The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Science and Education Minister Blazenka Divjak.
Plenkovic said the Internet industry in Croatia employs 24,000 people with a turnover of HRK 22 billion and a 3% growth, adding that these figures showed that Croatia is part of a large market.
Minister Divjak said the Internet was the most important invention in the history of human communication.
On 17 November 1992, a ceremony was held at the University of Zagreb's Rectorate building to officially launch the Croatian academic and research computer communication network, based on the Internet Protocol, and its connection to the global Internet network. This day is seen as the official date when the first nation-wide IP-based network established connection to the Internet.
The Internet connection that Croatia established with the world was the connection between the University of Zagreb's University Computing Centre (SRCE) and the University of Vienna, at the speed of 9.6 kbps (9600 bit/s). The connection was established as part of the project of building the national academic network.
The project was launched by the then Ministry of Science, Technology and Informatics in October 1991, during the war, with direct support from Professor Branko Jeren, PhD, who was Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Informatics at the time and later served as the Minister of Science and the Rector of the University of Zagreb.
The Academic Network Committee was founded in autumn 1991. Chaired by Predrag Pale, M.Sc., of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, the Committee also consisted of Ivan Marić and Velimir Vujnović of the University Computing Centre, Darko Bulat of the Ruđer Bošković Institute and Ljubimko Šimičić of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Science. At its first meeting held on 3 October 1991, the Committee tasked SRCE with building and managing the network and providing customer support, recognizing SRCE as the institution whose tradition, achievements and capacities allowed it to ensure the success and sustainability of this large project. The network was later given a name: CARNet – Croatian Academic and Research Network.
On the occasion of the 25 years of the Internet in Croatia, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic awarded the Charters of the Republic of Croatia to SRCE and CARNet.