The government established the steering committee in September last year to coordinate the preparation and monitor the implementation of the Croatian National Development Strategy until 2030. The committee comprises the prime minister and all cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, representatives from the Office of the President, the associations of counties, cities, municipalities, the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK), unions, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU).
Zalac said that a decision had been adopted at today's meeting to embark on the process of preparing the strategy. She quoted Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic as saying that "this is a document of all of us, the entire Croatian public."
The strategy will be a document that will for the first time define priorities, measures and goals that Croatia wants to achieve by 2030.
Based on that document, she added, the Croatian share of the EU financial perspective will for the first time be programmed on time. That means that we will incorporate all that is set in the strategy into the new operational programme for the use of EU funds.
She added that currently there were 200 national strategic documents and more than 1,700 local and regional strategic documents which made it impossible to manage.
"We believe that with the law on strategic planning and development management and this national development strategy the government will ensure for the first time that we know exactly what sort of Croatia we want and what our priorities are. The most important thing is that these priorities have to be based in the national and the European budget so that development projects can find their place in the future period," Zalac said and added that political consensus would be required in parliament to adopt the strategy.
Asked to name some of the key projects, Zalac said that priorities would be defined in cooperation with stakeholders in development at the local and regional level and through two large development forums and seven workshops around the country and these primarily relate to food, bio-chemistry, security, health, environment and broader topics related to various sectors whereas horizontal topics would be related to the macroeconomy and the national reforms programme.
"There are a lot of documents that have to be mutually aligned and evaluated, but the key is the implementation of what we have set ourselves," she said.
Text: Hina