Economy Minister Darko Horvat said on Monday that 114 million kuna (€15 million) had been contracted to date in grants for projects by private entrepreneurs and institutions in the eastern town of Vukovar and Vukovar-Srijem County and that more projects were in the pipeline.

Speaking to the press in Vukovar after a meeting of the Council for Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem, Horvat said a 634 million kuna (€85 million) tender had been advertised for new and innovative ideas and that an IRI 2 tender worth 770 million kuna (€103 million) would be advertised this week or the next.

There will also be a tender for linking micro, small and medium enterprises with big companies for which 100 million kuna (€13 million) has been earmarked, and 300 million (€40 million) has been earmarked for industry, which will facilitate the integration of new technologies in Croatia, Horvat said.

Asked about the situation in the ailing Djuro Djakovic company, he said there would be no bankruptcy and that workers would get their wages for October this week. “We are trying to secure interim financing, which will not be a classic loan, so that active contracts can be fulfilled. We will use the money from those contracts to return the loan and the rest would be for Djuro Djakovic’s solvency.”

Horvat went on to say that the Vukovar mayor made no criticism of the government at today’s meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the ministers. “We had a very constructive meeting which discussed a new project and investment worth €30 million to convert Vukovar’s Lav hotel into a new hotel, one in a chain of six currently under construction.”

(€1 = 7.43 kuna)