Croatia must specialise in particular areas, offer top quality, ensure fair conditions for all competitors and continue to suppress corruption and remove administrative obstacles to investment so to be able to make full use of its future membership of the European Union in attracting foreign investments, said the first panel discussion held as part of the international investment forum "Invest in Croatia 2011," which started in Zagreb on Monday.
The two-day investment forum is organised by the Croatian government with the support of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the Croatian Employers' Association, the international investment bank Macquarie, with media sponsorship provided by the Financial Times and Bloomberg.
Ferit Sahenk, the president and CEO of the Turkish Dogus Group, said that Croatia's admission to the European Union was important because it sets standards which raise the security of foreign investors.
Frank Stronach, the founder and honorary chairman of Magna International Inc, said Croatia as a small country must become specialised in particular areas because it cannot compete with big countries when it comes to serial production. He said special attention must be attached to the quality of education in small, specialised institutions of higher education.
He sees Croatia's chance in elite tourism and the production of high quality ecological agricultural products.
Sheikh Mohammed A. al-Thani of Qatar is also confident that tourism is an important sector for foreign investments. He said Croatia's tourism was still "a virgin territory" for foreign investors.
Asked to assess the anti-corruption campaign in Croatia and its results, David Fass of Macquarie Group Ltd, a leading Australian investment bank, said that the subject of corruption should not be raised too often in contacts with foreign investors.
Other participants in the event, including Croatian deputy prime minister in charge of investments Domagoj Milosevic, believe it is good to familiarise investors with anti-corruption activities.
Sheikh Mohammed A. al-Thani says that corruption could make Croatia less interesting to the investment community.
The investment forum will resume tomorrow with a speech by the president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Nadan Vidosevic.
According to the Croatian National Bank (HNB), foreign direct investments in Croatia from 1993 to the end of the first quarter of 2011 amounted to HRK 24.3 billion. The biggest investors were Austrians (EUR 6.1 billion), followed by the Dutch (EUR 3.7 million), Germans (over 3 billion), Hungary (EUR 2.2 billion), etc.
