Diplomacy & Commerce 25

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September 2020 | ISSUE No. 25 | ONLINE EDITION

26 AUG

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SECTORS THREATENED

BY THE PANDEMIC CAN RECEPTION FOR THE REPRESENTATIVES COUNT ON HELP

OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS

TOMISLAV ĆORIĆ PhD

Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development in the Government of the Republic of Croatia

20 YEARS OF ASTRA ZENECA IN CROATIA DAMIR NEVJESTIĆ

Country Director Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina

SWEDISH MODEL OF SUCCESS

NEW ERA OF CONNECTION

SWEDEN SHARES THE SAME GOALS AS ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES

CEO of Arctic Business Incubator

Group CEO, Quintesentially

Ambassador of Sweden to Croatia

JENS LUNSTRÖM

LEAD-GRAY SEA ANDPINECOLOURED SKY Reportage by Robert Čoban

ANNASTASIA SEEBOHM

BRITAIN THREATENS TO FLOUT INTERNATIONAL LAW

H.E. DIANA HELEN MADUNIC

FOREWORD

The Pillars of Society 2020 joined the tsunami that brought Covid19 – it relativized even more the ethical norms that up until a few years ago global politicians, religious leaders and reputable businessmen followed, at least formally.

While we wait for the Georg Grosz of the 21st century, we are left to hope that these “pillars of society” in our reality will not lead to another 1933.

ROBERT ČOBAN

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Director

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henever I open the newspaper or watch the news – I often think of Georg Grosz (1893-1959), famous German painter whose canvases best describe the atmosphere of the Weimar Republic, Germany in 1920s, everything that eventually lead to 1933 and the Hitler’s arrival to power. Grosz’s painting “The Pillars of Society” (1926) depicts politicians, tycoons, newspaper publishers, generals and priests working together towards the same goal – taking money from the people.

Almost an entire century later, I would like to add to his

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BOBAN SPASOJEVIĆ

Magazine Director Croatia boban@diplomacy andcommerce.hr

ILIJA PETROVIĆ INDIGOCHILD

Art director indigochild.ilija@gmail.com

ALEKSANDAR KOSTIĆ

Designer designamites@gmail.com

ROBERT ČOBAN

Director Photos

painting a politically correct NGO activist “fighting” for the “open society”, minority or animal rights, but is no better than the general, the priest or the tycoon. We can see scenes from Grosz's paintings today at press conferences with the leaders of some countries, who until yesterday were proud of being "the land of the free and the home of the brave", of being the cradle of parliamentarism and modern democracy.

The wave of populism that overwhelmed us in 2016 and mixed itself with the flood of fake news phenomenon - in

GETTY IMAGES TOMISLAV SMOLJANOVIĆ

Translation GORANKA MILOŠEVIĆ

Print ZLATNA KNJIGA Jagodina Bagrdanski put bb Predstavnik za RH

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BRITAIN THREATENS TO FLOUT INTERNATIONAL LAW Brexit and international law

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DAMIR NEVJESTIĆ Country Director Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina at AstraZeneca

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Laissez-faire at its worst

NEW ERA OF CONNECTION

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TOMISLAV ĆORIĆ PHD Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development in the Government of the Republic of Croatia

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SWEDEN SHARES THE SAME GOALS AS ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES H.E. DIANA HELEN MADUNIC

CIP - Katalogizacija u publikaciji Biblioteke Matice Srpske, Novi Sad 33 Diplomacy & Commerce / glavni i odgovorni urednik Žikica Milošević, 2016, br. 1 (mart)-.Novi Sad: Color Media Communications, 2016 - , -33cm Mesečno.

ISSN 2466-3808 = Diplomacy & Commerce COBISS.SR-ID 303269895

20 YEARS OF ASTRA ZENECA IN CROATIA

THE DOOMSDAY COMES FROM BRAZIL

SECTORS THREATENED BY THE PANDEMIC CAN COUNT ON HELP

”Color Media Communications” LTD, 21132 Petrovaradin, Štrosmajerova 3 TIN 107871532 Matriculation number 20887303 Phone: +381 21 4897 100 Fax: +381 21 4897 126 Office: Vase Čarapića 3/IV/38, Belgrade Phone: 011 4044 960

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Ambassador of Sweden to Croatia

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SWEDISH MODEL OF SUCCESS JENS LUNSTRÖM CEO of Arctic Business Incubator

ANNASTASIA SEEBOHM

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DATA SCIENCE AND THE ART OF PERSUASION JAGODA POROPAT DARRER Business Communication Professional

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AMID A BRUTAL CONTRACTION, CORPORATE GERMANY ASSESSES THE DAMAGE

Group CEO, Quintesentially

The biggest slump in 50 years

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PEOPLE & EVENTS

MANIPULATION OR COMMUNICATION

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DANIJEL KOLETIĆ

BUSINESS NEWS

22 VIRTUAL LAWYERING - ONLINE MEDIATION IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS PETAR PETRIĆ Attorney at Law, Petrić & Kajić Law Firm LLC, M ediator and Mediation Trainer

Apriori World

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LEAD-GRAY SEA AND PINECOLOURED SKY Reportague by RObert Čoban

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WHY DEMOCRACY THRIVES IN SOME PLACES AND NOT IN OTHERS Beginner’s luck

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BREXIT AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

Britain Threatens to Flout International Law Boris Johnson’s readiness to break a treaty as a negotiating tactic is both foolish and dangerous t is staggering to see a British minister brazenly admit to Parliament that the government intends to breach international law. Yet that is what Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, did this week—even if he sought to qualify the move as “very specific and limited”. The plan in the proposed internal-market bill is to override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, a treaty ratified only in January, that relate to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Because it will remain subject to the European Union’s customs code and single-market rules, special treatment is needed for the province to avert a hard border with Ireland. Reflecting the fact that there is no precedent for Britain unilaterally breaching an international treaty in this way, the government’s most senior legal adviser promptly quit.

What is Boris Johnson’s government playing at? It may be that he is resigned to Britain leaving the transition period on December 31st without a trade deal with the EU in place. The Brexit talks seem irretrievably stuck, so some in Downing Street now favour this option.

Yet a kinder interpretation is that the prime minister is engaging in a tactical ploy to ratchet up the pressure on the EU. Threats to rewrite the withdrawal agreement are of a piece with his insistence that, unlike his predecessor, Theresa May, he will not blink at the last minute, and his claim that no deal would be a “good outcome” for Britain.

By making no deal look more chaotic, he may hope to force EU leaders to compromise in their rigid demand for a level playing-field on state subsidies.

Yet such a tactical game is unlikely to work. As the world’s biggest market, the EU is a tough negotiator that does not commonly give in to threats. EU leaders know that the disruption and economic damage caused by no deal would be far worse for Britain than it would be for them. Faced with a similar prospect last year, it was not the EU but

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THE RAMIFICATIONS OF MR JOHNSON’S THREAT TO BREACH INTERNATIONAL LAW GO WIDER THAN BRITAIN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EU Mr Johnson who gave ground by accepting a separate status for Northern Ireland which implied customs checks in the Irish Sea. Moreover, to rewrite the withdrawal agreement unilaterally would undermine trust in the British negotiators. As EU leaders are already asking, how can they do a trade deal with a country that is talking of ripping up a treaty it agreed with them less than a year ago?

The ramifications of Mr Johnson’s threat to breach international law go wider than Britain’s relationship with the EU. Because his plan revives fears of a hard border in Ireland, it would go down very badly in America. Congress has already made clear that it will not ratify a free-trade deal with

Britain if Brexit undermines the Good Friday peace process. The other prospective partners that post-Brexit Britain hopes to do trade deals with will be similarly deterred by the sight of it breezily overriding international commitments. Mrs May was right this week to wonder how other countries could now be reassured that Britain can be trusted to abide by its legal obligations.

Britain is a proud founding father of international law. If it is seen to be flouting it, that will only encourage others who dislike the concept (Vladimir Putin? Xi Jinping?) and would prefer to escape any constraints that it imposes. The Chinese press was quick to report the British case; China imposed its new secu-

rity law unilaterally on Hong Kong.

It would not be too far-fetched to expect other countries to think of their own cases. Spain, for example, might wish unilaterally to revisit the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, under which it handed sovereignty over Gibraltar to Britain.

If Mr Johnson is unhappy with certain provisions in the withdrawal agreement, there is a procedure to clarify them in a joint committee with the EU. That is the right forum to use, not unilateral domestic legislation. He should drop his plan immediately and return to the negotiating table to secure a good deal with Britain’s biggest trade partner, which is what he promised voters he would do before last December’s election.

From The Economist, published under licence.

The original article, in English, can be found on www.economist.com

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by Nikica Miloš ANALYTICS

The Doomsday Comes From Brazil Laissez-faire at its worst hile we debate about corona and the US elections, protests in Belarus, Navalny, Brexit, US elections or Milo Djukanovic’s threats that he will defend his government even from the forest, much lusher, older, centuries-old forests are on fire in South America. Encouraged by the position of the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, the farmers are setting the Amazon rainforests and Pantanal (rainforest and wetland area) on fire in order to make room for pastures in the place of the burnt down forest.

and others were burnt down. It has not yet been estimated which part of the Amazon was burned. The image shows NASA’s satellite image from September 13 – the red are the fires. In Indochina and Indonesia, forests are cut to grow palm trees that produce lucrative palm oil, which has reduced the orangutan population down to the point of extinction. Western companies are buying the oil without any criticism, and the locals say that they suffered enough poverty, and that the forests are of no use, while they feed their families by planting the palm trees. The circle of capitalism is closing. On the other hand, the Pantanal, where there are many cattle, is becoming a place where there will be even less original animal species, and much more cattle that destroy the ozone layer with their faeces.

