30. October at 5 p.m.
Global Media Launch of the Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004Dr.
Augusto Lopez-Claros, Professor Michael Porter and Professor Xavier
Sala-i-Martin will present the results of the Report at a press conference
in Washington DC. The press conference will be webcast live at
www.weforum.org/gcrwebcast2003.
31. October at 10:30 a.m.
Press Conference of the NCC (WEF Partner Institute)
Presentation of the results of the Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004
07.-09. November
Media Workshop on Competitiveness, Plitvice
For further information please contact:
drazana@jeaustin.com.hr
J. E. Austin - Croatian Competitiveness Initiative
Tel. (01) 3689 004, (01) 3689 000
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Presentation of the “20 Key” program
Zagreb, November 19, 2003.—The Ministry of Economy, in cooperation with
the consulting and auditing firm Deloitte, presented the “20 Key” program
for improving the competitiveness of the Croatian economy to
businesspeople on November 19. Companies around the world using the “20
Keys” system have substantially raised their productivity, shortened the
time for adjusting tools and equipment in production, decreased worker
absences, decreased indirect costs and a host of other targets. The
National Competitiveness Council supported the “20 Keys” program
presentation.
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Presentation of «The Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004: the
Position of Croatia» at the HDE Conference
Opatija, November 13, 2003—Mr. Mladen Vedriš, a member of the Council,
gave a talk at the traditional Conference of the Croatian Economists'
Society in Opatija on the theme «The Global Competitiveness Report
2003-2004: the Position of Croatia».
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Third media workshop on competitiveness—Roundtable of leading
businesspeople, government representatives and journalists
Plitvice, November 8-9, 2003—The third media workshop on competitiveness
was organized by the Croatian Competitiveness Council and USAID, with the
logistical support of World Learning, on November 8-9, 2003.
The theme of the workshop was increasing the competitiveness of the
Croatian economy. Discussion was concentrated on three key themes. These
themes were also the themes of the roundtable. The first theme was
elections as a means for starting reforms. As part of this discussion,
several Croatian parliamentary parties explained their economic programs,
with special emphasis on raising the competitiveness of the economy. The
second theme was the role of the media in the implementation of reform,
where participants discussed whether the media provide support or create
barriers to the implementation of sometimes painful economic changes. The
last theme was Croatia on the road to the European Union. The starting
question in the discussion was to what extent EU accession is a matter of
successful propaganda and lobbying, and to what extent it is a difficult
and demanding set of tasks.
Editors and commentators from the most influential media outlets
participated equally in the roundtable along with members of the Executive
Branch and political parties, as well as Croatian business leaders from
the business world and the National Competitiveness Council,
The aim of the media workshop was to stimulate open, concrete public
discussion about problems of competitiveness and to popularize the concept
of competitiveness as a platform for discussion of the broad problems of
economic and social development. The organizers hope that the media
workshop will contribute to building a broader national consensus about
the need to work to increase the competitiveness of the economy as the
only path to more rapid development of the country and to reaching higher
living standards.
During the two day workshop, the National Competitiveness Council
presented its analysis of the position of Croatia in the World
Competitiveness Report for 2003-2004. Also, the Croatian Competitiveness
Initiative presented the latest results for its work on wood and tourism
clusters, as well as several projects to speed-up local development.
Thirty journalists participated in the media workshop. They rated the
program and organization very highly. The first results of the workshop
were visible in the first set of media reports following the workshop.
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Croatian
Business Leaders Visit the European Commission
Brussels,
October 28-29 2003—Croatian business leaders Ivica Mudrinić, Željko Čović,
Ake Enell, Darko Marinac, Ljerka Puljić, Emil Tedeschi and Ernest Tolj,
accompanied a delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by
Minister Tonino Picula, and Croatian National Bank Deputy Governor Boris
Vujčić to present Croatia in Brussels.
The Croatian business leaders, along with Deputy Governor Vujčić held a
presentation to the European Commission, members of the EU and the media.
They discussed Croatia's competitiveness, monetary policy and the
financial system, entrepreneurship, the Croatian economy in a regional
context, the influence of candidacy for EU membership on the future
development of Croatia, the economic future of Croatia and other actual
topics.
Željko
Čović presented the work of the National Competitiveness Council and the
main findings of the «Annual Report on Croatian Competitiveness 2002.»
The Croatian delegation also met with Guenter Verheugen, European
Representative for EU Enlargement.
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JOINT
SESSION WITH MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT
On Wednesday, October 10, the Government of the Republic of Croatia and
the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) held a joint meeting. Members
of the NCC presented the main findings of the "Annual Report on Croatian
Competitiveness 2002", and briefed members of the Government on the work
of the NCC from mid-2002 to the present.
In his presentation of the findings in the Annual Report, Mr. Željko
Čović, President of the NCC, put special emphasis on the long list of
problems that have caused Croatia's competitiveness to lag behind the
competitiveness of other transition countries in the region. He emphasized
that the problem of the competitiveness of Croatia is fundamentally the
problem of its productivity and the problem of its weak internal and
external competitiveness. The main causes of this are: a high tax burden,
high costs of doing business and high foreign debt, the ineffectiveness of
public administration and the courts, technological backwardness, and the
failure of the education system to meet the present and future needs of
the economy.
At the same time, he mentioned that during the next five months, the NCC
will prepare recommendations for improving competitiveness in seven
priority areas that are seen as key for sustainable long-term growth and
development of Croatia: education, rule of law, innovation and
technological development, regional development and clusters, the
development of small and medium enterprises, price and cost
competitiveness and leadership.
During the discussion, the value of the NCC's methods of work was
emphasized. This value emerges from the fact that the NCC's work is based
on developing dialogue and awareness among four key social actors and the
fact that it builds partnership and consensus on key questions relating to
the development of Croatia.
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Symposium: "Building competitiveness-challenges
of EU accession"
Zagreb, September 30, 2003
The Roland Berger Symposium "How to build Croatia's
competitiveness—challenges of European Union Accession" was held in Zagreb
on September 30. The seminar was organized by Roland Berger Strategy
Consultants, the Croatian-Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the Croatian
Employers' Association and the National Competitiveness Council.
The seminar brought together 230 renowned domestic and foreign
participants, including political, diplomatic and business leaders.
Mr.
Željko Čović, Management Board President and CEO of PLIVA and President of
the National Competitiveness Council, and Mr. Roland Berger, founder and
President of the Supervisory Board of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants,
made presentations. In his presentation, Mr. Čović discussed the
activities of the National Competitiveness Council, the main findings of
the "Annual Report on Croatian Competitiveness
2002" and the Council's development priorities.
Željko Čović's presentation
"The Competitiveness of Croatia—the necessity
of change" 30-09-03 (pdf)
Mr. Berger reported on the status of the Croatian economy in an
international context, and present ten theses for strengthening the
Croatian economy.
Roland Berger's presentation "The Competitiveness of Croatia—challenges of
EU Accession" 30-09-03 (pdf)
Also
participating in the discussion where Ivica Mudrinić, President of the
Management Board of Croatian Telecom and President of the Croatian
Employers' Association, Mrs. Višnja Samadržija, assistant Minister for
European Integration and Mr. Georg Doppelhofer, President of the
Croatian-Austrian Chamber of Commerce and President of the Management
Board of Raiffeisenlandesbank Steiermark. The program was moderated by Mr.
Roland Farb, Managing Partner of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants for
Austria and Eastern Europe.
hrvatski
