Croatia and Slovenia are among the most important trading partners to each other, and Croatia's entry into the European Union will be an opportunity for them to raise their partnership to a higher level through joint participation in major projects and joint ventures on third markets, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic told a Croatian-Slovenian business forum in Zagreb on Friday, held as part of Slovenian President Borut Pahor's two-day official visit.
The two countries are connected by their history, tradition and culture, and now that major political problems between them have been resolved, the ground has been laid for these two small economies, which are in serious trouble, to help each other on the common European market, Josipovic told the business people at the forum, organised by the two countries' chambers of commerce.
Speaking of new possibilities of cooperation, Josipovic cited projects that would be financed from EU funds, saying that potential areas of cooperation were car-part manufacturing, the metal industry, energy, transport infrastructure, IT and tourism. He emphasised a possibility of merging national retail chains, saying that there was no reason why such an integrated chain would not become a retail leader in the region and beyond.
Josipovic said that it was in the interest of both economies to cooperate on the development of railway infrastructure by building a railway line from Maribor via Krapina to Zagreb and including it into a trans-European transport corridor. He also mentioned a possibility of connecting the Croatian port of Rijeka and the Slovenian port of Koper with the Italian port of Trieste to form a joint logistical holding that could compete with the biggest European ports, such as Genoa or Rotterdam.
Pahor said that since the removal of political obstacles between the two countries over the last four years, when he last visited Croatia in his capacity as Prime Minister, 27 per cent of all Slovenian investments abroad had ended up in Croatia, which made Croatia the top destination for Slovenian investors.
Figures provided by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce show that by the end of 2012 Slovenia had invested nearly 1.14 billion euros in Croatia, mostly in property (24%), retail (21%), other trade (15%), the financial sector (9%) and the building sector (6%). Croatia has so far invested 137.3 million euros in Slovenia.
Pahor stressed the need to further develop bilateral cooperation, adding that the two countries, together with Austrian, Italian and German regions, had the potential to become a major economic development pool in Europe.
Before the forum, about 15 companies signed a letter of intent to establish a Centre for Energy Solutions that would bring together Croatian and Slovenian companies in the area of energy, thermal insulation and energy conservation.
