Partners in the project were the Ministry of the Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, the Agency for the Promotion of Export and Investment, the government one-stop-shop service Hitro.hr, county officials, business people and foreign investors.
The project had three objectives. The first one was the strengthening of the internal competence of the Ministry of the Economy in establishing a modern business environment in the country by drawing up studies on economic sectors to be targeted by important investments.
Those sectors are the furniture industry, the manufacturing of parts and equipment for motor vehicles, the manufacturing and maintenance of sports vessels, and consulting and procurement of software. Based on these studies, a national marketing strategy for investment and a program for investment promotion are expected to be drawn up.
The second objective was the identification of investment obstacles and methods of their elimination. This objective refers to the establishment of and support to a better flow of information between government institutions in charge of business legislation and between government agencies and counties.
The third objective was the improvement of the investment climate through regional projects in six counties, which were awarded investor-friendly certificates. Those are Varazdin, Medjimurje, Zadar, Sibenik-Knin, Karlovac abd Primorje-Gorski Kotar counties.
Addressing participants in the project, the head of the European Commission Delegation to Croatia, Vincent Degert, said that Croatia should speed up privatisation, reduce government spending and improve its judiciary if it wanted to increase the inflow of foreign investments.
Degert also urged reducing red-tape which obstructed investments and promoting management skills and protection of intellectual property.
Assistant Economy Minister Leo Begovic said that by 2010 the ministry wanted to enable Croatia to join the 30 most attractive countries in terms of investment and achieve at least 25 greenfield investments per year.