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FARMERS VS. THE WORLD The results are devastating. The biggest biosphere on Earth, the Amazon rainforest, lungs of the plant, is on fire. For several years already, ever since Bolsonaro came to power, the farmers were encouraged, and they began to burn and cut down forests to drive the Indians out of their centuries-old hearths, to make agricultural land. Because the forest is “unproductive”. Even the deforestation had some economic value, and it could not progress so fast.

But, fire setting is destroying forests with enormous speed and leaving wasteland behind. When the forest is cut down, the animals take shelter. When the forest is burning, a large number of animals cannot escape fast enough. In the Amazon rainforest, home to the largest number of mammals in the world, the situation was already devastating.

But with these arsons, there is the possibility that the planet will become even warmer, this could cause huge natural disasters, but also the worst, it could release viruses that were once trapped in the rainforests. And we know that the worst viruses are transferred from rainforests where people mix with animals they shouldn’t touch – the Ebola came from the African jungles, and the Corona from the south of China. A similar rule applies also to the Dengue fever and the Zika virus.

THE BOLSONARO FACTOR Officially, the deforestation is encouraged. Under Jair Bolsonaro's government, elected to power in January 2019, policies surrounding deforestation have relaxed. Bolsonaro and other senior figures have encouraged the exploitation of the

Amazon rainforest, denigrated critics and denied man-made climate change. Some environmental laws have been weakened and there has been a cut in funding and personnel at key government agencies and a firing of the heads of the agency's state bodies. So, the soybean production and cattle farming are only about to rise

THE LATEST CRIMES AGAINST FLORA AND FAUNA 12% of the Pantanal (which spreads on 230,000 km², and is under UNESCO’s protection) was burned down, which is the size of Slavonia. Thousands of panthers (both black and spotted), parrots, caimans (crocodile - like reptiles)

IF THE SEA LEVELS RISE, WHAT’S THE USE OF THE PROFIT GAINED BY DESTROYING THE NATURE? THERE WILL BE NO COPACABANA, NO RIO, AND NO NEW YORK

CONSEQUENCES In BiH, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria, so, in our immediate neighbourhood, there is a big fuss around the uncontrolled cutting of trees in the forests. They say that the last stage of privatization – after the privatizations of companies through stealing – is precisely the privatization of nature. Deforestation, destruction of rivers by building small hydro power plants. On a global level, in bigger countries, things are much worse and the nature is being destroyed much faster. Capitalism – when left unattended, is destroying itself, the planet, the consumers, but also the capitalists themselves. If the sea levels rise, what’s the use of the profit gained by destroying the nature?

There will be no Copacabana, no Rio, and no New York. So, I would be careful when destroying nature for profit. Until now, the destruction of nature was a joke compared to what we lived to see in September of 2020. The fires in Siberia last summer, in Australia at the beginning of the year, and in California these days are an excellent warning that fire will come to our door on its own. We don’t need to set it on.

But, Jair Bolsonaro, an ultra-capitalist, has the support from USA, and that means a lot. And they support him simply because – he is not a communist.

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Sectors Threatened by the Pandemic Can Count on Help In the coming period, we will go ahead with a combination of measures to preserve jobs and with an impulse to maintain the liquidity of companies through HAMAG and HBOR credit lines INTERVIEW

TOMISLAV ĆORIĆ PhD Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development in the Government of the Republic of Croatia

n terms of the strength of measures in relation to the size of its economy, Croatia was among the most generous in the European Union, and it should be noted that we were among the first countries in the European Union to implement measures

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You took over the Ministry during the coronavirus pandemic, when the great crisis was announced, and it seems that it has also begun. How do you rate the condition of Croatian economy at this moment and how do you see it by the end of this year? What are the great-

THE GOVERNMENT REACTED ON TIME AND REACHED THREE SETS OF MEASURES IN ORDER TO HELP THE ECONOMY DUE TO THE COVID-19 VIRUS EPIDEMIC to maintain employment and liquidity. What’s most important is that the sectors threatened by the pandemic will continue to be able to count on help from the state, stated Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tomislav Ćorić for Diplomacy & Commerce.

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est challenges for the Ministry and the Government of the Republic of Croatia generally in terms of economy?

— The Government reacted on time and reached three sets of measures in order to help the economy due to the COVID-19 virus epidemic. In

terms of the strength of measures in relation to the size of its economy, we were among the most generous in the European Union, and it should be noted that we were among the first countries in the European Union to implement measures to maintain employment and liquidity. We are talking about a total of 30 billion HRK that the Government directed towards entrepreneurs, and most measures refer to preservation of liquidity and work places, tax exemptions and other public benefits. The measures that were undertaken saved more than 600 thousand work places and 100 thousand employers. The key is to overcome this crisis and ensure the functioning of the economy and its recovery.

Specifically, what measures were you planning as necessary for recovery and combating the consequences of the crisis? Will the current measures for entrepreneurs be expanded to some new activities, and when can we expect this to happen (the support for entrepreneurs)?

— Sectors threatened by the pandemic can continue to count on our support. The measures for co-financing part-time work of a maximum of HRK 2,000 per employee will continue with corresponding contributions. Measures for micro-entrepreneurs will also be extended until 31 December, and these amount to HRK 2,000 per employee if they had a drop in turnover of more than 50%. Also, we will continue with subsi-

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dies of HRK 4,000 per worker for particularly vulnerable activities, and the support of HRK 4,000 will also be provided to entrepreneurs and activities closed by decisions of the Civil Protection Headquarters on local or national level. So, over the upcoming period we will proceed with a combination of measures for the preservation of work places on one hand, and with the impulse for maintaining the liquidity of enterprises through HAMAG and HBOR credit lines on the other. A great role in economic recovery of Croatia will be played by more than EUR 22 billion from the European Union. This is twice more than we had at our disposal in the 2014 – 2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, and it also represents one of the highest amounts per capita and the intensity of support that member countries managed to secure during these negotiations.

The received funds will be used for the implementation of national recovery program that’s underway, and its implementation will start at the beginning of 2021. With increased absorption of funds from the European budget and from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility program, we will continue to incite investments and export that contribute to strengthening of Croatia’s global competitiveness. This situation is a challenge, but also an opportunity for Croatia. We must now work to increase our competitiveness through reform packages and rationalization, and also by strengthening production capacities of different industries. Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development will be the biggest promoter of this direction.

How do you comment on the 15.1% GDP drop in Q2 and how big of a drop do you expect in Q3?

— That was not unexpected because the economy was under lockdown for over a month.

The key is that by implementing measures for economic recovery, we largely managed to preserve jobs. In the coming period, I expect the GDP drop to be smaller because the economy has begun to function, and we also have good results for the tourist season. The year 2021

will be the year of recovery.

Even though there are many challenges at this time, what are your Ministry’s plans in the next four-year term and what will be your priorities?

— Regardless of which sector we are talking about, all our activities will be focused on economic growth and improving the quality of our citizens’ lives. We will incite the devel-

investments in environmental and climate protection over the next decade, is an opportunity for Croatia’s accelerated energy transition towards clean energy. We will use the market premium model to incite further installation of production capacities from renewable sources and their increase from current 900 MW to 2250 MW, and contribute to the fight against climate change through energy

plants, composting plants and other facilities that will enable increased separate collection and recycling and reduce the amount of waste disposed of in landfills.

What I particularly want to point out is that growth and development must be based on principles of sustainability.

That is our motto. Everything that will be done will be done in accordance with these prin-

WE WILL INCITE THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN ORDER TO ENHANCE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND EXPORT, HERE GIVING PRIORITY TO THOSE INDUSTRIES IN WHICH CROATIA CAN DEVELOP COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE opment of new technologies in order to enhance industrial production and export, here giving priority to those industries in which Croatia can develop competitive advantage.

In our future activities, among other, we will focus on self-sufficiency of sectors such as energy and agriculture, but also on the development of ICT and the creative industry, which has huge potential. We will continue to take measures to encourage innovation, industry and exports, as they are the foundation for strengthening economic growth on a realistic and sound basis.

The European Green Deal, which is planned to mobilize at least a thousand billion euros of

transition to low-carbon energy. I would also like to remind that the project for Krk LNG terminal construction, which will contribute to reducing energy dependence through diversification of supply routes, is almost completed.

In the next period, we will implement numerous investments in water utility projects – construction of public water supply and drainage systems for which EU grant contracts have already been signed. The total value of these projects is around HRK 24 billion. We will also continue with establishment of a comprehensive waste management system and accelerate the construction of waste management centres, sorting

ciples so we could simultaneously ensure prosperity and preserve our natural resources and the environment.

Which of the currently open economic issues do you perceive as the biggest challenge?

— The Government already demonstrated that it has quality programs and solutions which resulted in more than 100,000 new jobs in the previous term, accompanied by the growth of salaries and pensions, billions of HRK in investment projects while successfully resolving and dealing with crises. With the overcoming of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic, we are now facing a transformation of the economy.

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Our goal is to achieve a resilient, competitive economy. And this competitiveness should be observed primarily through the strengthening of productivity of the Croatian industry. In order to achieve this, the economy must not be necessarily focused on one sector. In the next period, our focus will be primarily on those who can carry the growth of productivity, employment growth and growth of export. That is why we have

Therefore, the Green Deal creates huge challenges for all the economies that relied on traditional industries. It opens up a chance for small open economies like ours to take a few steps faster and more than some others.

