Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic was asked by the press on Saturday to comment on the proposal that was formally put forward by seven foreign chambers of commerce active in Croatia on how to improve the business climate in the country and on their criticism of slow and cumbersome administration.
Milanovic said that he would have commented had the criticism come from the International Monetary Fund, but that he did not know at all who those people were.
He stressed that his government was trying to improve the business and investment climate in the country and was successfully removing barriers to investment.
Seven foreign chambers of commerce active in Croatia on Friday unveiled their initiative to improve the business climate in Croatia, proposing five steps: to shorten deadlines for permit decisions, reduce parafiscal fees, ensure public procurement auctions online, introduce legally binding tax opinions and improve regulation.
The seven organisations are: the American Chamber of Commerce, the Austrian Trade Commission, the British Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian-Croatian Business Network, the Consultative Committee of Italian Entrepreneurship, the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and the Nordic Chamber of Commerce in Croatia.
Zrinka Bozic of the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce told a news conference in Zagreb that the five-point initiative was based on recommendations from 1,500 companies covered by the seven foreign chambers that represented 50% of total foreign investments in Croatia to date.
The purpose of this proposal is to show that small but easily feasible changes can much contribute to the change in the attitude of foreign investors about investing in Croatia, Bozic added.
