Ambassador Drago štambuk´s preface, JOI Magazine, Sept. 2007
When Japanese companies started investing in Central and Eastern Europe in early 90's, there was a war against Croatia, and due to that unfortunate circumstances my country was overlooked by Japanese companies and became so the missing link in the chain of Japanese investments in our region. However, more than 10 years after the war the situation has completely changed, and today's Croatia is politically and economically stable, prosperous country, peaceful and secure.
Ambassador Drago štambuk´s preface, JOI Magazine, Sept. 2007
When Japanese companies started investing in Central and Eastern Europe in early 90's, there was a war against Croatia, and due to that unfortunate circumstances my country was overlooked by Japanese companies and became so the missing link in the chain of Japanese investments in our region. However, more than 10 years after the war the situation has completely changed, and today's Croatia is politically and economically stable, prosperous country, peaceful and secure. Actually, Zagreb, the administrative and business capital of Croatia, is renowned for having the lowest crime rate in Europe. The beginning of accession negotiations for European Union in 2005 only proves the stability of Croatia, beautiful and proud country, making big steps towards membership in NATO in 2008 and EU in 2009.
Though Japan and Croatia are geographically quite distant, Croatia is nearer to Japan than one may think. In fact, the Port of Rijeka makes Croatia the nearest country to the sites of Japanese investments in Central and Eastern Europe when heading towards them from Japan by the sea and through Suez Canal. The Port of Rijeka, which is now under Kajima's reconstruction and will be completed by the May 2009, being the deepest port in Adriatic and with state-of-the-art facilities - offers the swiftest way of transport of goods from Japan to subsidiaries of Japanese companies in Central and Eastern European region. The modern highways recently opened for traffic and the new railway Rijeka-Botovo (heading to Budapest), to be completed in 2012, will turn Croatia from a missing link into a strong link. If Japan was not too far away in the Middle Ages for Marko Polo, native of the Croatian island of Korcula, why should it be far for you, Japanese businessmen, today?
One thing that should be particularly stressed is that Croatia and Japan, both maritime and island nations, are very close emotionally, through deep appreciation of nature and tradition. Even though business relations between Croatia and Japan have not jet been fully developed, our two countries are strongly linked through culture and sports. I would just like to mention that Japanese haiku poetry is extremely popular in Croatia, with Croatian haiku poets taking home the most prizes at international haiku competitions. There are also many Croats widely known in Japan through their sport activity – Ivica Osim, Croat from Bosnia, is the coach of Japan national soccer team, Mario Amižic, the coach of Japanese national table tennis junior male team won the World Championship last year, and not to mention Mirko Filipovic “Cro Cop”, extremely popular Ultimate fighter and Pride winner. Moreover, Japanese studies have been recently introduced at the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy, and in a few years from now on, Japanese investors will have Japanese speakers at their disposal.
Croatia is not the country which offers the cheapest labour force. However, it should be stressed that Croatia offers highly qualified, multilingual and above all innovative and creative working force. Last year we have celebrated 150th birthday of our great son, scientist and innovator Nikola Tesla, the genius who invented, among many other things, the alternating electric current and set foundations for wireless communication and transmission of energy. He is more and more regarded to be Leonardo da Vinci of New Age, with his 750 patents in the field of electricity and magnetism, of which are many still untapped but futuristic in outlook. The Tesla's successor, young Croatian physicist Marin Soljacic has just succeeded with his team at MIT to transmit energy through space. MIT team led by professor Soljacic generated electric current between two induction coils 2 meters apart – and the light bulb lit up!
Croatia is determined to become the knowledge based society, and in this respect it puts great emphasis on education, which will be demonstrated by introduction of obligatory high-school education in the very near future.
With its 6 UNESCO sites, 8 National Parks and 11 Parks of Nature, with Dubrovnik, the Pearl of Adriatic of which Bernard Shaw once said: “Those who seek the paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik”, with famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau's referring to the Croatian Adriatic as the world's most beautiful sea – inside and outside, Croatia is indeed the window to beauty. However, Croatia is also the window to business and investment opportunities.
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