Šestan warns of oversight: Iraq is the new Eldorado, we have one person there, Italians have 97 people

Internal political squabbles about various topics often divert attention from what is important. For the economic prosperity of the country, exports and foreign tenders are certainly one of those crucial areas often neglected in the media. We were interested in how Croatian economic diplomacy functions, a part of the state apparatus that is not often heard or seen. We checked whether their silence means they are working diligently.

– Economic diplomacy means a lot to us and I am extremely satisfied with Croatian ambassadors who open doors for us in numerous countries, says Alojzije Šestan, director and owner of the Šestan-Busch factory from Prelog, whose helmets protect soldiers and police officers in 70 countries around the world.

Since his company exports almost 98 percent of its total production, communication with Croatian embassies around the world often opens the way to new business for them because Croatia does not have agreements on military-economic cooperation with all countries that would allow direct orders without public tenders.

Despite the fact that cooperation has greatly improved since the time when, as he says, entrepreneurs were not even allowed to talk to the Ministry of Economy, there is room for improvement.

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In the silent war in economic diplomacy we wrote about, or the alleged desire of the Ministry of Economy to take over the Directorate for Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation, which is currently under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Šestan finds no objection.

– I am satisfied if the Ministry of Economy takes it over, and it will be even better if the Croatian Chamber of Economy takes it on, and I have heard that they want that too. It is difficult to assess what impact that change will have on entrepreneurs, but I will have nothing against them taking it over. On the contrary, ambassadors need expert reinforcement in the field, says Šestan.

Our ambassadors cover several countries and despite their efforts, it is impossible for them to realize the full potential that their stay in a country provides. Šestan highlighted several ambassadors with whom he collaborates a lot, and we will use their example to show in which countries they operate, which clearly indicates a problem.

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The ambassador in Chile, Nives Malenica, covers Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, while ambassador Dražen Margeta in Indonesia oversees the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, and in Egypt, we are represented by Tomislav Bošnjak, who covers Bahrain, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, and the UAE.

– Ambassadors are constantly in communication with our potential clients, they are the first to learn about tenders and are of great help to us, but let’s take the ambassador in Chile, she is trying very hard to visit everything, but she is there alone. If there were an economic expert with her, whether from the Ministry of Economy or the Croatian Chamber of Economy, it would be much different. One person cannot do everything alone. It would also be good if these economic experts visited all companies in Croatia before the mission and got to know what they have to offer, says the owner of Šestan-Busch.

However, he points out another major oversight of Croatian economic diplomacy that is yet to happen and it is not too late to correct it. Namely, like many ambassadors, Ivan Jurić in Iraq is alone, and that is precisely the place where we need to be right now.

– Iraq is the new Eldorado. That country was leveled to the ground and now complete infrastructure needs to be built there. We are talking about highways, schools, hospitals. While Italy recognized this and has economic diplomacy there that counts 97 people, we have only one person. When we think about building there, it will be too late, concluded Šestan.