The Competitiveness Council and Croatian exporters met on Monday to discuss the elements of the "Croatian Export Offensive", to be presented on 22 January 2007 at the second convention of Croatian exporters and partners, the Council said in a statement.
The meeting warned that Croatia's trade deficit had been increasing by the year and that in 2005 exports dropped to below a half of all imports, accounting for 10 percent of total sales of the national economy.
The Council supported all efforts aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Croatian products, which is a precondition for better export results, paying special attention to the readiness of the Croatian education system to provide assistance to the national economy.
The national system of higher education is competitive in the creation of globally relevant knowledge, but Croatia is considerably lagging behind in applied knowledge - innovations and new technological solutions that could give impulse to the creation of competitive products with high added value, it was said.
The Competitiveness Council proposed establishing excellence centres for certain products and industrial branches under whose aegis faculties, research institutes and private companies could more efficiently exchange knowledge needed in the creation of new products.