President Zoran Milanovic said on Wednesday that Croatia stood poorly with regard to commodity exports and that it was partially being saved by exporting services, i.e. by its tourism.
During a meeting of the Lider club of exporters, Milanovic underscored that Croatia was always "frustratingly poor" in commodity exports and today's figures are as bad as for the past 30 years.
"The export coverage of imports is 60%. That is bad, simply put. Luckily, there is tourism as a monoculture that is fairly well developed...so that Croatia exports more through services than what it manages to botch on commodity exports," he said.
For that to change, he said, there must be the state, policies and subsidies, and for us to be able to focus on that, there must be a stable government that will not steal, he underscored.
He added that Croatia's accession to the EU did not result in a boost in exports and that "without its (EU) demands and criteria, we would never have reformed to the extent to be a completely functional market economy."
Milanovic said that the EU's programme of €750 billion is encouraging, however, he added, Croatia has to have good arguments for what it wants to absorb funds.
"Is that to buy back shares in INA? It is hard to believe we will get money for that," said Milanovic and added that a "difficult year" awaits us because we are strongly dependent on the tourism industry and tourism is "at the same time a blessing and a curse."
He said that tourism does not account for 20% of Croatia's GDP but 11 or 12 per cent, however in all other comparative countries that share is lower.
Milanovic said that the EU offered unlimited opportunities "for anyone that wants them," if they have ideas and the will and a "good and active government."
"Certain initiatives are emerging, like the Three Seas Initiative. All of that is OK but in the end I'm interested in what is in it for us? Do we need yet another initiative, another bureaucracy to take money that already exists in Brussels?" he asked. (Hina/FaH)
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