4 minute read
THE MODEL ECONOMY
COOPERATION
THE MODEL ECONOMY
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Can we get better by working with the best?
— Text — Nikica Miloš
There are countries with better economic indicators, but there is always something about Sweden that makes us think that it is the best organised society around, combining social responsibility of com panies and private entrepreneurial spirit. Hence, cooperating with Sweden can only be beneficial.
COLD, BUT HEY, THERE'S HIGH LIVING STANDARD
There is this common quote in the all the former Yugoslav republics, and perhaps in other ex-Socialist countries, that says that Scandinavia is “cold” but has a high stand ard of living. Resilience, respect, modesty and appreciation for personal time resulted in the fact that a certain number of Swedish companies adopted six-hour-working day to bolster the productivity. Cooperating with companies with such work ethic can only be beneficial for Croatia, which struggles and somehow copes with the growing pains of flawed privatisations, tycoonisation, prob lems with “the southern work ethic” and the transition from Communism to Capitalism without falling into the abyss of the inhu mane Third World Capitalism.
WHAT HAS BEEN
DONE SO FAR?
Several Swedish companies have already invested in Croatia, such as IKEA, H&M and Securitas. The Ericsson Company, which has been partners with Croatia’s Ericsson Nikola
SWEDEN AND CROATIA BOOSTED THEIR COOPERATION SINCE CROATIA JOINED THE EU, AND WITH SUBSTANIAL INVESTMENTS FROM BOTH COUNTRIES
Tesla Company for 60 years now, planned to make further investments in Croatia's IT market back in 2013. There are many more companies that launched investments in Croatia, but since 2013, there has been a new tide in mutual investments, with some Cro atian companies even investing in Sweden. The data from the late 2017 shows that Tehnika, Zagreb-Montaža and Končar EI are already operating in the Swedish market, and there is hope that IGH, Monting and others will join in. These are some of the subsidi aries of the Swedish companies in Croatia: Ericsson Nikola Tesla Zagreb, Volvo Croatia Zagreb, Tele2, Scania Croatia, Volvo Car Austria Zagreb, H & M, and Husqvarna. Fol lowing the official visit of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Ki tarović to Sweden in March 2017, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce in Göteborg hosted the Swedish-Croatian Economic Forum. In 2016, Croatian exports to Sweden rose by 78.2%, and imports by 20.3%. The value of the external trade between the two countries amounted to 255.7 million EUR. The 11 Cro atian companies - Dalekovod, IGH Institute,
Končar-Elektroindustrija, Monting, Mucić & Co, Radman group, Variety Group, Tehnika, TŽV Gredelj, Westinvest and Zagreb-Mon taža Group - have already gone to Sweden.
Since last year's entry of Tehnika into the Swedish market, the company already has several contracted facilities. Currently, it is in the process of establishing its Swedish branch and conducting negotiations on new business. This is their fourth contract in Sweden, and there is a good chance that it will be signed in the very near future. Di rector of Tehnika, Zlatko Sirovec said last year: "By signing this contract, we are going to achieve our goal of having one quarter of our employees working in Sweden."
Zagreb – Montaža already has a rep resentative office in Sweden. "For years we have been active in the Norwegian
market, where we have had a good experi ence which prompted us to recently open a representative office in Sweden too", the company says. Končar - EI has been suc
cessfully operating in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries for a number of years. "Sweden was one of the most im portant markets for us in 2016. The value of our exports to this country amounted to over 200 million kunas, and we mainly exported generators and transformers. We expect further expansion of coopera tion in the field of energy and transport," said Renata Godek, the company’s Mar keting Director. The Swedes also tend to import Croatian wine, fruits and furniture. Croatia imports from Sweden mostly tel ecommunications equipment, medicines, paper, fish and passenger cars.
In 2011, the number of Swedish tourists in Croatia stood at 122,454 while in 2016, it grew to 257.000. Croatia expects this number to go up by 20% every year in the following few years, since the country has positioned itself as one of the most stable and desirable tourist destinations. The future looks pretty bright, we are pleased to say!
IMPORT
FISH AND PASSENGER CARS.
