Greenfield Investments: Millions of Square Meters of Unused Land Still Lie as Dead Capital

How to stimulate greenfield investments in local government units was the topic of a panel discussion on the second day of Lider’s two-day conference ‘Greenfield Investments – How Dreams Become Reality’, where representatives of local government units, the state, the real and academic sectors cited indicative examples and discussed solutions to the problems.

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Member of the Management Board of Plava Laguna Ronald Korotaj stated that his company constantly invests to keep up with trends, survive in the market, and utilize unused potentials, humorously noting that due to many unresolved property-legal relations on the land, a special court should be established and let entrepreneurs do their job while all those who need to sue each other do so in that court.

He expressed what troubles him regarding the administration’s attitude towards investors in tourism.

– I am bothered that tenders specify what kind of hotels and how many stars they should build. It is imposed on us, yet they do not ensure the prerequisites for a four or five-star hotel to operate positively – said Korotaj, and on the topic of investments in tourism and the legal framework, Assistant Minister of Tourism Robert Pende added that millions of square meters of unused land still lie as dead capital and that amendments to the Law on Tourist Land, which is in many cases unenforceable, will be initiated.

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– Some things have started to be resolved, we know how much land is at stake. We want to end the numerous disputes we are having thinking that we are all right. We need to see each other as partners – emphasized Pende, while Marinko Škare, a professor at the Pula Faculty of Economics and Tourism ‘Dr. Mijo Marković’, pointed out a number of well-known problems that burden potential investors.

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Regarding an example of good practice, the project for the construction of a broadband network worth 50 million kuna, which should increase access and internet coverage in the municipality of Medulin, was discussed by public-private partners on the project, Medulin Mayor Goran Buić and Milan Meden, director of the infrastructure services sector of Hrvatski Telekom. Božica Lapić.

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The Assistant Director for Investments of the Agency for Investments and Competitiveness presented the problems that arise on land that is not legally and spatially resolved, and emphasized the positive examples of the functioning of some local government units, such as issuing building permits within 24 hours.