Croatia: An Odyssey of European Success

We from Bearing have been actively involved with projects in Croatia since 2012, before the country’s ascension to the European Union on the 1st July 2013. Given our long experience of working with innovation, integrated projects and European Union funding, we were invited to provide support and expertise in getting the country ready for EU funding by running a Government conference for the Ministries in 2012.

With this article, I want to summarize our work in the country in the past two years.

At the end of 2014 we have not only opened an office in the capital city of Zagreb but we have also successfully delivered projects across the entire country, including Pula in the West, Vukovar in the East, Ston in the South and Zagreb itself. Our clients have included the Ministries, key cities and regional authorities.

2015 will be no less busy for us as we continue to expand our local team in Zagreb and build even stronger links with clients old and new.

During 2013-2014 Bearing has been working on the following studies and projects in Croatia:

• Study for the Ministry of Tourism on the potential to establish franchise models for creating networks of Croatian historic castles and mansions;
• Pre-feasibility study for the Ministry of Tourism on development potential of the Vukovar area with the aim to prepare for a potential integrated project related to the cultural and touristic assets of the region, the regional airport, the proximity to Danube river and the potential to package such assets in a brand for rural tourism in collaboration with Adriatica.net.
• Pre-feasibility study for the Ministry of Tourism on the development of the potential of Pula Kulturring, with the aim to prepare for a potential integrated project related to Pula, building on the cultural awareness and tourism opportunities of the historic Kulturring .
• Pre-feasibility study for the town of Solin and the Ministry of Culture planning for an integrated project focusing on Salona Archaeological Park and the Split bay area;
• Pre-feasibility study for integrated project for the Southern Dalmatia region, focusing on the cultural heritage of Ston and the development potential of the    Pelješac peninsula;
• Pre-feasibility study for the City of Zagreb for developing the innovation platform that would include many initiatives of innovation in Zagreb such as Borongaj campus, Zagreb Fair, University for engineering and computers etc to contribute the development of the City of Zagreb in general.
• Pre-feasibility study for Zagreb Holding for planning the future programing of the Zagreb fair area as an innovation district, in the scope of different funding possibilities including the EU structural funding.
• Pre-feasibility study and feasibility study for the town of Opatija focusing on the cultural heritage and possibility to develop new infrastructure assets.

At the moment, we are preparing to start a new batch of projects. The first we will start to work on in January 2015 will be a feasibility study for the city of Pula, for the Pula Kulturring development. We will present more about this new project here on the Bearing Wave in a few days.