The specialist business publication fDi Magazine published by the Financial Times, which covers global investment trends, ranked the northern Croatian region of Međimurje 7th in the world for regions of its size in terms of the quality of its investment attraction strategy.

In the report, Međimurje was grouped with 145 other small regions in the world with a population of 1.5 million or less.

County Prefect, Matija Posavec, said on Thursday (March 1) that such recognition came as a result of many years of local administration’s efforts to attract investments and improve a business-friendly environment.

“We are the only county which had a bigger GDP in 2014 than in 2008, and during that period we also recorded the biggest increase in average salary in the country,” Posavec said.

Međimurje also has a positive external trade balance with its exports double the amount of it imports. In the past four years some 2,500 new jobs have been created, Posavec said, in the tiny region north of Zagreb with only 113,000 people.

According to fDi Magazine’s criteria, the region around Helsinki in Finland topped the list.