The 8th International Investment Projects Fair REXPO 2019 opened its doors today bringing together numerous foreign and domestic investors, experts and businessmen and more than 500 visitors.

The fair was inaugurated by the Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković who highlighted in his speech the most important investments in transport and maritime infrastructure and announced the major investments in railway infrastructure.

– Since railways have been overlooked for years, today they represent the greatest part in the investment cycle.  Unfortunately, we were not able to build highways and railways at the same time, but the plan is to invest 3.5 billion Euro in the rail system and infrastructure by 2030, primarily on two corridors. The Mediterranean corridor, which has already got active investments and the second one is Zagreb that should be connected to a two-lane modern railway to the Hungarian border by 2022. On the other hand, we have the former tenth corridor to the east being at the stage of preparation for the next operational period, said Minister Butković.
The Minister also referred to the construction of the Pelješac Bridge and added that the construction has been proceeding in the right direction, but it would be necessary to change the law on public procurement in order to make the implementation process of such projects faster and more dynamic. He also referred to maritime infrastructure and ongoing works down the coast.
– We have launched a major investment cycle for investments in maritime and port infrastructure. We have 100 million Euro at our disposal and have already allocated most of these funds. These investments mostly refer to seaports, breakwaters and waterfronts on islands and coastal areas, Minister Butković added.

The reconstruction of ACI Marina Rovinj was the winner of this year’s “REXPO 2019 Best New Investment Award”, and the award was presented to Kristijan Pavić, the CEO of ACI,  by Minister Oleg Butković.

Galerija

The ceremony was attended also by the State Secretary Zdenko Lucić from the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts.

The first day of the fair was marked by interesting panel debates – the panel entitled “Barometer of Financing in the 2019 Real Estate Market” aroused great interest among the visitors.

The “2019 Property Landing Barometer” survey by the company KPMG was presented at the beginning and pointed out the trends in real estate investment. The results have shown that Croatia has the highest share of investments in tourism infrastructure and the same is expected for the year 2020.
Besides, the importance of Croatia joining the Schengen area was brought up as it would make Croatia much more attractive for the foreign investors. The final and common conclusion is that Croatia can and must be optimistic about future investments.