Interview with H.E. Dr. Drago štambuk, Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Japan, for Croatian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency Newsletter
Dear Mr. Ambassador, in your opinion do Japanese people know enough about Croatia and are they getting enough information about our country?
Generally speaking, there is never enough information. There is always room for more information. But recently, Croatian Embassy worked hard on promoting Croatia and its ways to the broader Japanese public – via articles in Japanese daily newspapers, promotional materials created in cooperation with the Japanese touristic Agencies, interviews for magazines as well as live appearances in documentary programs. Also, we must underline numerous traveling programs on Croatia broadcasted last year which generated great interest in Japanese public. We believe that the Croatian Embassy's activities contributed in one part to the JAL and JTB's four direct charter flights to Zagreb and Dubrovnik last year. This year the number of charter lines will be doubled. The Croatia became “in tourist destination” in Japan today. On the economic level, the Embassy keeps constant contacts with Japanese business people and Japanese companies, presenting investment opportunities in Croatia. Furthermore, we believe that the recent official visit of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Mr. Stjepan Mesic, and his meetings with the Emperor and the Prime Minister held on the highest protocol level, gave clear signal to the business people about desirable cooperation with Croatia. This is very important when taking in account Japanese mentality. These meetings strongly encourage Japanese companies to enter Croatia. Business people in Japan need to be constantly reminded that Croatia is stable and safe for business despite of recent turmoil in the South-Eastern Europe, and on its way towards the entrance to the European Union and NATO. For the Japanese investors, political stability and safety are important prerequisites for considering a country for investment destination.
Also we would like to know is there in your experience interest in Japanese companies to invest in Croatia and do they consider as an attractive location for doing business?
Japanese interest in FDI is constant. It is only a question of opportunities offered and a judgment of profitability that it brings. I must notice that in the past two years Croatia has, finally, and greatly due to many efforts of the Croatian Embassy, entered into the sight of Japanese investors. It must be said that Japan is like a large ship that relatively slowly changes its course and therefore patience is needed not only to change its course towards Croatian waters but also to sail its way towards the Croatian shores and ports. The decision making process of large Japanese companies generally take direction from the bottom to the top. The ideas are usually generated and initiated on the middle and lower managerial level to be passed trough the official and unofficial channels to the higher managers for their consideration. It is this decision making system what makes large Japanese companies distinct from other companies in the world. Such decision making system is in deed long-lasting due to the fact that big decisions require consensus of all levels included in the process. But once the decision has been made, realization of projects is extremely fast.
Could you tell us how do you see Croatia, and what are our main advantages and disadvantages in the field of attracting foreign direct investments?
Some of the comparative advantages of Croatia are definitively its quality and innovative labor force, extremely favorable geographical position (especially from the point of sea transport from Japan to the Middle and Eastern European countries where the most of the Japanese companies have their foreign headquarters and factories). Other advantages are good infrastructure and political stability. Our disadvantages could be found in occasional superficiality, lack of persistency (we would very much like to Japanese to make their decision right away and it does not work that way) and interest (we find Japan to be far away country with unfamiliar and complicated business habits). I firmly believe that these disadvantages can be partially removed by persistent education and information flow of Croatian business subjects on how Japanese companies work and what are their business customs. Until today, Japan recognized slowness of administration and insufficient transparency as on of the big problems when opening a business in Croatia. HITRO.HR services, I find, solved this problem. As I already mentioned, in recent few years, with the assistance of our Embassy, Japan identified Croatian political and business coordinates, became aware of our existence on the map of the world, and partially recognized our mutual emotional and business compatibility and similarity as well as the business potential between the two countries. Our doing business together is now only the matter of when and how to implement and seize this opportunities. It is upon Croatia and it is of interest of Croatia to help Japan in this matter.
In which sectors do you think Croatia and Japan can cooperate best?
We would stress several sectors in which the cooperation between Japan and Croatia is possible: value added projects in the field of R&D, ICT and business technologies understanding highly qualified, professional and expert working force. Furthermore, Croatia's geographical position, its ports, excellently positioned for sea transport from Asian countries to Middle and South-Eastern Europe as I tell repeatedly to the leading Japanese business people, add to the attractiveness of Croatia when compared to other countries from the Region. Still, Croatia has a lot to work on to simplify administrative procedures for cargo transit. I find that the reconstruction of the rail road Rijeka-Zagreb-Botovo is one of the preconditions for using full potential of the Port of Rijeka as the deepest Adriatic port. Unfortunately, there are still many problems related to the reconstruction of Port of Rijeka that significantly slowdown the process itself and our efforts to present it to the Japanese business community in its full potential.
And for the end how would you describe the Embassy's relationship with the Croatian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency?
The Croatian Embassy recently cooperates intensely and closely with the Croatian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, mainly in information transfer and strategy planning regarding the investment potential as well as in the organization of investment seminars (there were two seminars organized in Tokyo in the past year). It is known that there are still no Japanese investments in production. I find it necessary to continue existing cooperation between the Embassy and the Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, extending it to other relevant institutions such as the Ministry of Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship, and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce in order to promote more systematically Croatian investment opportunities to Japanese. I must say that I am an optimist, since the number of Japanese companies interested in Croatia and the companies that have visited Croatia is growing significantly, giving us hope that some of their projects will be realized.
General opinion of the Japanese businesspeople that recently come back from Croatia is also significantly improving in favor of Croatia. It is therefore to expect the realization phase to begun. Croatian export to Japan is increasing as well. Today in Japan you can buy Croatian bottled waters Jana and Jamnica. We are expecting to be able to soon find Vegeta and Maraschino on Japanese shelves. I advised Japanese side to advertise Maraschino as a “Sakura drink from Croatia”. The Japanese people are known for their love of the wild cherry blossom, so called “sakura”. I introduced our Dalmatian Maraska cherry to them as a distant cousin of their cherry, and the drink produced from its fruits as a good given potion that can become extremely popular amongst numerous devotees of the Japanese cherry blossom.
Dr. Drago štambuk
Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Japan
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