Buić: Everything can be achieved through the synergy of all four pillars – economic, real, local, and state

By recalling the ten Medulin recommendations from last year that should contribute to improving conditions for increasing the number and quality of greenfield investments, the Lider conference ‘Greenfield Investments – How Dreams Become Reality’ was concluded. What has been done regarding the recommendations compared to last year was presented by Darko Tipurić, a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, and Goran Buić, the mayor of the Municipality of Medulin.

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– Having investments is not enough; they must be linked to the 4th industrial revolution. We need to make progress to be competitive. The legislative framework needs to be further simplified, said Tipurić, adding that certain processes have been initiated over the past year.

Goran Buić, the mayor of the Municipality of Medulin, emphasized that the essence of the Medulin recommendations is that all stakeholders must jointly offer solutions, and to achieve this, it is necessary to include all processes in the amendments to the law.

– The Construction Act has improved investments. Everything can be achieved through the synergy of all four pillars – economic, real, local, and state, emphasized Buić.

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Tipurić concluded that Croatia must change and must have a vision.

– We need to change the mentality that Croatia can make a breakthrough only through its own actions, active entrepreneurship, and that it must create added value, said Tipurić.

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Medulin recommendations:

1. Croatia needs a new economic model. The goal of the new model should be to create an export-oriented economy.
2. The means to achieve this goal are greenfield and brownfield investments, which will result in a significant increase in the placement of goods and services in the global market.
3. The basic criteria for selecting investments that should be particularly encouraged are: a) export share, b) share of domestic raw materials, semi-finished products, and services in the final product/service, c) number of new jobs, d) degree of technological modernity, e) amount of achieved added value, f) ecological acceptability.
4. It is necessary to create an action plan for encouraging and attracting desirable investments, set measurable goals, responsible institutions, and deadlines for implementation.
5. Instead of relying solely on market movements, chance, and luck, the state must have a proactive approach to attracting desirable investments. A significant increase in funds for actively attracting investments is needed, as well as consolidation into one recognizable institution.
6. A supportive investment environment is not possible without adjusting the tax policy, which must be competitive with neighboring countries in terms of tax rates and incentives.
7. Changing the legislative framework is necessary to remove administrative barriers (details are in a special section of these Medulin recommendations).
8. Investment policy should take into account regional and local specificities. A unified approach cannot effectively utilize the real capacities or advantages for targeted investors.
9. Local self-government units should be trained for better encouragement of investments in their area.
10. The state should introduce and develop techniques for so-called “after care” services for investors, which, along with other activities, will lead to an improvement of Croatia’s currently poor image as a place for investing in production and exports aimed at the global market.