This is the direction in which the basic variable in observing the future development of the economy should be the foreign trade balance in the goods segment of the Republic of Croatia. And this is in fact the direction in which we need to focus

ty in order to preserve the resources we have at our disposal. Republic of Croatia, as part of the European Union, supports its activities within sustainable development, and we implement them on a national level. In the past period, with the help of European Union’s funds, we initiated and implemented numerous projects that help us make qualitative progress in all the segments of the society, economy and environmental protection, which

gas emissions, especially from energy, transport, agriculture, buildings, general consumption and other.

This crisis has shown us that it is crucial to commit to the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems and the sustainable use of resources to ensure human health. Therefore, investing in adaptation to climate change and in low-carbon development is a prerequisite for Croatia's sustainable development.

How do you evaluate the public’s reactions to business decisions of certain companies (in this case INA regarding the cutting of 250 jobs in Sisak) and to what extent is it possible, in such circumstances, to separate politics from the economy and interests of private property despite the state's share in INA's ownership structure?

— INA’s business decisions from several years ago were headed in that direction, and what should be pointed out is that INA is starting new projects, like the bio-refinery in Sisak, whose construction will open around 120 jobs in the plant itself, and up to 1000 indirect jobs tied to logistics and the agricultural chain in Sisak and the surrounding area. So, it is a transformation that will start new production.

OUR GOAL IS TO ACHIEVE A RESILIENT, COMPETITIVE ECONOMY. AND THIS COMPETITIVENESS SHOULD BE OBSERVED PRIMARILY THROUGH THE STRENGTHENING OF PRODUCTIVITY OF THE CROATIAN INDUSTRY decided, at the Government level, to use each euro that Croatia currently has at its disposal to direct the funds to real economy, i.e. to production activities. We are also talking about funds from the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework, and from all other sources. This is a way to make the economy more resilient.

In addition, let me get back to the European Green Deal, which after a number of years marked a paradigm shift in the functioning of the European economy, this deal precisely opened the possibility for the European economy to transform in the next financial perspective for the period from 2021 – 2027, towards low-carbon, sustainable, green economy of clean technologies.

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on industries that have proven to be efficient and competitive in both domestic and foreign markets over the past 30 years of very uncertain business opportunities.

In the domain of sustainable development, where is Croatia when compared to other EU members, and which projects can you announce in this sphere of your actions (Sustainable development strategy, social partnership, etc.)?

— A preserved environment and biodiversity have become a Croatian brand, and it’s not without cause. We are extremely proud of this, and what’s key here is that we base our growth and development precisely on the principles of sustainabili-

will also reflect on indicators of sustainable development.

Despite our and global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to limit the rise in temperature, the climate is changing and we need to adapt to this fact and ensure sustainable development of the Republic of Croatia in these new circumstances. At the end of 2019, the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan 2021 – 2030 was reached. This year, the Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change was adopted, and the Low-Carbon Development Strategy of the Republic of Croatia will also be sent to the procedure. The goal is to encourage the transformation of society in order to reduce greenhouse

What is the perspective of the development of that company and how do you comment on the Sisak bio-refinery project, and the project of building a delayed coker unit within the Rijeka refinery?

— Decisions on construction of a third generation bio-refinery plant in Sisak and the delayed coker facility in Rijeka best show the direction where INA is headed, which is a direction to a sustainable, green path. And it is the only right path. When we talk about the facility in Rijeka, we have to say that this is an investment worth around HRK 4 billion. That is the biggest investment in Croatian industry in the past 30 years.

With transformation of the Sisak Refinery and with implementation of the bio-refinery project in the coming period, INA will improve its business and further increase its competitiveness in the region.

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ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES

MLADEN JAKOPOVIĆ Vice-President of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA)

NATIONAL DAYS in September & October SEPTEMBER

The head of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture (HPK), Mladen Jakopovic was elected by a majority vote to be Vice-President of the Committee of

Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA).

COPA, the European umbrella farmer’s organisation, stated that it had elected Christiane Lambert of the French FNSEA association to lead the European farmers' organisation for the next two years. Jakopovic was quoted by the HPK as saying that farmers in the EU and members of

BORIS ANTOLOVIČ Director of Petrol

COPA have recognised the work of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture and that the chamber had managed to become a prominent member of this European agricultural association over the recent years. He says he will be committed to promoting the interests of Croatian farmers more strongly in the next two years.

TONI JURIČIĆ Deputy Member of the Management (Raiffeisen Leasing)

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MEXICO

Grito de Dolores

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CHILE

The First Junta Day

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CZECHIA

St. Wenceslas Day

OCTOBER

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CHINA

National Day

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CYPRUS

Independence Day

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INDIA ahatma Gandhi’s M Birthday

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GERMANY

Boris Antolovic, who was Chairman or member of the Management since 2013, was first appointed as Director of the Company that was ranked eighth among the biggest business entities last year, with revenue of 5.5 billion. Procurators Aleš Koželjnik and Zoran Kalac remained in their positions.

Krešimir Perić is no longer the President of the Management Board of RAIFFEISEN LEASING. Toni Juričić was appointed Deputy Member of the Management Board, therefore his mandate as a member of the Supervisory Board was put on hold. Ines Knapić is still a Member of the Management Board, procurators Marina Mišolić-Stupnišek and Lidija Čamber remained in their positions.

German Unity Day

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IRAQ

Independence Day

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SOUTH KOREA aecheonjeol, ancient G Korea founded in 2333 BC

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SPAIN National Day

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HUNGARY 1 956 Revolution memorial day

24 UN

UN day

26 EUROPOLIS ZAGREBTOWER Matthew Joseph Lunt, New member of Management Board Earlier this year, Hedwig Höfler was named Director, she was followed by Christoph-Michael Buchgraber, and procurator Peter Pros remained in the management structure as part of the original team (since 2011).

AUSTRIA he Neutrality T Constitution of 1955

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TURKEY

Republic Day

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Sweden Shares the Same Goals as All the Other Countries The restrictions in Sweden are currently very similar to restrictions in Croatia

INTERVIEW

H.E. DIANA HELEN MADUNIC Ambassador of Sweden to Croatia

weden’s measures have mainly differed from those of other countries in two regards: we had no regulation that forced citizens to remain in their homes and schools for younger children or children’s care facilities have not been shut down, says H.E. Diana Helen Madunic, Ambassador of Sweden to Croatia. Despite all the new challenges and new rules for living, this did not affect the affairs and development of relations between Sweden and Croatia in all the fields of cooperation.

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The coronavirus pandemic brought us all the changes we never even dreamed about. To what extent and has the “new normal” even affect the relations between Sweden and Croatia?

— A lot has been said these days about Sweden´s corona strategy, but what I can say now is that the restrictions in Sweden are currently very similar to restrictions in Croatia.

We are very grateful for the help that we got from Croatia and Croatian Airlines in repatriation of Swedish citizens in the beginning of the pandemic and beginning of Croatian Presidency of the EU. I also understand that many Swedish citizens were very happy that they could spend their holidays in Croatia this summer without any restrictions upon arrival. So, in some ways you can say that the relations between Sweden and Croatia have been strengthened during this crisis.

The so-called “Swedish model” seems to have become a general model across Europe in the fight against the pandemic. What do the numbers say?

— Sweden shares the same goals as all other countries – to save lives and protect public health. Instead of a full lockdown, we introduced a wide range of regulations to pro-

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SWEDEN SHARES THE SAME GOALS AS ALL OTHER COUNTRIES – TO SAVE LIVES AND PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH mote social distancing and limit the spread of the virus.

Contrary to what many think, life in Sweden is not carrying on as normal. Sweden’s measures have mainly differed from those of other countries in two regards: we had no regulation that forced citizens to remain in their homes and schools for younger children or children’s care facilities have not been shut down. One important idea behind our strategy was to introduce measure that could last and be accepted by people for a long period of time.

In a global comparison Sweden had at certain weeks during spring highest COVID -19 death rate per capita. These numbers

are of course a concern – not mainly due to the comparison itself, but because every death is a tragedy. About 40 per cent of the recorded deaths from COVID-19 in Sweden have occurred in care homes for older people, which indicated that protection of older people was inadequate. The Government has now introduced a wide range of measures to strengthen checks, quality and capacity within the system of care for older people.

The official data from past several weeks indicate that the numbers of deaths and severely sick people have decreased substantially. The number of patients in intensive care

has also come down to very low numbers. Recent figures show that the spread in Sweden amounts to around 20 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which is currently among the lowest in Europe.

The Swedish strategy to combat COVID-19 is not based on a week-by-week measurement, but on a long-term perspective of how we can save lives, flatten the curve, keep up our health care system and make sure our society and population can get through this global pandemic. The decisions taken by the Government are based on advice from our expert agencies and international expert organisations. People in Sweden have a high level of trust in government agencies and a large proportion of people follow government agencies’ advice. From the very beginning of this pandemic our decision

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makers said that this crisis will continue for a long time, so all the measures that were taken should be long term sustainable and balanced between fighting the pandemic and having a functional society and life.

What is the state of the economy and how strong was the economic drop in Sweden?

— The Swedish economy was strong in the beginning of the crisis, so the Government had the means to adopt a large number of measures to mitigate the economic impact. A total of seven additional budgets have been adopted amounting to around 5 per cent of GDP. These measures aim to limit the spread of infection in society, counteract the consequences for businesses, protect jobs and provide opportunities and reorientation for those who are unemployed. For example, the tight-knit Swedish ecosystem of companies and universities, decided to design a short training program for an assistant nurse and offered this program to about 1100 SAS air carier cabin staff members who were laid off during pandemic.

