The modest €2 billion of foreign investments registered in 2017 do not reflect Croatia’s potential, senior official at the Economy Ministry Mario Antonic said on Wednesday at an international conference on potential and reality of investments in Zagreb.

Changes are necessary to attract more foreign investments in Croatia. However, they are either to slow or non-existent.

Croatia’s potential is great, but the reality does not reflect that, said Mladen Fogec, head of the Foreign Investors Council Croatia, which co-organised the conference with Deloitte Croatia.

Foreign investors prefer countries with a well-organised and efficient judicial system, deputy head of European Commissions unit for judicial systems Niovi Ringou said, adding that investments are higher in countries where the judicial system guarantees the rule of law.

Antonic said that in the past two years, a set of initiatives has been launched to reduce or abolish para fiscal levies, and that some of the results are already noticeable.

With necessary changes, foreign investments could rise two or even threefold, he said.

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