2008 Croatian Investor of the Year Awards

The Croatian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship would like to invite you to the "2008 Investor of the Year Awards Ceremony” and Conference “Croatia – Investment Climate and Opportunities” to be held on Monday, October 27, 2008 from 9:00am to 5:00 pm at the Cristal Room in the Westin Hotel at Kršnjavog 1 in Zagreb, Croatia.

The Award Ceremony and the Conference are under the patronage of the Croatian Government.

Through these inaugural awards, the Croatian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship will establish an annual tradition of awarding investors and investment projects in a variety of categories.

The main goal of the project is to promote and stimulate new export-oriented and value-added investments that generate new employment opportunities and encourage economic development in less developed areas of the Republic of Croatia. It is our intention to reward and stimulate investment projects that bring new technologies and technology exchange, research and development, innovations, encourage and support employees’ education with a focus on responsible and ecologically aware management of projects.

The Investor of the Year Award will be given in the following five categories:

New investment project of the year
Investment project that generated the most new jobs
The most innovative investment project
The most successful municipality/local self government in attracting investments
Investment project developed in the less developed areas of the Republic of Croatia

Following the Award Ceremony there will be a Conference entitled: “Croatia - Investment Climate and Opportunities” that will include the following panels:

1. Investment climate in the Republic of Croatia - how are we seen by others

Within this panel it is our intent to present what the Republic of Croatia has already done to improve its investment climate (for the past 2 years Croatia has been amongst the top 10 reformer countries according to the World Bank’s ranking) as well as to tackle the existing problems ecountered by investors. The goal is to make Croatia even more attractive to investors, underlying our advantages to other countries in the Region.

2. Know-how and value added products – a chance for Croatia

Regarding the relatively high labor force costs in Croatia compared to other countries of the region, Croatia can and should position itself as an attractive country for the investors especially in the value added sectors based on knowledge and new technologies. This has been our common goal as defined in many strategic documents of the Republic of Croatia. To reach this goal it is imperative to secure the cooperation of the three sectors involved: science, education and economy. This panel will discuss examples and intiatives that demostrate that such cooperation already exists.

3. Croatia – a gateway to other countries

Besides Croatia’s excellent geographic location - covering all major European corridors using advanced and modern transport infrastructure - we would like to present our two largest ports (Rijeka and Ploče), our largest airport (Zagreb) as well as the plan for construction of the valley railway line towards Hungary which will further enhance Croatia's connections with the rest of the world. In this way, the logistics sector together with other related services and products will have better opportunities to develop and grow to ensure better efficiency and connectivity of investment projects.

It is our intent to invite all relevant government, national, regional, local, self-government and other institutions (development agencies, business and industrial centers etc.) as well as foreign and domestic investors, foreign diplomats in Croatia, representatives of foreign Chambers of Commerce and economic representatives to attend the event.