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16 American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia YEARBOOK 2010 Don Hudspeth, Vice Chair American College of Management and Technology Mission statement: • act as a private sector, multi-disciplined interest group that can provide balanced support for local and national government tourism agencies in Croatia • to serve as a consultative body as required by those agencies • to assist in shaping and developing long-term, destination-specific tourism strategies and associated action plans. The American Chamber of Commerce’s Tourism Committee was established in February of this year to tackle the issue of a long-term strategic approach to the development of the Croatian tourism industry, both on the coast and inland. The committee doesn’t see itself as being some kind of alternative to the existing agencies charged with tourism development but to act as a private sector partner to provide multi-disciplined expertise for public sector agencies, to serve as a consultative body as required by those agencies and to assist in shaping and developing long-term, destination-specific tourism strategies and associated action plans. The committee is focusing specifically on Dubrovnik and Zagreb as being the key brands in feeding business elsewhere in their specific markets. To look at it simplistically, Dubrovnik and other coastal areas suffer because the season is too short. This problem is exactly the same as that faced in France, in Spain, in Portugal and a host of other countries. Cannes started tackling this in the 1930s with the introduction of an all-year resort marketing campaign and events like the film festival. Barcelona proved that sport, trade fairs and conferences together with strong branding could result in a 12-month season. In short, there is plenty of history to look back on and cherry-pick the right approach for our resorts. Zagreb simply doesn’t feature as a player in city tourism: in 2008 and 2009, Zagreb filled less than a fifth of the number of hotel rooms occupied in Budapest. HVS ranks it 34th out of 36 cities measured in its European Hotel Valuation Index and it has had a compound annual growth rate of -7% between 2000 and 2009. The city has excellent raw materials to deliver growth for business related to city breaks, discretionary business tourism and destination-driven transient corporate visits – it’s clean, it’s safe, it’s friendly and it has some world-class facilities and infrastructure. The committee sees its short-term objective to convince local and national politicians that they have an active role to play in uniting and leading stakeholder groups in formulating and delivering against tourism strategies. Moreover, political leaders need to be persuaded to work to eliminate an over-complicated and punitive business environment and to make the connection between wealth creation and the social agenda, in the minds of the wider population. In short, the political establishment can help by promoting and living the mantra that tourism is everyone’s business. Trade and Investment Committee Boška Trbojević, Chair Coca-Cola HBC Hrvatska d.o.o. phone: 385 1 2480 247 boska.trbojevic@cchellenic.com Trade and Investment Committee was initiated in late 2008 with the main aim to help improve the business competitiveness of Croatia. The Committee members believe that it is both possible and necessary to reform the business environment in a way that benefits domestic and foreign business in Croatia, the state, customers and consumers alike and that economic development involves a collaborative process involving the private sector, government at multiple levels, universities, labor and civil society. As the largest international business association in Croatia, which includes many international companies doing business in Croatia the Trade and Investment Committee of AmCham Croatia suggests a more systematized means of dialogue/ communication with state institutions, in order to better implement and improve various changes to the business environment in Croatia. Steps the Committee has taken so far: • identified issues that are burdening different businesses in Croatia
YEARBOOK 2010 American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia • performed a comparative analysis with the wider South-East and Central European environment to pinpoint the most important reforms that need to be taken • drafted and developed the AmCham Cost & Competitiveness Position Paper, reviewed by the AmCham membership and approved/adopted by the AmCham Board of Governors. With continuation of its work the Trade and Investment Committee will seek to preparing detailed improvement proposals in cooperation with other business organizations and Croatian and international institutions aiming to address those issues that we can realistically and positively change, and to assist the Government of Croatia in implementation of the needed reforms. EU Task Force Paul Suchar, Chair KPMG Croatia d.o.o. Phone: 385 1 5390 032 psuchar@kpmg.com Darija Dretar, Co-chair JT International In September 2010 AmCham held the kick off meeting of the EU Task Force. The EU task force was formed with the goal of gathering information and providing education in relation to Croatia’s accession to the EU, focusing on the impact of EU accession, the legal and regulatory changes that accession to the EU will bring and the ability of Croatian companies to apply for EU funding. Position Papers Many of our members have often expressed their business concerns to the Executive Office, our Committees, and the Board of Governors. Am- Cham’s Advocacy Strategy includes the opportunity (clearly defined through our policies at www. amcham.hr/committees/) for every member(s) to initiate, draft and incorporate their business issue into a formal position, which becomes the official position of AmCham Croatia. Subsequently, Am- Cham would very publicly advocate for these position at all levels, including government, state institutions, and the general public. Presently we have published the following position papers, which can be downloaded at www.amcham.hr: • ‘Harmonizing Croatia and EU Legislation, Regulations, and Standards, in Preparation for EU Accession’ • ‘Voluntary vs Mandatory Chamber of Commerce Model’ • ‘Tax Treaty Would Increase Investment, Benefiting Both US and Croatian Trans-Atlantic Trade’ • Protection of Fair Market Competition in Croatia • AmCham Encourages and Supports Adoption of Legislation/Regulation Promoting Environmentally-friendly Technologies • Expediting Croatia’s EU Accession Critical to Economic Prosperity/Development of SouthEast Europe • It is Imperative for the State to Regularly Fulfill its Financial Obligations towards Small and Mediumsized Businesses in the ICT and Other Business Sectors, in Order to Maintain Companies’ Sustainability. News & Views Magazine ‘News & Views’ magazine continues to be AmCham’s primary channel of communication with members and other AmChams. News & Views Magazine started as a Newsletter in 1999 on 4 pages and now is published 4 times a year on 36 pages, in full color, printed in 1500 copies. It is covering all major AmCham events, special features, interviews, activity reports, news & info. Members also have a great opportunity to increase their company awareness through advertising in the magazine, as it reaches a big international and local audience – it is distributed to all AmCham members, other corporations/business,embassies, NGOs and various organizations, government, all European AmChams, who will make it available to their membership, and US Chamber of Commerce in Washington. 17
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