Investing in Croatia – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatian Government Issues Bonds Amidst Initiative For Recall of Prime Minister!

February 26, 2023 by inavukic 5 Comments

While televised street interviews of citizens on Croatia’s news TV programs during the past week have yielded reticence, caution, rejection, and enthusiasm, regarding the imminent and historic issue of government bonds it is, at the same time, officially touted as an avenue of much needed investment boost to Croatia’s economy and national goals.

Croatian citizens and residents have been given the priority and opportunity to register for Croatian state bonds between 22 February and March 1, 2023; 500 euro being the minimum amount a citizen can deposit.

On 3 March 2023 corporations and institutional investors will be given the opportunity to purchase the bonds, however this opportunity will last only one day. The maturity period is two years. The interest rate is 3.25%.

Minister of Finance Marko Primorac said that the target value of the bonds issue is one billion euros, and the goal is to increase savings that citizens have in banks at relatively low interest rates and also enable citizens to participate in the public debt market.

“However, the goals are also of a broader nature, that is, through the active participation of citizens on the primary market, and then on the secondary, to further develop the capital market, encourage financial literacy, as well as other positive effects that such an issue can have,” said Primorac.

He emphasised that the minimum interest rate on bond issuance is 3.25%. The market interest rate is determined according to market circumstances, but 3.25% is the minimum coupon interest that citizens can expect, and it can be slightly higher in accordance with market circumstances.

According to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia registration for the government bonds will be done in more than 500 bank branches which are the leading agents of the bonds issue – Erste&Steiermärkische bank, OTP bank, Privredna banka Zagreb, Raiffeisenbank Austria, Zagrebačka bank – as well as the Hrvatska poštanska banka (Croatia Postal Bank), which, at the same time, is the co-issuer of bonds together with the government. Citizens do not need to hold a bank account with any of these banks to qualify for registration and purchase of government bonds.

First round investors may be natural persons of legal age who are Croatian citizens, as well as legal persons, foreign citizens, who are residents of the Republic of Croatia. Ministry of Finance and the Zagreb Stock Exchange website are to carry important information about government bond issues and subscriptions, including for those citizens who are not clients of one of the banks that are the leading agents and co-arrangers of the issue, said Primorac, who directed citizens to the online brochure on bonds published by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).

Upon registration, citizens can pay the desired amount of bonds immediately, they can also do it later, up to March 1, and Primorac advises that it is better to do it as soon as possible. Ministry of Finance webpage https://mfin.gov.hr as well as the Zagrebačka burza/ Zagreb Stock Exchange webpage https://zse.hr are holding all necessary information for people wishing to purchase Croatian government Bonds. It is envisaged that once sold the bonds will be listed on the stock exchange market.

The maturity of the bond will be two years.

If by any reason citizens who purchased the bonds cannot hold them until maturity and want to sell them on the secondary market, they may reportedly be faced with price changes. In that case, there is a certain minimal risk that they will not receive the amount they initially invested.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic pointed out that this issue of government bonds aims to dynamise the domestic capital market, as well as send a message of confidence in government bonds, in domestic public finances, and everything that has been done through systematic work and responsible management of public finances in the past years.

Whilst generally government bonds are among the safest forms of investment because of the alarming state of the economy and quite a bit of distrust in the government, there is loud scepticism on the streets of Croatia. The release of government bonds comes at the time of continued series of corruption scandals involving government ministers, of deposing old and naming new minister for development due to scandalous inaction in the past three years in reconstruction of earthquake devastated areas despite ample funds available from EU coffers, of parliamentary opposition initiatives for Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s recall. At this stage, it seems that the parliamentary opposition’s call for the recall, sacking, of the Prime Minister is doomed for failure for the simple reason of there being “too many political cooks” and too little tangible “incriminating” evidence that usually justifies sacking or recalls. Besides that, the parliamentary opposition is in the parliamentary minority and there are no significant numbers of representatives from the ruling majority party willing to cross the floor on the matter.

Croatians living in Croatia are not used to bank term deposits like people living in the West; they are ¨”used to” the so-called current bank accounts. Investing in government bonds can in a way be compared to bank term deposits and this idea alone may frighten off some people who may be reluctant to place their money out of reach for two years. Hence, one may expect that most government bond buyers will be corporate or institutional investors.

When we look at the economic and political situation in Croatia, two years if there are no major disasters are very safe. The current push from the parliamentary opposition for Prime Minister’s recall does not help nor does it provide the citizens with serenity that their money will be safe if they invest it for two years. The almost precarious financial and economic situation in Croatia, at the bottom of Europe, does cause distrust in people even if the situation as seen as stable and likely to remain stable for the coming two years or so. Being a country that depends heavily on income from tourism a successful issue of government bonds will provide a boost towards betterment and realisation of national goals. But with the President of the country, Zoran Milanovic, publicly announcing he and his family will not for various reasons be buying any government bonds one’s trust in the whole process and issue is surely shaken. That is such an awful move by a country’s president, almost an attempt to sabotage the issue of government bonds. Milanovic did not have any duty as president of the country to publicly talk of what he and his family will or will not do with their personal bank savings. He revealed it to spite the government, I’m quite certain of that. A nationally bitter and destructive vantage point indeed! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrej PLenkovic, Croatia, Croatian Government Bonds, Croatian Stock Exchange, Investing in Croatia, Marko Primorac, Recall oif Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic

