The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) presented on 28 February the “White Book 2024 - Croatia's Competitiveness After the Completion of European Integration Processes: A New Chapter," highlighting the main issues in Croatia that often prevent additional foreign investments, including the limited labor supply, education not tailored to the economy, and inefficient bureaucracy, Croatian media report. Finance Minister Marko Primorac also attendant presentation and in his comment he said that foreign investors are “particularly important for Croatia.”“Foreign investors here employ about 50% of the total employed, achieve about 60% of total profits and 62% of total investments. These are indeed impressive numbers," Primorac emphasized, adding that Croatia is one of the few countries that have significantly increased their credit rating in the last few years.He also pointed out that Croatia is the only country in the world whose credit rating has been raised by two notches by all three major credit agencies since February 2020 to date.Furthermore, Primorac emphasized that the latest issue of treasury bills which ended on Monday this week was “very successfully,” that the state planned to issue a total of EUR 550 million, but the interest was above all expectations, so the total amount paid exceeded EUR 900 million.“With the issue of the ‘national bonds’ in March, ‘national treasury bills’ in November, and the latest issue of treasury bills, we have achieved over EUR 3.3 billion in payments from Croatian citizens," Primorac said, adding that more than 110,000 citizens participated in these transactions.He also stressed that despite events in recent years, such as coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020 earthquakes in Croatia, energy crisis, the “Croatian economy remained stable, as did the labor market”. He highlighted that the number of employed is at record high levels, while the unemployment rate is at about 6.5%, or at the level of the eurozone.For his part, FIC President Burak Baykan, noted that Croatia needs policies to improve the business environment and attract business investments that will increase productivity and competitiveness. “Based on our business experience in Croatia and other countries, we firmly believe that Croatia can become one of the most attractive investment destinations in the foreseeable future," said Baykan. He also emphasized that it is evident that Croatia is working on financial discipline and raising its credit rating. However, he warned that over time, European union (EU) funds will become less important to Croatia, and foreign investments will become increasingly important. According to him, Croatia is not at the level of other EU countries in attracting foreign investments today. He also highlighted the main Croatian problems - the shortage of labor, the need to transform the education system, and slow bureaucracy.The author of the White Book 2024, economic analyst Velimir Sonje, highlighted at the prestation that Croatia still lags behind other small, open, and more developed European countries, despite having completed the process of European integration. According to Sonje, Croatia needs a new, ambitiously set national development goal to reach 90% of the average level of real income per capita of the EU.  “However, to achieve this, Croatia must enter the elite group of the 25 most attractive investment destinations in the world and earn an A+ credit rating by the end of this decade,“ Sonje concluded. (ICE ZAGABRIA)

Fonte notizia: HRT online edition 27/02/2024