Innovations: What are you impressions about Ukraine and its potential to growth?
Zhelko Kirinchich: First thing: this country has a tremendous potential. But sometimes we foreigners can find some things better than people who live here. And the same thing for me is in Croatia. I always like to hear when somebody else is saying about Croatia. Maybe you have a bigger chance to be objective.
I: What are the differences between Ukraine and Croatia if talk about business?
Zh.K.: The difference is very big because we are a small country. We have 57 thousand square kilometers and the number of population is about 4,5 mln people. Kiev area is half of the Croatia – 29 thousands.
The other thing is that have very specific economy. In the time of former Yugoslavia we had a very strong industrial base in Croatia. We have long traditions of the crafts, processing industry, machinery, etc. It was quite strong economy at that time, because of the well positioning especially on the former Soviet Union market. After the transition was started some of the industries simply disappeared because the market disappeared, and the system was totally different.
One more difference is that the impact of tourism sector in our country is much higher than in Ukraine. The biggest individual income we have in our country is one from tourism and services. It amounts to 70% of our GDP.
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21.09.07
