Micro-entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises are the lifeblood and foundation of every national economy and are extremely important for local and regional self-government as well as for the entire state. Supporting their development, competitiveness, and survival in a demanding market represents one of the most important items for investment in development and the future.
The Unique Register of Entrepreneurial Infrastructure has recorded 412 entrepreneurial zones, of which 163 are verified, and 121 entrepreneurial support institutions in Croatia. The highest number of entrepreneurial support institutions is located in Osijek-Baranja County: 14, in the City of Zagreb 13, nine in Split-Dalmatia County, and eight in Primorje-Gorski Kotar. The least number (one) is in Krapina-Zagorje County and in Karlovac and Lika-Senj (two each).
– From the national budget, we will pay 500 million kuna into the common European fund this year. To ensure that we multiply and return that investment, we must devise modalities to withdraw at least one billion kuna instead of that 500 million kuna this year. Therefore, we are simplifying application procedures. It will be much easier for entrepreneurs to obtain contracts; the administrative process will have three steps instead of six, and financial instruments will be sought for projects that will go towards the contract, and that will be immediately before the contract signing. For those who will be unacceptable, there will be no need to create a guarantee – they announce at the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts.
The Entrepreneurial Country The Ministry supports small and medium-sized enterprises with incentive measures such as non-repayable grants, interest subsidies for entrepreneurial loans, favorable loans from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, guarantees from the Croatian Agency for Small Business, Innovation and Investment, and reliefs. For example, according to the new Investment Promotion Act from October 2015, 34 applications for the use of support for small and medium-sized enterprises have been received, with a total planned investment of 648,695,664 kuna and the opening of 350 new jobs. Non-repayable grants have also been awarded from the Entrepreneurial Impulse 2015 program. For financing non-repayable grants from European funds within the Regional Competitiveness program, contracts worth 92,659,915 euros have been concluded, of which 60,742,995 euros are non-repayable. In the Competitiveness and Cohesion program, 11 contracts have been concluded for 149,885,753 kuna with 47,579,612 kuna being non-repayable. The loan program Credit for Success 2014, with interest subsidies, recorded 2,141 loans worth 469 million kuna at the beginning of this year.
– The share of small and medium-sized enterprises of 99.7 percent in Croatia compared to 99.8 percent in the European Union shows that Croatia is an entrepreneurial country. Both Croatia and the EU have the highest share of micro-enterprises, 91.7 and 92.7 percent, which employ 30.3 percent of people in Croatia and 29.2 percent in the EU. In both Croatia and the EU, large enterprises account for the largest share of added value, which is 44.8 percent in Croatia and 42.2 percent in the EU. The small economy of Croatia accounts for 55.2 percent of total added value, while in the EU it is 57.8 percent – they listed at the Ministry.
Generous Agency Through the programs implemented so far, the Croatian Agency for Small Business, Innovation and Investment (HAMAG-BICRO) has invested significantly in the development of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises through guarantees for bank loans, microloans with a favorable interest rate of 0.99 percent, and non-repayable grants in the Entrepreneurial Impulse. Last year, 347 guarantees worth 312.7 million kuna were issued, along with 34 microloans totaling 3.7 million kuna. Under the measure to Strengthen the Competitiveness of the Manufacturing Industry, 29 million kuna was approved for 99 projects. Exporters were awarded 96 non-repayable grants, nine to beginner entrepreneurs, and of the total number of grants awarded, 27 percent, or eight million kuna, went to female entrepreneurs. The same amount was approved for 78 projects in the measure to Strengthen the Competitiveness of the Service Sector. In the STARTCO program – Realize Your Own Business Idea, the budget was eight million kuna. A total of 1,071 non-repayable grants were approved, and the users of the Proof of Concept (PoC) program are small business entities (PoC Private) and scientific institutions (PoC Public). PoC projects are financed in amounts from 35 thousand to 350 thousand kuna for a duration of 12 months. The RAZUM program supports the development of small and medium-sized enterprises based on knowledge, and last year, 25 million kuna was contracted for seven new projects. The IRCRO program is aimed at encouraging cooperation between the scientific community and the economy on development projects. Within IRCRO, HAMAG-BICRO provides non-repayable funds, from half the value of justified project costs to a maximum amount of 900 thousand kuna. In 2015, 19 projects were contracted with non-repayable funds of 13.3 million kuna, and the total value of contracted projects is 27.3 million kuna.
Cities Want Innovation Zagreb has provided more than 330 million kuna for promoting the development of crafts, small and medium-sized enterprises from 2000 to the end of 2015, of which 265 million are Zagreb’s and 65 million from ministry funds. For this year, around 55 million kuna has been secured in the budget for the continuation of existing and new measures. To establish and develop technology-based small companies, the city has established its own company, the Development Agency Zagreb – TPZ d.o.o., to support entrepreneurship in more favorable use of business space and shared infrastructure. The agency serves as a technology park, entrepreneurial center, and center for development projects. Zagreb supports startups by organizing new entrepreneurial centers in various locations around the city, such as the Blue Office, and the entrepreneurial incubator for high-tech companies expanded at the end of 2014 to part of the space of the Goods Terminal in Žitnjak is expected to become an entrepreneurial accelerator. With the expansion of the Technology Park at the Zagreb Fair, one of its fundamental purposes will be to provide services and equipment to startup companies.
– Entrepreneurs need to base their strategic business development on their own innovations, that is, the creation of new products and services with high added value, in which we will assist them. To retain or strengthen competitive advantages, it is also important for entrepreneurs to network with each other, which is still not sufficient in our case. Entrepreneurs and their employees need to be focused on continuous learning and developing skills and abilities – they emphasize in Zagreb. As early as 2008, Rijeka adopted a program of measures to encourage the development of entrepreneurship. Today it encompasses 24 measures. Within this, 14 measures relate to support for entrepreneurs such as non-repayable subsidies and the possibility of using favorable conditions for business premises in the city, through entrepreneurial and startup incubators. The allocation of non-repayable subsidies is carried out in 12 measures through which entrepreneurs can achieve subsidies of 50 to 70 percent. In the last three years, Rijeka has provided entrepreneurs with 17 million kuna, of which six million kuna in non-repayable subsidies subsidized investments of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
The Bodulovo business zone with entrepreneurial infrastructure will be offered to entrepreneurs and additionally financed through EU funds. Through the Rijeka Development Agency Porin, an entrepreneurial incubator will also be established with support for 3D printing of prototypes and CMC machines for serial production. In addition to entrepreneurial incubators, there is also Start-up Rijeka, a city incubator for young people with ideas in scientific and professional fields. Rijeka sees the greatest problems in helping micro and small entrepreneurs in the lack of human and financial capacities for a more competitive market presence and for the absorption of support measures. They believe it would be good to improve communication from the national, regional to local level to better design support measures and use resources more rationally.
This year, Osijek is providing entrepreneurs with 4.17 million kuna through various measures. It will also finance the construction of a Scientific Center for Renewable Energy Sources and a biogas plant in the Nemetin Industrial Zone. So far, Osijek has built three facilities for entrepreneurial accelerators and hubs within the BIOS entrepreneurial center with 40 business entities and 200 employees. A modern Coworking space has also been arranged, where anyone can get a free ‘desk, chair, and internet’. They plan to further support the development of incubators for small and medium-sized enterprises in new and creative technologies and the IT sector.
