Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Kosor to "bring Google to Croatia"

Croatian government is considering revising its policies regarding foreign investment to bring more foreign capital into the country’s IT sector, the daily Jutarnji List writes.

The Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's new economic team intends to target IT companies, which have so far evaded Croatia in favour of entering the European markets through Ireland.

The recently-appointed Deputy PM in charge of investments, Domagoj Ivan Milosevic, said that he believes that Croatia could become the point of departure for many large IT companies working in the European southeast.

"We want to encourage investments in high technologies sector, because that is the branch in which we see the future," said Milosevic.

Croatia is one of the countries in Europe with the least investment in IT research and development. According to the Eurostat, Croatia has set aside only 0.84 per cent of its GDP for these activities, while the EU averages are 2.01 per cent.

Some European Union members like Denmark, Sweden or Finland invest over three per cent, which is the EU's overall target amount. These investments open up opportunities for highly educated workforce and increase the competitiveness of the economy, the daily writes.

The government is considering revising the Investment Promotion Act of 2007 in order to allow investors in the IT sector to reap the benefits of the same incentives under loosened criteria.

For example, an IT sector investor bringing 10 million Euros will not need to create 75 workplaces in order not to pay taxes on profits for the next decade but only 50.

The changes to the Act will be up for parliamentary debate in April at the latest. (source: croatian times)

1 comment:

OIC said...

the thing is that google is already in croatia (a registrated company)