The project was then expanded to another 200 laid-off staff from hotels, restaurants etc.

The measures aim also to create the conditions for post-crisis recovery.

Sweden's GDP fell by 8.2% compared to the second quarter of 2019 which is mostly in line with expectations. The Swedish government believes that GDP will fall -6.0 percent this year but start to recover already in 2021. According to the Statistic Sweden, the main factors behind the drop in GDP were a decrease in household consumption and exports to other countries, something Swedish companies are very dependent upon.

The key was to protect the health system. How successful were you in this?

— Sweden’s aim to flatten the curve indicating infections has so far been successful. The Swedish health care system has managed to scale up well. From the beginning of pandemic Sweden has increased its intensive care units and there has been, on average, constantly 20–30 per cent unused capacity in intensive care

units. Also, with reskilling we have increased the number of administrative health workers both in hospitals and elderly care homes. Transmission is now slowing down and the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care is decreasing significantly. Hopefully, our health system will stay strong in this uncertain future.

How did the “lockdown” and the measures being implemented change in your work plans in terms of events, projects? What are the Embassy’s

ator at the UN and Jens Lundstrom, CEO of Arctic Business Incubator. Jan Gulliksen, professor from Royal Institute of Technology was part of Digital Takeover with a presentation on Power of digitalisation. Together with the Swedish company Bisnode here in Croatia we arranged a webinar for around 70 companies on the impact of the pandemic on economic life and business. Online events and smaller but more frequent event in real life will most probably we our way forward in this „new normal “.

cooperating with students and public sector actors on innovation systems.

The idea with Jens Lundström’s lecture was partly to inspire partly to try to establish a partnership with Croatia, since we believe that there is interesting potential for innovation here.

Sweden offered Gripen system to Croatia what does that mean?

— It is correct that Sweden has an offer to Croatia for a Government-to-Government agree-

THE SWEDISH ECONOMY WAS STRONG IN THE BEGINNING OF THE CRISIS, SO THE GOVERNMENT HAD THE MEANS TO ADOPT A LARGE NUMBER OF MEASURES TO MITIGATE THE ECONOMIC IMPACT plans for the next period?

— Like everyone else in Croatia, we of course canecelled all physical events during the spring, but luckily, we were able together with Croatian partners to tailor some activities for the current situation.

We have launched a concept of Fika Talks as short online conversations in the form of interviews with experts from different fields. Fika Talks has so far hosted Croatian born Danica Kragic Jensfelt, a professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Mattias Frumerie, Sweden’s chief climate negoti-

The Artic Business Incubator lecture was held recently. How do you estimate its effects and to what extent can experiences from Sweden contribute to development of ideas and businesses in Croatia as well?

— Arctic Business Incubator is great example of the so-called Triple Helix Model which is cooperation between the business community, the public sector and academia to pool resources and bring different perspectives. Sweden’s ecosystem is built on collaboration and we have more than 60 incubators and science parks where around 70,000 employees from 5,000 companies are

ment of twelve new Gripen C/D high-tech fighter aircrafts, being a very cost-efficient airplane to fly and maintain. Provided there is an agreement, a regional aviation centre would be established in Croatia which would mean transferring of knowledge and technology.

This would develop long-term cooperation with the local defence industry, as well as academia, and would result in the creation of up to 500 new high-tech jobs.

We believe to have a very strong offer and hope that Croatia will want to establish a partnership with Sweden and the Gripen family.

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Swedish Model of Success Arctic Business Incubator’s mission is to help build innovative, high-growth and sustainable start-ups in Northern Sweden

INTERVIEW

JENS LUNSTRÖM CEO of Arctic Business Incubator

he extent to which we can apply the examples of successful practice from Sweden, which we mainly associate with a perfectly developed society and ways of doing business, in our regions and in Croatia specifically, is explained by Jens Lunström, CEO of Arctic Business Incubator. Methods for management, preparation and doing business, and specific advice for those who come to hear them are what’s in the focus of their business mission, according to Lunström.

T

What is Arctic Business Incubator and for whom is it intended specifically?

— Our mission is to help build innovative, high-growth and sustainable start-ups in Northern Sweden. While most of our activities are about coaching the entrepreneurs themselves, we also help in match-making the right investors and talents with the right start-ups.

What exactly do you offer to

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those who come to you?

— We work in two phases. The first is our accelerator, where we help people with ideas to both assess their ideas and learn about what they must master to become successful.

One can say that we help you and your team to get started in the right end and make informed decisions. Sometimes it's about pushing and supporting, but sometimes we also need to challenge you to really test your idea and maxim-

ue building a team, find investors, build your product and so on. While some 50 people/ teams go through the accelerator every year, we then only admit 10 companies annually to the incubator. It’s a 2-3 year program and our goal is that at the end of it, you should have a viable and growing business with at least the potential to go global.

What are the fields of action that you support?

DO NOT BE AFRAID OF REACHING OUT FOR HELP OR TALKING TO OTHERS ABOUT YOUR IDEAS ise its business potential. Of course, you never know beforehand if you will succeed, but you should at least assess both the potential risks and benefits before you go all-in.

In the second phase, you have started the company you want to build and join our incubator. Things quickly become real, and you need to contin-

— We do as much as we can.

In the incubator for example, we initially join the board of directors in the companies and work closely with the founders. It can even include us being on the road together, meeting customers, partners and investors. Over time, we become more of mentors to the CEO as the business and the

team starts growing.

Through the entire process, our focus is primarily on sales, funding and building a great team. We do arrange lots of activities around these three key areas and also provide some funding for the companies directly. Lastly, we of course have great offices for both ourselves and the incubator companies in our science parks, as well as access to labs and equipment from partners and Luleå University of Technology.

You are represented in Sweden, but also worldwide. Where do you operate and is there a common location for everyone you work with, who come from different parts of the world?

— We have offices and staff in four science parks in northern Sweden; Skellefteå, Piteå, Luleå, Kiruna. We also have several partner organizations and companies worldwide. We are proud to claim we can go ‘from question to customer’ within 48 hours. By that, we mean that no matter the sector or need,

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we can always find the right intro for you and your startup within two days.

What are the most common issues faced by those who come to you and to whom you provide your support?

— We work actively on two issues – building diverse teams and understanding your customer. The first means we help entrepreneurs getting out of their comfort zone. We don’t want them to only recruit and work with people of the same age, competence, gender, education etcetera. A great team should both complement and challenge each other to become better. As for understanding the customer, in 99% of all cases we initially scale down product roadmaps to spend more time understanding the needs of the people supposed to use the products and how they would like to buy it. Then we can go back to the product roadmap with the right input to make sure we develop a product that is a good fit to the market.

How important is support from the state and the entire system?

— This is a tricky question. My take comes from working in start-ups world-wide for 20+ years, in both urban and rural areas, as well as in different sectors.

First it is of course up to the state or a region to decide if they want to promote change and development, or if they are happy with the situation as is. If they identify a need for change and development then they can absolutely have a strong and positive impact, achieving this by supporting innovation ecosystem actors such as Incubator or Accelerators. But they must always stay in the box of being pre-market, market creating or market complementary, both to maximise how the money is spent and allow the market to grow organically.

In our case, while working in a rural-urban environment (and not a capital city), we have had great support and been able to work both long-term and dynamically in supporting creation of new companies.

And it’s been a good model. In clear metrics, we can show that

WHILE MOST OF OUR ACTIVITIES ARE ABOUT COACHING THE ENTREPRENEURS THEMSELVES, WE ALSO HELP IN MATCH-MAKING THE RIGHT INVESTORS AND TALENTS WITH THE RIGHT START-UPS

we have helped increase the number of tech start-ups and the span of sectors they work in, as well as the number of new business angels and the amounts invested.

What is your message to those who have the ideas, but not

the possibility to develop their own business?

— Do not be afraid of reaching out for help or talking to others about your ideas. Approaching someone you respect and feel has knowledge in a field is easier than you’d imagine. People are generally willing to help and

share their networks and experiences if you simply ask for it.

Plus, they are always busy doing their own stuff and will not steal your idea – I am yet to see that happen after all these years.

Just do it and you might find the means or knowledge to realise your dreams and visions.

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20 years of Astra Zeneca in Croatia We believe that the pharmaceutical industry must be an active partner in finding solutions to support the sustainability of health systems

CORPORATE

DAMIR NEVJESTIĆ Country Director Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina at AstraZeneca

he entire pharmaceutical industry is focused on finding vaccines and drugs, some companies that were competitors yesterday now became partners, and knowledge about the virus itself and vaccine development is being exchanged. In the US, we continue to work with the FDA to facilitate the review of the information needed to make a decision regarding the continuation of testing. AstraZeneca advocates for the safety of trial participants and the highest standards of conduct in clinical trials, states Damir Nevjestić, Country Director Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina at AstraZeneca, for Diplomacy & Commerce.

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AstraZeneca is marking 20 years of operations in Croatia this year. As a worldwide company, how do you rate the business conditions in Croatia today?

— AstraZeneca is a global, science-driven, innovative biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription drugs, primarily for the treatment of illness in three therapeutic areas - oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, and respiratory and immune diseases. The company was founded in 1999 through the merger of Swedish company Astra AB and the British Zeneca Group. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca is

new trends in some segments.

What do you think about the market and competition in Croatia and what are the biggest challenges, for all together, in the period ahead (both locally and globally)?