Zeljko Glasnovic – Launching Real Croatian Economy Changes Campaign

December 17, 2017 by inavukic 18 Comments

Zeljko Glasnovic
Member of Croatian Parliament for the Croatian Diaspora
Pakovo Village, Drnis region ,Croatia
Photo: Screenshot

Saturday 16 December 2017, Member of Croatian Parliament for the Croatian diaspora, has launched a campaign evidently with a view to accelerating changes needed for a robust economic growth in Croatia, which process, according to this campaign, needs to bring in real changes in legislation and economic stimuli that favour increased productivity and investments (particularly from the Croatian diaspora) and hence, creation of new jobs. While the video released for the campaign (see below) is in the Croatian language these are the words spoken in it by Glasnovic, translated into the English language:

“Here we are in the Drnis region, on a family agricultural enterprise and we are with people who work every day. They’ve preserved the Croatian tradition and they need stimulus, state tax reliefs … also, they need simple laws, transparency and security for their investments…Communism has destroyed not only the souls and the intellect of people but also the agriculture. Today, in Croatia, we have half a million hectares of uncultivated agricultural land and that is an embarrassment, We have all the potentials needed to work at what needs to be done, to move forward, but, unfortunately, the socialist bureaucracy inhibits us … The time has come for us to take advantage of the whole of the global potential of Croatia – Croatian diaspora, the homeland and Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The rule of law needs to be established. Someone needs to start governing by decree and above all leadership and courage are needed; that have been missing from Croatian politics up till now.

Launching the campaign on his Facebook page also, Glasnovic writes:

”It is time to move away from the hollows of the Balkans, it is time to create a functional state. Instead of being Singapore of Southeast Europe, the state has been transformed into a country resembling the bad social experiment called SFRY (Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia). Same people, with same mentality lead the country. The transition of society from socialism into a modern society was stopped because of war, and after the war a partial transition of part of state administration was carried out. The pension, health and school systems remained in the socialist framework (“cost-free”). Freedom of the labour market has remained within a socialist framework of political prerequisites (obedience) because of the public servants within those sectors. There can be no democracy and free society. We are in a semi-socialism – Croslavia. God and Croats”

Campaign video:

Reflecting on the above it needs to be said that Croatia has so far failed to implement seemingly forever urgently necessary structural reforms (which undoubtedly depend on tailored to market needs legislation) that could boost its competitiveness and growth potential. An obstructive bureaucracy, cumbersome legislation, and rigid labour markets undermine the country’s business climate. The habits and mindset of the former communist come socialist regime has meant that procedures as well as paraphernalia of doing business inherent to those failed regimes is still poisoning real progress. In spite of ongoing deleveraging efforts by companies and households, largely foreign currency denominated debt levels remain elevated, depressing domestic demand and exposing the private sector to refinancing risks. Public debt dynamics remain worrisome, as the government after government failed to rein in budget deficits. Absent successful structural reforms, which would improve the competitiveness of Croatia’s private sector, growth is therefore likely to remain modest at best and insufficient to stop the exodus of people looking for work elsewhere around the world.

Croatia’s governments have in the past two decades, at least, pledged to boost the investment climate and yet nothing much has really changed. Legal uncertainties and administrative burdens continue to deter foreign firms from pouring in money; continue to deter its very own diaspora from pouring money in as well. It is beyond a shred of a doubt that the problem lies in the fear of being swallowed and stifled by the communist mindset instilled in much of the public administration. It is beyond a shred of a doubt that successive governments in Croatia over the past two decades have not addressed this fear objectively nor embarked on uprooting it with view to opening up impediment-free the foreign investment pathway.

Croatian business and economic environment suffers from legal uncertainty and frequent changes of the regulatory framework an investor is faced with, foe example. Despite the several reforms which have eased the pressure on businesses, the tax take is still high, while many non-taxation fees bring an additional burden, and stimulus to business growth and maintenance is in many cases inadequate or nonexistence. Croatia’s business growth will remain meagre and inconsequential unless business-friendly changes, to which pivotal ones Glasnovic’s campaign refers, are swiftly ushered, with no mercy to those who occupy the relevant public administration and service positions with their stubborn business unfriendly customer approaches as well as to hostile to healthy business growth processes and procedures. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Croatia, Croatian economy, integritas, Investing in Croatia, legislative changes stimulating business growth, Pakovo selo, Zeljko Glasnovic

Croatia For Sale!

April 24, 2014 by inavukic 38 Comments

The loud invocation for foreign (or domestic) investors in Croatia, whose arrival, as politicians and business high-rollers claim, would solve all the problems in the country, has been a daily occurrence in the economic-political circles. It’s been said over and over again that favourable conditions need to be created for investors to come, to bring their money and invest unsparingly.Mouthfuls of rhetoric such as “we need to accelerate the investment procedures, cut red tape, which chased investors away to other more flexible countries…”, ring in the ears of every city, town, village; they all wait – like a frozen figure waiting impatiently in the sun to defrost – for direct investments that would get the economy going and create new jobs.

