PM: Measures to attract investment won't be radical but resolute

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Wednesday that the measures aimed at attracting foreign investment would not be radical but resolute, noting that he could not force anyone to invest in Croatia.

"The measures will not be radical but they should be resolute," Milanovic said when asked by the press what were the radical new measures to attract foreign investment that would be discussed in the Cabinet office today at the invitation of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister, Vesna Pusic.

"The measures will include attractive tax arrangements, the law on strategic investment is already in place, because we need to make ourselves popular with investors, but we cannot force anyone to come here," the prime minister said. Responding to a reporter's remark that all this was already in place, Milanovic said: "The only other thing we can do is to abolish taxes and we cannot do that."

Milanovic also commented on proposed plans by the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), for investment in agriculture and energy. "We are doing all that, but that is not an economic programme. It's nothing but pretence. An economic programme is a concept, a tax policy, a budget policy, a budget deficit and deficit sustainability. We haven't heard a word about that and we never will, not today and not tomorrow, because they don't know what to say and they have no solution for that. And those stories about drilling tunnels under the Adriatic are not even funny any more," he said.

(Hina)



News