Efficiency and rationality will be crucial in dealing with the fallout of the coronavirus epidemic, given the limited resources that will be available in the time ahead, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.

“Efficiency must be the first and basic criterion for all our further actions. Rapid response and adjustment to new situations and business conditions will differentiate those who are successful from those less successful, not just in the enterprise sector but in the public sector as well,” Maric told Vecernji List.

He said that the present crisis had revealed the necessity to change the structure of the Croatian economy, which currently has a relatively low share of industry and a large share of the services sector in added value and is considerably dependent on imports.

“The national economy will need to be transformed to make it more export-oriented and to better utilise our comparative advantages. This crisis has shown the importance of agriculture and the food industry in securing sufficient supplies for our population because in the event of transport disruptions and closure of the borders it is extremely important to have sufficient amounts of food from domestic sources. It has also shown the importance of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, including the production of medicines, protective agents and medical equipment,” the finance minister said.

Maric said that the IT industry and digitisation had turned out to be very important because they made it possible for all the measures, both epidemiological and economic ones, to be implemented quickly and effectively, and the industry’s adaptability allowed both the private and the public sector to adapt to teleworking relatively painlessly.

“These examples show the direction in which way the future economic strategy and economic policy measures should be going,” Maric concluded.