Investors are seen as saviours that will shake up the stumbling, plummeting economy and lead the country out of the recession.
In this mad rush to see a meaningful upward turn in the economy the Croatian parliament had late last year passed the new Act on Strategic Investment that, without doubt in my mind, appears solely designed to serve large investors, many of whom will undoubtedly rush in with their long list of – potentially – white elephant projects. God knows, Croatia has had quite a few of those in the past decades via countless dubious and corrupt privatisation deals.

Specifically, the new law will give preference to investments over 150 million kunas (the equivalent of EUR 20 million) under the patronage and approval of the recently formed government’s Commission on Strategic Investment. Under the new law, approval times for large projects will be significantly speeded up.

The law allows for special ease for strategic projects when it comes to the availability of real property owned by the state. These availabilities include the sale of that real estate without public tender whose market value is determined by an authorised valuer and the release of forests from the state forest fund for sale or for formulating citizen’s rights to these forests. The “public good/use” of state owned properties has been removed and, hence, leading the way to abuse and wheeling and dealing not alien to corruption with which Croatia still struggles miserably. While the law refers to state owned property that is made available to investors it is not far-fetched to imagine that, in the euphoria of strategic investment that “will save Croatia”, the state will come up with more laws and regulations where it will seek to compulsorily acquire private property for the benefit of some strategic investment project in the pipelines. Compulsory acquisitions are usually reserved in the developed world for projects of wider public good or state importance. Indeed, the scenario of compulsory land acquisitions to benefit an aspiring “strategic investor” is very possible given the relatively low investment funds required for strategic investments in less developed areas on the mainland and on the islands. So, for example, if someone comes up with say 3 million EURO – which is not a large sum of money – and decides on establishing a farm of some sort or a fishery or say building a restaurant at a seaside spot and creating 5 new jobs an air of subservience to the investor at the expense of private property will in places, I fear,be created especially at the investor’s insistence on preferential locations. The state already has laws that enable it to acquire farming land in order to increase the size of farmland in its ownership on any particular lot surrounded by private ownership. Indeed the squabbles about rights to land ownership – and therefore transfer to a strategic investor – are likely to increase between the state and local governments even though the state has usurped the rights to absolute decision making, creating an administrative and other procedural nightmares which expose themselves to corrupt practices particularly given the land valuation process, which does not seem to have water-tight checks and re-checks.

A concerning aspect is also the creation of “new jobs” rule that applies to approved strategic investments. According to the Act there is a requirement to open the “new jobs” within three years of capital works completion and maintain/guarantee these jobs for five years in larger projects and three years in smaller and medium projects. Resulting from my personal research into the new laws and regulations so far, there is a lack of clarification as to how many of such new jobs are to be filled by Croatian citizens, locals etc., as opposed to the foreign strategic investor bringing in his/her personnel, as well as lack of clarification as to any monitoring or policing of adherence to the filling of “new jobs”.

The new Act on Strategic Investment in Croatia has as its goal the reduction of administrative procedures – or red tape, if you like – hence playing to a speedy realisation of strategic projects in Croatia. In order to declare a project “strategic,” it must meet several criteria. Beside the capital expense of at least HRK 150 million (approx. EUR 20 million) as said above, the project must be in accordance with spatial planning regulations, which one might well expect can be changed in order to appease a potential investor (?).

If it is possible to co-finance the project with EU funds, this amount can be equal to or greater than HRK 75 million (approx. EUR 9.8 million). If the project is being carried out on an island or in local or regional municipalities that have a lower than average level of development than the rest of Croatia, or the project is related to agriculture and fishery, the total amount of capital expense can be equal to or greater than HRK 20 million (approx. EUR 2.6 million).

In addition to these financial criteria, the criteria regarding the scope of activities pertaining to the strategic project must also be fulfilled. These activities include production and processing, infrastructure and energy projects, hospitality services, industrial engineering projects, logistics and distribution centres, as well as agriculture and fishery. When submitting the project, it is necessary to include an estimate of the number of new jobs and indirect employments, which are connected to the project.

After enactment of the law of Strategic Investment there have been numerous debates and public discussions and commentaries on doubtful purpose of the Act. The major opposition party HDZ has gone as far as saying that the Act provides legal basis for the Government to freely dispose of the state owned property by setting aside the influence of the public and the local governments in decision making process, seemingly empowering the State Strategic Investment Commission with “supreme” powers. Sadly, the public and oppositional debates have not made much difference.

At first glance, this system has the capacity to enable more flexible administration with the state owned assets and ease the procedures and formalities that are necessary for the implementation of projects. Digging deeper, though, bells of caution ring with deafening noise: such broad and supreme powers of few are fraught with the dangers of corruption and granting privileges in valuing and disposing of state property or valuable assets, whether temporary or for long-term, to selected individuals whose ultimate operations and reaping of profits may not be in Croatia’s interests. Certainly, a new door to almost extreme neoliberalism has been opened here and the people at large are sure to suffer in the end. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps.(Syd)