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

Prof. Mirjana Dragičević from the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, an
expert on clusters in Croatia, summarised the situation with cluster development at
the beginning of 2007 in one of her articles as follows: 'Regional clusters became the
strategic development tool in achieving the Lisbon agenda in Europe. The same is
the case in most post-transition economies. The situation in Croatia is different,
because the institutional prerequisites for the cluster development are not completely
developed. Croatia is still not divided into the regions, according to the EU standards
and regional statistical accounts are not realised yet and there is no relevant basis to
comparative regional statistics. There is a low level of communication and
coordination between national, counties and local authorities. Adequate
microeconomic policies that support cluster development are missing, such as
educational policy and incentive policy to foreign direct investment.
On the national level the Regional development strategy is built up, the same as the
regional operational plans in most counties. Regional development agencies also
exist in most counties and they are mostly engaged on the SMEs projects and other
actions dealing with competitiveness building. In different counties, the various types
of business integrations are created, such as districts, business zones etc. Regional
clusters are foreseen as the future goals in many documents, but only one
internationally recognised cluster in Croatia exists (Dragičević and Obadić, 2006).
As indicated at the international conference 'Clusters – Connecting Possibilities in
South East Europe, which was held in Opatija, Croatia on April 20 – 21, 2007, there
are several clusters, which will be financially supported by the Government, namely:
Croatian Furniture Cluster, Croatian Agriculture Equipment Cluster, Croatian
Yachting Cluster and Croatian Machine Tools Cluster. A number of cluster initiatives
(e.g. Croatian Shipbuilding Cluster, ICT Cluster, Automobile Cluster, Textile Cluster),
has started to operate just recently. For example, the ICT Cluster Varaždin, which is
financially supported by the USAID, was officially opened on July 6, 2007.
Name of
initiative:
Croatian Employers’ Association (CEA) - National Centre for
Clusters
Contact person: Vladimir Kovačević (Director)
Email: hup@hup.hr
Website: http://www.hup.hr/default.asp?ru=20&sid=&jezik=2
The Croatian Employers’ Association is an independent, voluntary association of
private entrepreneurs and employers founded during the period of Croatian transition
to market economy in 1993. The CEA’s mission is to improve entrepreneurial and
investment climate in order to strengthen Croatian economy competitiveness. In the
process of strengthening Croatian economy competitiveness CEA proactively works
with the trade unions and the Government.
CEA represents its members' interests in many international organizations such as:
Union des Industries de la Communauté européenne (UNICE), International
page 19/HRV