Club of Exporters meeting on Ericsson Nikola Tesla premises in Osijek

On 30 October, Ericsson Nikola Tesla’s Research and Development Center in Osijek hosted Lider’s Club of Exporters. This is a traditional meeting of Croatian exporters and it was held for the 29th time. There were approximately thirty distinguished exporters, including Ericsson Nikola Tesla, a company which occupies a special place due to the fact that it is Croatia’s largest exporter of knowledge.

Gordana Kovačević, president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, welcomed the guests into our new premises. At the meeting were present as well County Prefect of Osijek-Baranja County Mr Ivan Anušić, Mayor of Osijek Mr Ivica Vrkić, and Mr Ignac Lovrek, PhD, a member of Ericsson Nikola Tesla’s Supervisory Board, who made his contribution to the event. The main message of this meeting was that a more favorable export climate needs to be created, which ultimately implies a bigger number of exporters with better results, which is especially important from the aspect of the growth of Croatia’s GDP. During the discussion, the participants indicated positive examples of support being provided to the exporters through collaboration with institutions (HBOR, ministries, public administration, local government, etc.) as well as different legal possibilities (e.g. Investment Promotion Act) and the reduction of parafiscal charges, and tax relief.  

Businessmen believe that exporters could be indirectly supported in various ways, such as lowering profit tax (Miodrag Šajatović, editor-in-chief of Lider) or, as pointed out by Ms Gordana Kovačević, income tax. As an example, Ms Kovačević mentioned Romania, where for a defined period of time for the employees in the IT industry income tax was minimized. Ms Kovačević also pointed out that there are examples of excellent collaboration with civil servants from public administration, such as the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Education as well as CFCA, with whom we collaborated on our projects.

Mario Antonić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, announced that in the next year Croatian Government plans to strengthen economic growth through investments, innovations and digitization, and has the goal of earmarking 1.5 percent of GDP for research and development by 2020. In the EU, the average today is slightly over two percent, and the goal is three percent. Preparations for a strategy for the development of digital economy are under way, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, which will make Croatia one of the countries that will develop this technology.

The meeting in Osijek ended with a tour of our Center and a conversation with our employees.

Communications Ericsson Nikola Tesla