Milanovic was accompanied by Health Minister Sinisa Varga and Labour and Pension System Minister Mirando Mrsic for the launching of the largest greenfield investment this year. The new factory in the northern Croatian town of Koprivnica will produce solid, semi-solid and liquid medicines.
The foundation stone, symbolically shaped like a tablet, was laid down by Podravka CEO Zvonimir Mrsic and Belupo CEO Hrvoje Kolaric.
In addition to the factory plants an energy centre, warehouse for storing raw materials and packaging as well as hazardous materials will be built on some 80,000 square metres and the new factory should be up and running by March 2017 and could employ up to one hundred workers.
The Economy Ministry has contributed to the project with approximately HRK 163.7 million which is the maximum amount the ministry offers to subsidise strategic investment projects. The subsidy can be expended over the next 10 years through reduced profit tax and subsidies for employing through various employment programmes.
Belupo is part of the Podravka food concern and is financing the construction with its own finances, part of which has been secured through loans and HRK 50 million has been obtained through a recent recapitalisation.
Prime Minister Milanovic said that the government has helped this project because it is considered to have strategic status.
He commented on the recent recapitalisation of Podravka noting that the state had invested HRK 113 million in the company's shares, "because the state did not want to reduce its control to less than 25%," he said.