S&T Country Report - Albania - WBC-INCO Net

A) Clusters
The development of clusters is the crucial moment in stimulating greater progress of
small and medium enterprises. For that reason, the Croatian Government welcomes
all the initiatives in the local government units, entrepreneurial associations which,
together with entrepreneurs, are the main promoters of the cluster development.
Croatian economic and regional policy supports formation and development of
clusters with the stimulation of necessary infrastructure.
Clusters are networks of enterprises that complete each other. They are mostly
formed out of a mixture of three types of enterprises that mutually complete:
• Enterprises with a special market and technological power working on the
international level;
• Contractors or manufacturers, mostly small and medium enterprises; and
• Innovative and dynamic professional associations based on the new
cognitions (like: research institutes, professional training institutions, etc.).
In year 2006, the development of 18 clusters in six sectors (wood and metal
processing, food, textiles, printing and publishing and tourism), with the inclusion of
401 business subjects, was supported by the Ministry of Economy, Labour and
Entrepreneurship (5.5 million kunas = EUR 755 627). In the year 2005, ten clusters
were supported amounting to 1.6 million kunas (EUR 219 819).
For years the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship has been
cooperating with the German Technical Cooperation Association (GTZ – Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) on different projects concerning small
and medium entrepreneurship. One of the most important projects they cooperate on
is the education of cluster managers that has started in 2005. Major task of cluster
development is training of the key factors for efficacious cluster management. The
Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship presented the ˝Cluster
management - hand-book for professional work˝ on December 4, 2006. The
handbook was prepared the cooperation with GTZ and was written on the basis of
collected experience of clusters in the EU. It is intended to serve as an important
source of information for cluster managers, and to all the readers interested in cluster
issue and cluster management. It is divided into two parts:
• Survey that shows the basic principles of cluster management; and
• Collection with all the material and instruments necessary for cluster
managers.
(The Government of the Republic of Croatia, 2007).
Despite government support, evidence suggests that clusters are still struggling –
with a lack of integration of participating companies, and inadequate relations with
R&D centres and top service providers. Achieving excellence would require a better
articulated range of cluster support measures to produce joint initiatives for creating
value chains and thus improve the quality of products and services (OECD and EC,
2007).
page 18/HRV