The average social media user’s perception of Croatian industry is that it – does not exist. Industry is heavy, gloomy, and dirty, overshadowed by a chimney that emits thick smoke, obscuring the horizon and polluting the environment. Industry is only where at least a thousand sweaty men and/or middle-aged women work, all with vacant stares. Industry belongs in apocalyptic scenarios where the main character drags on Alija Sirotanović; everything else is a lie that these commentators saw through long ago.
What distorts their image happened more than thirty years ago. First, there was war, then the privatization of the 1990s that decimated Croatian industry, after which services, especially tourism, took over as the engine of domestic development, and the little industry that remained was in service of that activity. And we should not blame social media users for having a half-empty glass and not seeing clearly that we have not lost everything. The government is the one that should be criticized; for it, industry is something that happens by inertia.
That this is the case is evidenced by the fact that Croatia is today one of the few countries that does not have an active industrial strategy. The last official Industrial Strategy of the Republic of Croatia related to the period 2014 – 2020, which means it has expired. A new one has not yet been adopted, but its development is underway, at least according to the Ministry of Economy, which is reportedly revising goals and measures to make the document as relevant as possible by 2030. However, one should not expect that this document will open anyone’s eyes, especially those who do not want to see or truly do not see that domestic industry, despite the neglect of public policy, has survived the sieve and the colander and is today a living example of resilience and transformation.
Paradigm Shift
And not only that: domestic industry can become, as many current practical examples prove, even competitive on the global stage, as noted by the rector of the University of Dubrovnik, Nebojša Stojčić, a regular professor at the Department of Economics and Business Economics, who regularly engages with and objectively analyzes the industry. However, for the industry to have such an opportunity, he believes, a paradigm shift is necessary. This means, he says, that its progress should not be based on mass production, but on specific niches, and that competitive advantage can be built in sectors such as healthcare, energy, food industry, digital technologies, or green transition.
– The Croatian industry of the future needs to be specialized, technologically advanced, sustainable, and deeply rooted in local potentials, while at the same time strongly connected to global markets. It would be logical for Croatia to become a niche-oriented producer of high added value, but this will not happen by itself. Such a leap requires strategic investments in human capital, support for research and innovation, better linking of the economy with higher education and scientific institutions, and long-term predictability of industrial policy. The key to success is not in trying to be ‘another Germany’ or ‘another Sweden,’ but in finding our own path based on what we are authentically strong in. It is important that there is a vision behind everything, but also concrete support, says Stojčić, pointing out another advantage we may not initially think of: we are a small country, so we can react quickly, transform quickly, and better focus our resources. Perhaps, he says, we cannot compete with other economies in terms of production quantity, but we can in quality, innovation, and specialization.
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