— The health care system in Croatia is a combination of a model based on social security, i.e. contributions that citizens deduct from their salaries, and

icine, innovation in technology and treatment that have their value.

We at AstraZeneca believe that the pharmaceutical industry must be an active partner in finding solutions to support the sustainability of health systems.

That is why we are committed to working with governments, in researching new and flexible funding models, all this with the common goal of achieving

WE MUST NOT FORGET ABOUT THE OTHER PATIENTS WHO HAVE NEEDS REGARDLESS OF THE CORONA VIRUS - OUR TASK HERE IS TO PROVIDE THEM WITH ACCESS TO DRUGS AS IN ANY OTHER PERIOD present in over 100 countries.

In the twenty years that AstraZeneca has been present on the Croatian market, the business terms have changed significantly, but the company has evolved in the meantime, we adjust to new conditions on the market, and we also set

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a model based on budget revenues. The biggest challenge, not only in Croatia but also in the world, is the financial sustainability of the health system, limited funding on the one hand, and increasing demands from health care users on the other, advances in med-

results that will enable patients to have better health outcomes through innovative, personalized treatment. In achieving this goal, success largely depends on the interoperability of health data systems, reliable data management frameworks, and the scientific skills to link

this data with health research.

What are yours development and investment plans by the end of this year, which is in many ways different from the previous ones, and what are your plans for 2021?

— I believe that no one could have expected that 2020 would bring so many new challenges, and that it would change all the aspects of our way of life so far so significantly. Given that in Croatia, we are a marketing company, part of a large global corporation, we have had support in digitizing and adapting work from home, even in jobs that depend on direct contacts with clients, health professionals, organizations and institutions. Consumption in the health care system has seemingly increased, however significantly fewer patient visits to hospitals lead to new risk situations - what could hap-

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pen in the period ahead is a significant increase in cancer patients in the higher stages of the disease.

Many patients have faced situations of delay in diagnosis, initiation of treatment, or maintenance of chronic therapy administered in hospitals, which raises the matter of patients’ future outcomes.

In our industry, the crisis had the biggest influence on the approach to new and innovative therapies. Health care systems are focused on the current COVID situation, providing resources for testing and treatment, redistribution in the functioning of the health system, institutions and staff. On the other hand, accelerated digitalization, communication channels, introducing electronic signing is definitely an advantage of this situation.

Since our plans include also the bringing of new and innovative drugs to the market, and this process is directly affected by the current situation, we need to adjust our plans as well. However, despite the current situation, it is our obligation and purpose to provide the patients with optimal treatment for some of the most serious diseases of today.

To achieve this, we need a partnership with all the stakeholders in the health system, and a common understanding that if we do not act, an epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases can lead to significantly worse consequences than the current pandemic.

You are also known as a company that pays great attention to supporting the community and the society. What you would single out as the thing that you are most proud of?

— I am proud of AstraZeneca Company’s global initiative to become climate neutral, which we announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos at the beginning of this year – Ambition Zero Carbon. We are investing $1 billion globally to eliminate carbon emissions from production and the supply chain by 2025, and we plan to be carbon negative throughout the chain by 2030. To achieve this, we will double energy efficiency, transfer to the use of renewable energy sources, and to a fully electric fleet of vehicles; we are launching a new generation of respiratory inhalers with extremely low global warming potential; we plan to plant 50 million trees as part of our AZ Forest program.

Science is proving the connection between climate changes and health, and we commit to go further and faster to contribute to the

prevention of climate disasters. By strengthening our efforts to achieve zero emission of carbon dioxide and to become carbon neutral, we can contribute significantly to sustainability of our planet and to our public health.

We follow this path here in Croatia as well, proud of our contribution to the community through cooperation with patient associations, educational materials for patients and the public to encourage prevention and early detection of serious diseases such as cancer, myocardial infarction, heart failure, diabetes, asthma. I am also proud of the successful partnership with healthcare institutions to introduce molecular targeted cancer diagnosis, which we started about ten years ago. We nurture environmen-

ever, the testing was paused. What are the reasons and will it continue?

— As a global innovative biopharmaceutical company, we are committed to fight against this pandemic and continue to deliver life-changing drugs to the patients who need them most. The entire pharmaceutical industry is focused on finding vaccines and drugs, some companies that were competitors yesterday now became partners, and knowledge about the virus itself and vaccine development is being exchanged, therefore it is certain that this is a battle for mankind and for health.

As a company with years of experience in the treatment of respiratory and infectious diseases targeting the respiratory system and with an in-depth understanding of the immune system response to viral

After reviewing the recommendations of the independent committee, health authorities in Brazil and South Africa confirmed that it was safe to continue the study in those countries as well. In the US, we continue to work with the FDA to facilitate the review of the information needed to make a decision regarding the continuation of testing. AstraZeneca advocates for the safety of trial participants and the highest standards of conduct in clinical trials.

What are the chances getting the necessary vaccine by mid-2021, which is announced as the optimal time, and how to deal with vaccines that appear in the markets of some countries as early as this year? How safe are they?

— The European Union has very strict rules regarding the approval of vaccines that are placed on the market. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) evaluates and monitors the vaccines produced. After extensive testing and evidence of the efficacy or safety of the vaccine, the European Commission may issue a market approval. The EMA continues to assess the safety of vaccines placed on the market and to carry out post market surveillance. Croatia is part of the European Union and we can be sure that vaccines approved for use in the EU will have all the necessary steps taken before approval to ensure maximum safety, primarily with regard to the health and well-being of the citizens.

IN THE TWENTY YEARS THAT ASTRAZENECA HAS BEEN PRESENT ON THE CROATIAN MARKET, THE BUSINESS TERMS HAVE CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY, BUT THE COMPANY HAS EVOLVED IN THE MEANTIME tal care among our employees, and as a company, we have been participating in tree planting campaigns for several years, in order to maintain our green environment. During this pandemic, the company delivered 30,000 face masks to the National Civil Protection Headquarters. Unfortunately, this year we had an earthquake in the City of Zagreb in which the buildings of KBC Zagreb, which take care of seriously ill patients from all over Croatia, were significantly damaged, and we donated funds to help speed up the reconstruction.

There has been a lot of talk in the public about the testing of the Covid-19 vaccine, which AstraZeneca conducted in collaboration with Britain’s Oxford University. How-

infections, AstraZeneca considered itself invited to launch the research for the vaccine in response to COVID-19.

In early September, we launched our standard test verification process, and we voluntarily stopped vaccinating participants in the testing to allow for review of safety data by an independent committee. This was a routine procedure performed whenever a potentially unexplained disease occurred during a clinical trial to ensure that the integrity of the trial was maintained. Clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine conducted by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, AZD1222, were continued in Great Britain after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirmed that it was safe to continue.

To what extent do the current situation and the global pandemic affect a different methodology in research and development of both vaccines and drugs in the future, if such situations become more frequent? How ready the industry is for change and new circumstances?

— The global scientific community is working rapidly to develop an effective vaccine against COVID-19 and a number of feasible options are being explored. However, we must not forget about the other patients who have needs regardless of the corona virus - our task here is to provide them with access to drugs as in any other period, and so far we are doing so successfully. If situations like this happen again in the future, we will certainly all be even more prepared to adapt and act quickly.

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New Era of Connection The luxury market has gone through tremendous changes throughout the pandemic INTERVIEW

ANNASTASIA SEEBOHM Group CEO, Quintesentially

espite all the new circumstances that have affected our business we want to continue to help our members to create meaningful relationships, enjoy memorable and transformative experiences, and connect with other people, the planet and themselves, for Diplomacy&Commerce says Annastasia Seebohm, Group CEO, Quintesentially. There will be a continued focus on in home experiences and passion point programming, bringing our Quintessentially community together says Mrs Seebohm.

D

The luxury lifestyle market is going through a period of great changes. As the biggest global lifestyle concierge club, Quintessentially made a detailed analysis of the new situation. What was crucial for you to decide to take this step and what is the end result (the White Paper)?

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— Quintessentially has been at the forefront of the luxury market for over 20 years.

The luxury market has gone through tremendous changes throughout the pandemic but what our whitepaper identifies is the five major cultural shifts which had already been occurring but have now been accelerated by the ever changing environment.

Our data reveals significant cultural shifts in the key areas

Our white paper takes our findings and highlights the implications of them for businesses and how they need to approach them to succeed. The concept of connection is what our business is founded upon.

In accordance with the new circumstances, to what extent has the luxury lifestyle market changed and in what way?

Which way are these changes going?

er discrete consumption, with more exclusive and private experiences to connect with their clients.

The renewed interest in connection addresses the desire for people to feel a more human connection through technology - brands must straddle real life and virtual interactions and ensure they still connect in a meaningful way.

Philanthropy is increasingly important, and consumers are seeking brands who champion causes that they support, either through donations or initiatives.

Heath has never been more at the forefront of most consumers' consciousness, so all businesses will be required to ensure their consumers are safe while shopping with them, but on a broader level consider incorporating wellness benefits to their offerings.

Finally, brands need to respond to the increased demand for transformative experiences as consumers seek to connect with themselves on a deeper level. This can be adapting physical space to incorporate an immersive consumer journey, or creating bespoke experiences, tailored to the individual’s specific passion points.

Quintessentially called this new age The New Era of Connection. What does this new connection entail?

