There are 70,000 women entrepreneurs in Croatia but the government and institutions do not care about their needs, with strategies for the development of women's entrepreneurship remaining a dead letter, two associations have said on the occasion of Women's Entrepreneurship Day, November 19.

The Voice of Entrepreneurs and Women in Adria associations said in a press release on Thursday that at the end of 2019, there were close to 70,000 businesses run by women – 30,617 trades and crafts, 28,100 companies and 10,811 companies jointly owned by women and men.

Women have been increasingly inclined to start their own business, the associations say, noting that the number of businesses run by women is the highest in the City of Zagreb and Zagreb, Istria, Split-Dalmatia and Primorje-Gorski Kotar counties.

As for the type of business, women mostly run businesses providing consulting services such as law, accounting, public relations, marketing, architecture, design and translation. Those services are followed by services in the beauty and trade sector, provision of accommodation and food preparation, the two associations say.

They note that Croatia did have a strategy for the development of women’s entrepreneurship for the period from 2014 to 2020 but that it did not result in any concrete action and that no state institution is in charge of businesses run by women.

Ivana Matic, director of the Women in Adria business network, said that businesswomen were untapped economic potential.

“Our country does not have enough people and we must make it easier for women to work and make money instead of letting politicians compete in who will make it easier for women to be just stay-at-home moms. We must forget about that scenario for the next 50 years because there is no money for that,” said Matic.