Healy Consultants says Croatia’s business climate is slowly improving

Jan. 20, 2016 - PRLog -- Croatia is a small and complex market, but the country plays an important role in the economic and political stability of Southeast Europe; a region representing a market of roughly 60 million inhabitants and over $600 billion in GDP.

The country has a growing number of vibrant, innovative entrepreneurs leading small and medium sized, sophisticated, and internationally competitive companies across many industry sectors in Croatia.

During the recently concluded Eastern Europe Investment Summit, a leading local businessman Emil Tedeschi stated that Croatia's poor business climate had begun to improve in recent years although the Government is still too timid about making needed reforms to spur investment and growth.

"The level of grey economy has been reduced. I can say from our own example of a factory in eastern Croatia that the process of issuing licences has become faster and the overall change in business climate has become evident," said Tedeschi, the majority owner of Atlantic Grupa.

"The authorities have shown improvement in fiscal sector and overall discipline but have yet to show courage and introduce achievement-based rewarding in the administration, to make it proactive and more business-friendly. Also, we still have too many non-tax fees burdening the businesses," he added.

In the 2015 Doing Business report by World Bank, Croatia improved the most globally in the area of dealing with construction permits by reducing the requirements and fees for building permits and carrying out the final building inspection more promptly.

Other improvements in the recent past include the reduction of the notary fees that has in consequence made starting a business in Croatia easier. Additionally Croatia made trading across borders easier by implementing a new electronic customs system.

Having gained EU Accession just recently in 2013, Croatia is significantly growing in its integration process into the European Union continues. The local populous continue to strive to achieve the lifestyle of the more developed Western European countries that have three to four times higher GDP per capita.

"In the last two or three years we have witnessed an evident reduction of illegal business practices like tax evasion or corruption" concluded Tedeschi.

Healy Consultants is a professional corporate services provider headquartered in Singapore and with a presence in Croatia since the year 2003. The company aides global entrepreneurs looking to establish their international businesses in different sectors of the economy with, among others, company registration, tax and vat registration, assistance with obtaining business licenses and official business addresses, opening a corporate and merchant bank account and obtaining work or residence visas.