Croatian business people are on a five-day visit to China and Hong Kong so as to advance cooperation between Croatian and Chinese companies, increase trade and find investment possibilities, as well as to promote Croatia as an attractive tourist destination, the HGK said in a statement on Tuesday.
"There is a lot of potential for improving mutual trade, notably in the fields of transport and logistics where large Chinese companies can use Adriatic ports (Rijeka, Ploce, Zadar) to load their goods for the European market, but also to build logistics centres in their vicinity," Burilovic said.
He added that doing business with China posed a great challenge for Croatian companies, given the size of the market, production capacities, cultural and language difference, adding however, that visits such as this one open a new window of opportunity for entrepreneurs in forming new business relations and partnerships.
Croatia-China trade in 2014 totalled US$654 million, with Croatia's imports amounting to eight times more than the exports. The latest statistics for the first five months of this year indicate an increase of both exports and imports by 27% on the year, the HGK said.
Croatia-Hong Kong trade varies from one year to another. In 2014, total trade was US$ 20.9 million, of which Croatia's exports amounted to $9.6 million, up 64% on the year, while imports reached 11.3 million, down 56.68%.
The Croatian business delegation will stay in China until 18 October.