Croatian Economy Minister, Darko Horvat, met with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen on Tuesday in Zagreb for talks on ways to enhance the economic cooperation between the two countries, which also included the signing of a joint cooperation declaration by their ministries.

Horvat and Cohen said that the two countries enjoy good and friendly relations, the Croatian economy ministry said in a press release, adding that the meeting focused on sharing experience in digital transformation, which Israel has carried out, as well as the transfer of know-how regarding artificial intelligence.

Cohen said that the economic cooperation indicators were good, but added that there was plenty of room to increase them.

The potential for that lies in joint applications by the two countries’ companies for research and development projects through the EUREKA, Eurostars, and Horizon 2020 programmes, in which Israel is very active, the economy ministry said.

Horvat said Croatia would build several competency centres over the next decade and that Israel’s experience would be very helpful in building them and organising them.

The two ministers agreed it is necessary to acquaint Israeli companies with the advantages of Croatia’s market in order to encourage their investments in Croatia, as well as to support Croatian companies in Israel’s market in order to boost economic cooperation.

Cohen invited Horvat to visit Israel with a business delegation to learn more about the its innovation centres and the creation of Israel’s innovation network.

Cohen and Horvat then signed a joint declaration aimed at advancing economic, business and technology cooperation. They also discussed the need for the two countries to cooperate in joint research and development projects, and to promote cooperation and exchange of information in information technology and digitalisation, the ministry said.

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