Parties Do Not Understand That They Cannot Govern the State Without the Voice of Entrepreneurs

Political parties today, as well as the future government tomorrow, face the problem of communication with the private (but also public) business sector. Greater openness towards entrepreneurs and a genuine desire from the highest levels to remove barriers must become a constant that will guide the policy of every Croatian government.

I am talking to numerous business associations before the upcoming elections. All are active and engaged, lobbying with their demands, but also quite skeptical about possible serious and substantive changes that the new government should urgently implement. What is this about? What is happening that the same demands are repeated to political parties countless times and that the business community is crying out for a dialogue partner in power? We constantly talk, remind, and note, increasingly insisting, some even threatening. Here are HUP, CISEX, CRANE, and various chambers and economic-interest associations that need concrete interventions in tax policy, laws, digital projects, the health sector, etc.

Politics Without Business

The fact is that Croatian business is still not a key topic and preoccupation of the electoral headquarters (nor the electoral strategists) of our parties. It is more important for parties to take over the public sector, i.e., to manage state companies where thousands and thousands of neglected party and other friends and colleagues can be employed. It is not the same in the private sector. The private sector needs results and measures that will facilitate business, not hundreds of new unnecessary employees. Of course, in the case of business development and growth, companies will hire new people and pay more taxes. However, this simple logic has not yet taken root in the logic of Croatian politics (honor to the few who speak about it). The state still manages a large public apparatus and a huge portfolio of state companies that are being rehabilitated, recapitalized, or hanging somewhere in pre-bankruptcy processes.

State companies with real estate are being sold, for example, Croatia osiguranje, but so-called strategic stakes and companies of national importance cannot be extracted from the hands of politics in any way. And so, year after year, they mostly lose value. The Milanović government did not significantly privatize (except for CO, attempted HPB and HAC/ARZ), Orešković’s did not manage to (although there were indications that it wanted to), this future one will probably have to do something, but without a strong political effort, it is very questionable what can be accomplished. In the current campaign, there are no major announcements that the state portfolio will be reduced, neither HDZ nor the People’s Coalition have highlighted discussions about it. It can be concluded that the key reform moment is not there, and pure political logic will continue to govern the economy, at least its larger part.

Open Doors for Dialogue

Here, of course, we come to the answer to why business is not a relevant partner or interlocutor for political parties during the election period (and it is not much different later). Private business simply is not a generator of a sufficient number of decisive votes around which politics will revolve in Croatia. It is true that some economic branches do not want politics to engage too much with them (not because they do not need help, but because they fear that people who know absolutely nothing about business will interfere in decision-making and will cause more harm than good).

However, all advanced countries have models of quality cooperation and dialogue with business and with its best and strongest people. At various forums and councils, important information is learned about what is happening in innovative companies and where successful companies are heading. In other words, they are listened to, consulted, and space is opened for development and new employment. In one of our large state companies, the CEO asked me if I could arrange a meeting with the relevant ministry. At first, I thought he was joking with me, but after this happened to me in other state companies, regulatory agencies, and other state bodies, I realized that ministers generally have their own priorities and only care about the issues that interest them.

What should a potential investor or private entrepreneur who is dealing with issues with the state say about such a situation? Foreigners are generally surprised, then they ask, then they come again and ask, then they wait, etc. For example, Marubeni and its desire to work on Plomin C or the floating LNG terminal on Krk, investors catch information from the newspapers, and even when they come to a meeting, the discussions are unprofessional and undefined. It is a true miracle that contracts for the exploration and exploitation of oil in Slavonia have been signed.

Positive trends in the economy indicate a huge, but unfortunately, stalled potential that cannot be engaged without clear dialogue with the key directors and entrepreneurs of this state.