The event is aimed at connecting business people of Croat origin from all parts of the world and increasing investments by expatriate business people in the homeland.
Opening the conference, President Zoran Milanović's advisor on economy, Velibor Mačkić, said that Croatia could and should do better, noting that one had to work together for that to happen.
"That means including the competence, experience and capital of those who are not here but want to be here and help us," he said.
Mačkić said the four main medium-term challenges to making Croatia a country where people would return and immigrate were labour, lack of private investments, productivity and the need to improve the business climate.
Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said that Croatia was a small country but was strongly and visibly positioned in a world fraught with challenges, dangers, crises and conflicts.
He underlined the importance of connecting Croat business people from the homeland and abroad, noting that Croatia supports its expatriates.
Meeting G2 President Antun Krešimir Buterin said that the association's aim was to bring to Croatia as many hard-working and successful expatriates as possible, and connect them with equally hard-working and smart business people in Croatia who need fresh capital to turn a top idea into a profitable business or a new, reliable partner. We also wanted to connect our producers, exporters with the Croatian diaspora so it can help them sell their products and services on foreign markets more easily, he said, calling for more business diplomacy.
Buterin said that the association believed that Croatia could be among the wealthiest countries in the world but that that could be achieved only through unity.
"There are not just four million of us, but eight million. We are not as small and weak as we think and as some claim. Together we can and must be stronger, readier, smarter, more innovative and more successful," he said.
Around 200 participants are expected at the conference, which is held under the auspices of the Office of the President, Government, Parliament, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Demography and Immigration and Central State Office for Croats Abroad.