LONG-TERM PARTNERS
The business community is not satisfied with the pace of the reforms in Croatia, and it is necessary to expedite them reforms at all levels
INTERVIEW
RALF BLOMBERG
President of the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce
F
or years, Germany has been Croatia's most important foreign trade partner and officially the fourth biggest foreign investor in Croatia after the Netherlands, Austria and Italy, with a total of 3.2 billion EUR in direct investments since 1993, reminds Ralf Blomberg, President of the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
A while ago, at the time when reforms in Croatia were moving at a slow pace, you sent to the Croatian government a strategic document that you drafted together with the embassies of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, business organizations and the Croatian Chamber of Economy. How many of these initiatives have been adopted and which ones are still awaiting implementation? — There have been some improvements
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Focus
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as well as discernible efforts to improve the business climate in the country, one cannot deny this, such as the tax reform, some new e-business services, changes to the law on investment promotion or the new law on the promotion of research and development. But given not only the general public sentiment, but also the hard facts, the key reforms are still missing. How else would one account for the fact that there has been a big percentage decline of companies willing to reinvest in Croatia, from around 80 per cent in the past several years to 68 per cent in the last economic survey my Chamber conducted? Why is it that when companies in Croatia are talking detriments to doing business they are always talking tax burden, tax system, bureaucracy, legal security or public administration? Is there any need for a new document of this type, or are Croatia's reforms going at a rate and in a direction that
THIS COUNTRY HAS EXCELLENT PREREQUISITES TO BE AN ATTRACTIVE BUSINESS LOCATION AND HAVE A PROSPEROUS ECONOMY, BUT SO DO MANY OTHER COUNTRIES
you consider good for the economy? — As indicated in the previous question, we are not, the business community is not satisfied with the pace of the reforms in Croatia. I am not certain whether there is truly a need for another document of this type. Perhaps there is. Perhaps what we and the other chambers active in Croatia have been incessantly repeating over the years needs to be said again. The Chamber indeed does provide huge support and a plethora of services that can make an entry into Croatian market seem like a walk in the park. But we can by no stretch of the imagination convince a company to invest here if it percieves the environment for doing business in this country as complicated, instable and riddled with pointless and sluggish bureaucratic procedures. It is simply less likely to opt for Croatia as a business location if it estimates that the outcome of its operations is rather uncertain or doomed to failure because, for instance, it will be discriminated against when participating in a public tender. Things are pretty simple here – this country has excellent prerequisites to be an attractive business location and a prosperous economy, but so do many other countries, and if Croatia fails to attract investments, they will go elsewhere. And Croatia could miss a really important boat here. How much did the consequences of the financial crisis, which have been strongly felt in Croatia, affect the Chamber's work and do you see any visible progress now in the volume of work of the companies here and in the arrival of new ones? — Well, we have always been a very busy and active chamber, regardless