— It entails consumers seeking to connect more with themselves and others. People are looking to give back more, to feel more in the moment and

OUR AWARD-WINNING TRAVEL DIVISION WILL ALSO CONTINUE TO BE A FOCUS, ALONG WITH OUR OTHER GROUP ARMS INCLUDING ART, EDUCATION AND REAL ESTATE of activism, connectivity, philanthropy, health and self-transformation. The overarching takeaway is that there is now a stronger need than ever before for connection - both with ourselves and with the world around us. We are calling this the ‘New Era of Connection’.

— We believe we are going to see brands react accordingly to these new cultural shifts. Activism has given way to conscious consumption meaning a brand's purpose and narrative must really resonate to connect with consumers. It also means brands should consid-

to connect more meaningfully with other people and the world around them.

How do you estimate the development of the situation and will your field of business recover soon, will it return to its former self or will it have to

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adjust completely to the new circumstances?

— The need for consumers to connect more will only increase, and at speed - especially after such a period of isolation. Helping members stay engaged and inspired is something Quintessentially delivered upon early on during lockdown, as we took all of our unique events and experiences on line to great success. Our virtual programming helped members connect to experts, new networks and contacts and continue their quest for self-betterment. When COVID allowed, we also introduced at home experiences – allowing members to continue to learn and connect from the safety of their home.

During the onslaught of the pandemic, Quintessentially's value was exemplified all around the world as we catered to all our members needs during the crisis - from helping with emergency relocations before restrictions applied, sourcing office and gym equipment and wellness and health supplies, to providing an extra set of hands for practical demands, including the delivery of shopping and household essentials for those who were unable to leave the house, or those who wished to use our services for their loved ones from afar.

We will continue to evolve our services and respond to our members' needs. At home experiences is a category we will continue to expand upon - we can offer our members everything from access to unique Broad-

way experiences, culinary masterclasses, access to the world's best wellness experts, tutors and childcare assistance and everything in between.

Once time allows, I believe we will see a return to our most popular categories including travel, dining, tickets and access to more experiences, as people continue to crave human connection again.

What are your plans for the next year and the years to come?

— Our plan is to be the benchmark of excellent service for our members. We aim to continue to evolve our value proposition,

and introduce new products accordingly. We want to continue to help our members to create meaningful relationships, enjoy memorable and transformative experiences, and connect with other people, the planet and themselves. There will be a continued focus on in home experiences and passion point programming, bringing our Quintessentially community together.

On our agency side, we seek to continue to be the goto agency for creating connection between the world’s leading brands and influential and successful individuals.

Our award-winning travel

OUR PLAN IS TO BE THE BENCHMARK OF EXCELLENT SERVICE FOR OUR MEMBERS

division will also continue to be a focus, along with our other group arms including Art, Education and Real Estate. In Quintessentially in Adriatic, run by Lara Ham, successfully follows guidelines and new trends and meets customer requirements in all fields we cover. She managed to adjust services to the current situation which has led to the opening of new opportunities that Q Adriatic region has successfully fullfiled, such as the need to rent and find isolated villas in summer and winter time for families. The office is very successfully with sourcing goods from USA, UK: poular brands which are not present in Europe. It is the first time that Q Adriatic offers concierge assistance to real estate developers. On the other hand Q A is very strong in positioning and branding of country destinations including five stars hotels, yachts, amazing restaurants and many more.

What is your message for those who want to become a part of your story, and in general, for all those who love the life you propagate and support?

— We pride ourselves on offering a bespoke and connected service, tailored to our members' needs and passion points.

Quintessentially is very much a global community for those who want to enjoy the best life has to offer and truly feel a sense of connection. To all those who support us, I offer my immense gratitude.

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PEOPLE & EVENTS

26 AUG

RECEPTION FOR THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS

The Prime Minister Andrej Plenković organized a reception, at the Banski dvori, for representatives of the Diplomatic Corps accredited in the Republic of Croatia. In his speech, Prime Minister Plenković said that this political year was

taking place in a very specific context for the world, Europe, but also for Croatia due to the Covid 19 pandemic, which significantly changed the work and activities of governments around the world.

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister

10 SEP

Bornstein Wine Bar & Shop, who is celebrating 30 DINNER WITH LARGEST CROATIAN PRODUCER OF years this year , originally planned a big celebration for their birthday . Due to Covid restrictions, instead WINES, BELJE WINERY of having big celebration they decided to organize a series of wine dinners with Croatian winemakers.

18 SEP

10th BIRTHDAY OF THE BUSINESS CAFE

Put yourself first, live by your own rules, and reject the socially acceptable norm of capitalistic career brutality. Guests Aljoša Bagola, Biljana Ignatovska, Krešo Rogoz and Dario Bujas, at last week’s 58th Business Cafe

This dinner was special to the owners Ivan and Doris Srpek, as it was only archive wine tasting dinner this year in Croatia. It is not very often that, a winery shares it’s archived wines with the public, as it is mostly sold to private buyers at auctions.

in Zagreb told us more about how (not) to burnout and even in our own businesses. The event was held at the Hotel Diplomat, where Business Cafe, with its founder Kristina Ercegović, also celebrated its 10th birthday.

Kristina Ercegović

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19

BUSINESS NEWS

libaba A PRESENTED “SMART” FACTORY PROJECT 03

roatian Tourism C Association CROATIA’S NAUTICAL OFFER ON THE NAUTICAL CHANNEL 01

Croatian Tourism Association promotes nautical tourism via TV show “Safe Harbour” on Nautical Channel, which is followed by more than 200 million viewers in over 100 countries worldwide. 20 5-minute episodes are broadcasted from various Croatian nautical destinations with the intention to present Croatia as a safe and desirable nautical destination and to attract as much sailors as possible to our country. The destinations that will be promoted

through 20 episodes on Nautical Channel are Vis, Dubrovnik, Cres, Korčula, Rovinj, Split, Mali Lošinj, Primošten, Rab, Brač, Skradin, Makarska, Pag, Murter, Omiš, Vodice, Ugljan, Ston, Šibenik and Dugi otok. Aside from the tourist offer of the destinations themselves, different attractions and curiosities for sailors, safe harbours and coves, marinas and rich Croatian oeno-gastronomic offer will be presented as well.

Special emphasis in the shows was placed on Croatia’s excellent traffic position and proximity to emitting markets, and stay on nautical vessels was pointed out as one of the safest forms of accommodation.

Alibaba Group presented a “smart” factory pilot project in the city of Huangzhou as part of the “smart manufacturing” initiative, building on the efforts of Chinese Internet retailers to establish closer cooperation with domestic manufacturers. By announcing

Croatia Airline IN NOVEMBER DIRECTLY TO 15 DESTINATIONS ACROSS EUROPE 04

Direct flights from Croatia fly to Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, Bruxelles, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London (Heathrow), Lyon, Munich, Paris, Rome, Sarajevo, Skopje and Zürich. In international regular traffic, Zagreb

the pilot-project for a new factory, Alibaba explains that they will use the data they collect in online shopping, search and sales in order to help the brands predict which products will be popular even before they market them.

The factory will be managed by the internal department of Xunxi Digital Technology Company, and in the first stage, they will cooperate with clothes manufacturers.

will be directly connected with 12 destinations, and Split with 10.

There are flights from Dubrovnik to two international destinations, and there are still flights from Rijeka to Munich. In domestic regular traffic, Croatia Airlines aircrafts will connect Zagreb with five Croatian airports (Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar, Pula and Bol on Brač), and Osijek Split and Osijek - Dubrovnik flights will continue.

05 The Fortenova Group PROJEKTGRADNJA SOLD TO OSIJEK KOTEKS

02 Standard & Poor’s AGENCY CONFIRMED CROATIA’S CREDIT RATING

Standard & Poor’s Agency confirmed Croatia’s credit rating at BBB-/A-3, with stable prospects, underlining the fiscal and monetary measures that should mitigate the consequences of the corona

20

crisis and thus prevent permanent damage for the credit indicators.

Croatian economy will post an 8% drop this year, according to S&P’s estimates, thus mitigating the prognosis from May when they predicted a 9% drop. It should go up by 5.6% in 2021 and reach the pre-pandemic level in 2020, one year earlier than the agency predicted in May.

According to the press release, Osijek Koteks was selected as the best bidder in the sales process, where Deloitte participated as an advisor. By concluding this transaction, the Fortenova Group continues to pursue its goal, focusing on three basic segments of business – retail, food and agriculture, the company underlines. They also pointed out that since the sales process was initiated about a year ago, the Fortenova Group also sold its subsidiary Rivijera, which manages the Triestina Camp in Ičići near

Opatija, and minority shares in ID Riva Tours and Gulliver Travel companies. CFO of Fortenova Group, James Pearson, underlined the importance of focusing the company on core activities.

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yteDance B TIKTOK IN USA WITH ORACLE 06

Microsoft announced that the owner of the popular TikTok app, Chinese ByteDance, informed

them that they won’t be selling their US operations to them, after which Reuters, stating the sources familiar with the situation, announced that instead of sales, they agreed to start a partnership with Oracle.

uropean Automobile E Manufacturers Association (ACEA) CROATIA POSTED THE BIGGEST DROP IN SALE OF NEW CARS IN THE EU 09

07 Zagreb statistic office AVERAGE SALARY ABOVE 1000 EURO

The average net pay in Zagreb in June 2020 was HRK 7,796, which is a nominal increase of 2.9% compared to the average pay in June 2019, the city’s statistical office said on Wednesday. The average pay in the capital city was HRK 1,022 higher than the national average for June, which amounted to HRK 6,774. The highest net pay in legal entities in Zagreb was reported in crude petroleum and natural gas extraction, amounting to HRK 17,249. The lowest wage was reported in the

rste banka E SEMI-ANNUAL NET PROFIT 50 PERCENT LESS THAN LAST YEAR 08

Erste banka posted HRK 171.3 million net profit in the first half of 2020, almost 50% less than in the same period last year. Erste explains the drop in profit with increased

The coronavirus pandemic has reduced the demand for new cars in Europe by a third in the first eight months of this year, while it has almost halved in Croatia.

