The investments refer to the construction of new manufacturing and purification plants in Savski Marof and the expansion of a manufacturing plant in Zagreb. Completion is planned for the end of 2013.
The company is investing its own money and more than 80 per cent of the production from the new plants is intended for export, said board chair Tihomir Oreskovic.
Pliva plans to create more than 200 jobs through these investments as well as another 1,000 for maintenance and supply personnel.
Visiting the construction site in Savski Marof, Economy Minister Radimir Cacic said Pliva had managed to prove that it was the fastest in the Teva group in turning research into production.
Pliva's investments are currently the biggest private investments in Croatia which is important because of their amount as well as because of the message that it is possible in Croatia to invest in high technology and make a high return on employee, said Cacic.
We want more investments like this one by Pliva and the pharmaceutical industry is a field in which we can achieve that, he said, adding that "things are moving and happening" as evidenced by a 3.8 per cent growth of investment in capital goods, one being the reconstruction of the Zakucac hydroelectric power plant near Omis worth HRK 1 billion.
Asked if an analysis of the realisation of the investment plan by public companies was ready, Cacic said data through October 1 would be ready by the end of the month.
Visiting Pliva's plants in Zagreb, he said the state and the drugs companies would define together an industrial strategy for this field, which he said was one of the few in which Croatia could be among the world leaders.
Asked to comment on the year-on-year decline in the number of employees in industry, Cacic said the Dina and Dioki petrochemical companies and the Sisak steel mill worked in 2011 and that there were also more employees in shipbuilding last year.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.4)