domain of energy efficiency and reduction of harmful gas emissions. By the end of 2018, “Arkada” will have to, in accordance with the project, employ at least seven more workers, increase revenues by at least 22.85 percent, that is, from 35.8 million kuna achieved in 2014 to just over 44 million kuna in 2018, and raise the value of exports in 2018 from the current symbolic initial amounts above 1.76 million kuna.

In addition to this independent project, “Arkada” is one of 17 entities participating in the international project “FP7” in the field of research and development of new types of concrete with a share of recycled tires.