In the period from January to August, a total of 6.12 million new cars were registered in 26 EU countries (excluding Malta), 32

percent less than in the first eight months of 2019. Demand for new cars dropped in all four leading European markets, the most in Spain and Italy, by 40.6 and 38.9 percent, respectively. It is followed

by France with a drop in the number of registered new cars by 38.9 percent, and Germany where it sank by 28.8 percent. According to ACEA data, 25,151 new cars were registered in Croatia in the period from January to August, which is a decrease of 47.9 percent compared to the same period last year, the largest among EU countries. .

clothing industry, in the amount of HRK 4,323. The average gross wage in Zagreb in June was HRK 11,032, a nominal increase of 2.7% compared to June 2019.

provision costs “which reflect the influence of the current situation tied to the coronavirus epidemic on the entire economy”. Erste underlines that they received around 9100 citizens’ requests for moratorium by the end of June, and these requests refer to around 13,600 sub-accounts, and the companies submitted around 2900 requests.

10 Gorenje Group LAST YEAR POSTED A LOSS OF EUR 55.2 MILLION, TWICE LESS THAN A YEAR BEFORE

Last year, Gorenje Group posted a net loss of EUR 55.2 million, after a EUR 111.2 million loss from the year before, i.e. EUR 37.3 million not including one-off events. Last year,

revenues exceeded the previous year by four percent, amounting to EUR 1.23 billion, according to the annual report published on the Ajpes website. Last year, Gorenje continued the process of integration into the Chinese Hisense Group, within which Gorenje was transformed from a joint stock company into a limited liability company.

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Virtual Lawyering - Online Mediation in a Time of Coronavirus As a result of the public health crisis created by COVID-19, the legal profession is operating virtually more and practicing in person less. The legal profession will never be the same

CORPORATE

PETAR PETRIĆ Attorney at Law, Petrić & Kajić Law Firm LLC, Mediator and Mediation Trainer

WEBSITE

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ttorneys will be litigating, arguing, closing transactions, and counseling individuals and corporate clients over virtual platforms, from the most commonplace tasks, such as a virtual notarization or executing a will, to holding virtual hearings before a court or closing on multi-million dollar transactions.

COVID-19 has locked down the world, bringing unthinkable harm – disease, unemployment and disaster for many businesses. With courts shut down, many litigators were having lot of free time at home, with little else to do. Many of their business clients were facing major losses, with stores closed and a dramaticaly reduced workforce.

It is unclear, how long the pandemic will last. If our economy and infrastructure are to survive, mechanisms for conflict resolution must be available. Companies and individuals must resolve conflicts to protect property as well as individual rights. Conflict resolution will allow people to carry on their work, pay their employees, and run their businesses.

The time has been ripe for mediation.

The fundamental question facing mediators when lockdown began was whether it is possible to continue mediation while we are all at a social distance.

Thanks to online platforms and videoconferencing technology, over the last few months there has been a dramatic shift to online mediation.

Preparation for a Virtual Mediation Like everything else we do in litigation, there is a significant correlation between preparation and success. The more a lawyer prepares her client for the mediation, the greater the likelihood of a positive result for the client.

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Procedures Unique to Virtual Mediations Prior to the mediation, counsel must discuss the specific technology for conducting the mediation with the mediator and with clients. Counsel should ensure that everyone is comfortable with the technology. A dress rehearsal or “mock” mediation might increase confidence in unfamiliar procedures.

The parties must set aside a specific amount of time to devote to the mediation, without interruptions. This can be a more difficult commitment when parties participate from their own offices where phones and computers can easily distract.

Parties should consider sharing documents in advance of the virtual mediation, through email or a portal, such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

Any potential written settlement agreement should be circulated in advance of the mediation. The parties should anticipate that edits will be shared electronically during the mediation.

The Virtual Mediation After thoughtful preparation, the virtual mediation itself should seem easy and comfortable. Typically, parties prefer separate caucuses. Virtual teleconference technologies like Zoom permit the mediator to create separate “breakout rooms” to house parties and lawyers. In a virtual mediation, it is relatively easy for the mediator to move between separate breakout rooms to hold private conversations with parties and counsel. In the event a joint caucus becomes necessary, the breakout rooms can be closed and everyone can become part of a joint meeting.

If the parties resolve all the material terms in dispute, the best procedure is to complete the written agreement, and have it signed by the parties who are present.

This can be accomplished through “DocuSign,” a program that allows parties to e-sign a document through a shared portal.

If it is not possible to complete a written settlement agreement, the parties should agree that all material terms are resolved and memorialize that final agreement in a term sheet.

Most mediators would agree that an in-person mediation is the ideal way to proceed with mediation. For the moment, and to allow the important work of conflict resolution to proceed, virtual mediations may offer a reasonable alternative to resolving your client’s disputes.

Importance of Online Mediation: Online platforms have surfaced to make ease and convenience for people to interact, communicate, and resolve issues and any potential conflicts that may arise between the given parties.

Freedom Although textual conversations lack tone and body language that is present in physical interactions, online mediation fully provides freedom of expression.

Intimidation from confrontation Too often, while resolving a conflict, one of the party turns out to be more dominating through their gestures or because of better communication skills. Due to these reasons, one party may shy away from putting their opinion on the table. This is another benefit of online mediation; no one has to feel intimidated by the other party as all the communication is carried out using non-verbal communication, and no party can over-power the other.

Preservation of Anonymity Online mediation provides the mediator an opportunity to stay anonymous.

If the mediator hasn't met any of the parties in person, then he can stay anonymous, which helps bias caused by socioeconomic factors like age, race, ethnicity, etc. Online mediation preserves identities and confidentialities and is suitable for a lot of people to avoid any bias and discrimination.

Spike in Demand of Online Mediation due to Corona Virus While practicing social distancing, it has become difficult for people to arrange mediation. Several issues are taking place on an everyday basis, and due to social distancing, it is getting difficult for people to physically interact with people.

Flexibility Online mediation provides flexibility and ease in terms of matching schedules as no one has to step out and travel anywhere. Rather all the parties can decide a mutual time to interact online or can contact via emails according to their own ease and convenience.

Geographical constraints For people who are living in different states, cities, or countries, it gets difficult to travel and reach people living elsewhere.

Online mediation solves these problems of geographically dispersed people or organizations and provides them the ease to stay at home and get their issues resolved.

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Data Science and the Art of Persuasion Istrian Infobip as the first Croatian Unicorn, Zagreb's Nanobit just sold to the Swedish gamer's giant Stillfront, Zagreb's software company Infinum and Rimac Automobili manufactoring hypercars and providing technology solution to global automotive industry, are all dealing with data science. Current global researches suggest that the key skills for data scientists is communication COLUMN

JAGODA POROPAT DARRER Business Communication Professional

s Harvard Business Review suggests over the past five years companies have invested billions to get the most-talented data scientists to set up shop, amass zettabytes of material, and run it through their deduction machines to find signals in the unfathomable volume of noise.

But despite the success stories, many companies aren’t getting the value they could from data science. Even well-run operations that generate strong analysis fail to capitalize on their insights. Efforts fall short in the last mile, when it comes time to explain the stuff to decision makers. Hugo Bowne-Anderson interviewed 35 data scientist for his podcast and concluded: “The vast majority of my guests tell [me] that the key skills for data scientists are the abilities to learn on the fly and

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tioners apply machine learning algorithms to numbers, text, images, video, audio, and more to produce artificial intelligence (AI) systems to perform tasks that ordinarily require human intelligence. In turn, these systems generate insights which analysts and business users can translate into tangible business value. While data scientists often come from many different educational and work experience backgrounds, most should be strong in, or in an ideal case be expert in four fundamental areas. In no particular order of priority or importance they are: Business, Mathematics (including Statistics and Probability), Computer science and Communication (both oral and written), suggests Castrounis (2020).

Narrative is an extremely powerful human contrivance

as a narrative that humans can comprehend.

Just as with any good story, a data tale has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It needs to be presented without bias and with the proper empathy and context so business users can absorb and leverage the insights for more intelligent decision-making. “If you want people to make the right decisions with data, you have to get in their head in a way they understand. Throughout human history, the way to do that has been with stories,” said Miro Kazakoff, an MIT Sloan lecturer who teaches Communications & Data Storytelling. “The skill of data storytelling is removing the noise and focusing people’s attention on the key insights,” explained Brent Dykes, a data strategy consultant. Perhaps the most difficult data story-

or more listeners. The responses of the listeners influence the telling of the story. In fact, storytelling emerges from the interaction and cooperative, coordinated efforts of teller and audience. Different cultures and situations create different expectations for the exact roles of storyteller and listener – who speaks how often and when, for example – and therefore create different forms of interaction. The interactive nature of storytelling partially accounts for its immediacy and impact.

Storytelling always involves the presentation of a story—a narrative. The storytelling listener’s role is to actively create the vivid, multi-sensory images, actions, characters, and events—the reality—of the story in his or her mind, based on the performance by the teller

telling skill to master is empathy, to understand where the audience is coming from and which parts of the data analysis they’ll react to.

