The survey includes 411 companies in 11 central European countries, including 48 companies from Croatia. It showed that last year Croatian companies invested up to five percent of their earning (48% of those polled) in research and development.
More than 10% of income was invested in research and development by 23% of those polled, while 4% made no investments in research and development at all.
The situation on the state level is not better either -- Croatia invests only 0.75% of its GDP in research and development, of which the private sector accounts for only 0.4% of GDP. By comparison, the EU average is 2.03%, and the average in the United States is 2.75% of GDP.
By joining the EU, Croatia has committed to invest as much as 3% of GDP in research and development by 2020.