Croatia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, Radimir Cacic, said on Saturday that he agreed with the statement by US Ambassador James Foley that the investment climate in Croatia was not good, adding that anyone who had ever done business or invested in Croatia knew it.
Cacic was speaking to reporters before an election convention of the youth organisation of his Croatian People's Party (HNS). When asked what could be done about it, he said that a wide range of measures had already been taken to improve the situation, citing the adoption of implementing provisions of the Public Procurement Act that made the public procurement procedures transparent.
Cacic said that the government would propose establishing an Investment and Competitiveness Promotion Agency to handle major investment projects and remove any barriers. "It's a lasting process, and unfortunately nothing has been done about it in Croatia in the last eight years," he added.
When asked to comment on the call by Britain's Barclays bank to its investors to sell Croatian bonds because of an expected downgrade of Croatia's credit rating, as reported by Novi List newspaper on Saturday, Cacic said that the bank was probably "playing it extra safe" because it had had big problems in its recent past.
Cacic said that ratings were not determined by Barclays, and that all countries in Europe have had their ratings downgraded, while Croatia has not. He noted that Fitch Ratings had left room to check whether the measures undertaken by the Croatian government were strong enough to keep the rating.
"There had been predictions, even by relevant institutions and people, that Croatia's rating would fall after Fitch announced the results of its talks and analyses, but as you can see it has not," Cacic said. "We hope and believe that we will keep the rating, but that does not depend only on us. If some other relevant agencies assess that the rating is falling, we will have to fight even harder to get it back," he said, adding that the government had managed to keep the rating in the last two months after announcing tough measures in that regard.
When asked to comment on the results of a survey showing a decline in public support for the government, Cacic said that the only way to win back public support was by showing results. "When this government started, public optimism was built on the fact of change, and when the measures begin optimism will certainly fall and will pick up again only after results are produced."
