In the new issue, read about electoral programs and the Central European market

Like many other Croatian entrepreneurs, when the Croatian market became too tight for further growth, Tokić, the leading domestic chain of stores for automotive parts and equipment, considered expanding into Bosnia and Herzegovina a few years ago. However, after examining that market, it abandoned that intention and turned to Slovenia, Austria, and Hungary. In Slovenia, four years ago, it acquired the company Bartog, which then operated 36 auto parts stores and had close cooperation with a number of service centers in Slovenia. In Austria and Hungary, Tokić has a partner network that supplies it with automotive parts and equipment.

Of the fifty billion euros in foreign investments that have entered Croatia since 1993, when the Croatian National Bank began keeping statistics on this, until the end of September last year, Austrians lead by far with a total of 6.6 billion euros. Without listing all that Austrian acquirers and investors have conquered in Croatia, it is enough to say that about thirty companies from the list of the 500 largest in Croatia are owned by Austrians, from the retail chain Spar and the telecommunications company A1 Hrvatska to the leading hotel company Valamara, several large banks, insurers, various manufacturing companies, etc. Everything about the Central European market is written by Manuela Tašler in the new issue of Lider.

Earlier retirement for mothers, higher pensions, affordable housing, free kindergartens. And at the same time, lower taxes on rent, lower income tax. And on top of all that, better public services. This rosy picture of the future is being promised by political parties in their electoral programs these days, competing to entice voters with a more appealing depiction of tomorrow.

However, how will economic growth be achieved to support the fulfillment of these promises? To see what entrepreneurs can expect depending on which political current wins and whether some sectors will benefit from the announced policies, Antonija Knežević brings an analysis of the details of the electoral programs published so far in the new issue.

Ante Šalinović, despite an interesting career in the research sector and a director’s position at Ipsos Connect, the business unit of Ipsos Pulse that combines media research and advertising, where he is responsible for eight countries in the region, is largely an unknown person to the public – until the start of the political campaign before the elections, when we often see and hear him commenting on public opinion research on all media platforms, which was also the reason for our conversation with him.

He does not delve into the merits of the messages, does not comment on candidates and parties; he is not, he immediately distances himself, a political analyst and commentator. And better, anyone can be that today. He will only say that he is a representative of the sector that researches public opinion, although the surveys conducted by that sector often determine not only the course of campaigns, as we have witnessed since last Friday when President Zoran Milanović announced that he would be the SDP’s candidate for prime minister. Ksenija Puškarić interviewed Šalinović for the new issue.

In addition, in the new digital and printed edition, we bring a story about the company Mešić Com, an interview with the director of the Austrian Office for Foreign Trade in Croatia Gerhard Schlattl, and find out how it was at our popular Smart Cities conference. Along with the new issue comes a special supplement Pillars of the Croatian Economy!