According to National Storytelling network Storytelling involves a two-way interaction between a storyteller and one

and on the listener’s own past experiences, beliefs, and understandings. Croatian Unicorn Infobip, and three other stars: Nanobit, Rimac Automobili and Infinum surely know how to t(s)ell their stories, and could serve as an example to many others.

DATA SCIENCE PRACTITIONERS APPLY MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS TO NUMBERS, TEXT, IMAGES, VIDEO, AUDIO, AND MORE to communicate well in order to answer business questions, explaining complex results to nontechnical stakeholders.”

Most leaders recognize the value data science can deliver, and few are satisfied with how it’s being delivered. Some data scientists complain that bosses don’t understand what they do and underutilize them. Some managers complain that the scientists can’t make their work intelligible to a lay audience.

To explain, according to datarobot.com, data science combines domain expertise, programming skills, and knowledge of mathematics and statistics to extract meaningful insights from data. Data science practi-

and one of the most underutilized in data science. The ability to present data insights as a story will, more than anything else, help close the communication gap between algorithms and executives. “Storytelling with data,” a tired buzz phrase, is widely misunderstood, though.

It is decidedly not about turning presenters into Stephen Kings or Tom Clancys. Rather, it’s about understanding the structure and mechanics of narrative and applying them to dataviz and presentations (Berinato, 2019). While interpretations vary, most experts describe data storytelling as the ability to convey data not just in numbers or charts, but

23

THE BIGGEST SLUMP IN 50 YEARS

Amid a Brutal Contraction, Corporate Germany Assesses the Damage But business leaders think the worst may be over

t was even worse than expected. On July 30th Destatis, Germany’s federal statistics agency, announced that the economy shrank by 10.1% in the second quarter, compared with the first—largely the result of the government’s measures to contain the spread of covid-19. The drop was the deepest in half a century. Destatis also reported associated slumps in exports and imports, household consumption and investment in machinery and equipment.

The plunge in output returned GDP to where it was ten years ago.

Even so, according to Florian Hense, an economist at Berenberg, a German private bank, it “could have been much worse”. Germany’s lockdown was softer and shorter than in other European countries. Moreover the government responded with one of the most comprehensive fiscal stimuli around the globe, writes Mr Hense, which further cushioned the blow to the economy and accelerated its recovery. On the day after the grim German announcement France, Italy and Spain reported even sharper contractions, of 13.8%, 12.4 % and 18.5% respectively.

Nearly all businesses are feeling the pinch. The second-quarter reporting season, now halfway through, has been miserable. Heidelberg Cement, a maker of concrete, made a loss of €3bn in the first half of 2020, compared with a profit of €290m a year earlier.

Volkswagen (VW), Europe’s biggest carmaker, lost €1.4bn, against a profit of €9.6bn, and said car sales had dropped by 27% to 3.9m vehicles. And BASF, the world’s biggest chemicals company, said that sales slumped by 12%, year on year, in the second quarter, chiefly because demand from the car industry had collapsed. It too reported a net loss of €878m, having raked in almost €6bn in the same quarter in 2019.

This week Lufthansa, the national airline, Siemens, a giant engineering company, and others report, most likely intensifying the gloom.

Business leaders are pinning their hopes on an economic recov-

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MOST GERMAN BUSINESSES ARE EXTREMELY DEPENDENT ON EXPORTS. THEIR FATE WILL DEPEND ON THE RECOVERY OF ECONOMIES—AND THE TAMING OF THE VIRUS—IN THE REST OF THE WORLD ery in the third quarter, assuming that a resurgence of coronavirus infections will not lead to another lockdown of the economy. The government’s stimulus of more than €130bn—equivalent to 3.8% of last year’s GDP—including a temporary cut of value-added tax to boost domestic demand, should help the economy return to growth. The European Union’s €750bn package (to which Germany will be a big contributor) should help further by boosting German exports within the bloc.

Peter Altmaier, the economy minister, thinks the economy will start to grow again in October “at the latest”.

He expects it to shrink by 6.3% this year but to grow by 5.2% next year.

Still, it will not reattain its pre-crisis level until 2022 at the earliest.

One ray of light is unemployment, which held steady at 6.4% in July, with 18,000 fewer people

out of work than in June. For that, credit the country’s Kurzarbeit, short-time work schemes that help companies keep staff employed at reduced (or even no) hours while the state pays the bulk of salaries.

About 6.7m workers are enrolled.

Before the pandemic unemployment was at a record post-reunification low, hovering at 5%. Skilled workers in particular were scarce.

Retail sales have been recovering, jumping by 12.7% in May after most shops were closed in March and April. Industrial production rose around 10.4% in the same month, according to Destatis. German business leaders are cautiously optimistic that the worst is behind them. Ola Källenius, the chairman of Daimler, another big carmaker, said recently that he had spotted the first signs of a recovery of sales.

VW thinks that in spite of its disas-

trous second quarter it will be profitable this year.

On July 21st HSBC, an international bank, published a survey of 2,600 firms with sales of more than $5bn in 14 countries. It suggested that the 200 German firms included should weather the crisis better than those elsewhere: 53% of them said they were strongly affected by the pandemic, compared with 72% in the other 13 countries (including America, Britain, Canada, China, France and Mexico). Maybe. Most German businesses are extremely dependent on exports. Their fate will depend on the recovery of economies—and the taming of the virus— in the rest of the world.

From The Economist, published under licence.

The original article, in English, can be found on www.economist.com

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Manipulation or Communication There is no doubt that we are in the era of the Third World War

COLUMN

DANIJEL KOLETIĆ Apriori World

his is not only between interest groups od leaders that had lost their mind for real, but it covered almost all countries that have possibility of taking loans.

Unfortunately, I fear that the Corona has left new guidelines for communication in the phase of manipulation.

The entire media world is now focused on reporting about COVID-19, a virus that came like a tsunami from China, and flooded the entire world. Just as Russian scientists were first to announce that they are putting their vaccine into use, and just as many more vaccines are expected. Will countries, just as they were forced during avian flu, to order Tamiflu, no matter if it is necessary or not, be forced to order vaccines. Will countries pass mandatory vaccination law, or will they simply have to buy vaccine. Can be vaccine be produced for all the people worlwide, will only those in developed countries ultimately get it, will we all have to get vaccinated without really knowing the truth about the vaccine content?

These are all questions we are thinking about. Usually when it comes to a pandemic, then there should be certain standards. Once again, the pandemic has shown us that each country has its own rules, hat in each state people are protected differently through out different codes of conduct. What is indisputable is the aggressive communication results in millions of people get hurt and lose their jobs. Situation of enormous crisis has been created and it aims not only to create control over people,

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but because of all of that we can say that we are in an era of saving nations. The poor will continue to live poor, the rich richer or more at least stable.

Economies are sinking under the weight of this crisis, so as number of industries such as the aviation and road industry, the automotive industry, the tourism sector, event management, the organization of congresses, concerts and many other art events. Sport events have found at least a temporary solution to meet all sponsorship obligations. Does this mean that sponsorship packages will change? Many athletes are waiting for the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo next year. Does it seem to you that we are part of a manipulation in which you also feel just like a number who may, without even knowing it, have already overcome that virus? Or we are simply waiting for another virus that must come to

us. Only time will tell. Lately, I have been often asked what do I think how long this crisis will last? I’m not a psychic, but armed with some common sense I can conclude that it will last for four years until people relax again. The European Union will spend billions of euros to stabilize economies, keep as many jobs as possible, but also create many new jobs and professions. In our region before the virus came, we had an exodus crisis. More than half a million people from Croatia alone, and another 1.5 million from countries of the former Yugoslavia left , desiring to live with dignity. Recent analyzes show that they left not because they do not like their homelands, but because of dissatisfaction with political leadership and corruption.

Corona takes lives, but countries from the region are losing them because between policies and those who have cre-

NO ONE SPEAKS, TALKS OR REPORTS ABOUT DEATHS CAUSED BY A STROKES OR HEARTH ATTACKS

ated something through out their work and who support politics through creation that accumulates financial obligations, they have never participated in two-way communication. Behind me are numerous successful projects that have had an impact on law changes such as the law on the collection of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) packaging, the law on scholarships, and I recently participated in professional expert support of the communication strategy of digital rights law in accordance with EU directives. Will it ever happen in our region that more professional people are hired, and not only those who are there because of their political affiliation. Will we ever experience the value of knowledge that, ultimately, exists and is valued more abroad than on the domestic stage. I would like to see how the knowledge possessed by our people accumulates for the good of the nation, for the good of prosperity. The countries in the region have a new challenge, the challenge of financial transparency. Do citizens and taxpayers, have any insight into the distribution of financial resources related to COVID-19? Is it in someone's interest and is it in interest of citizens who slightly falling into depression or is it survival the key issue for them. How will they look toward new demographic order globally, inside the European Union or outside of it? Unfortunately, we may never find out the truth in numbers because even now there are huge doubts about transparency. While we are waiting for the vaccine that should remove the virus, I believe, from primary perception, the world has new challenges in which it has to show the strength of freedom in Belarus, and on the other hand we have the challenge of awakening new life and establishing transparency.

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by Robert Čoban REPORTAGUE

Lead-Gray Sea and Pine-Coloured Sky Everything is unpretentious on the island and a bit dilapidated, but with a charm that comes from an unusual mixture of Austro-Hungarian and socialist allure, which is a direct consequence of Kupelwieser's 20 and Tito's 30 years spent on the Brioni islands – the two la belle epoque archipelagos. Everything before, after and in between did not have the same splendour

t’s midnight on a dock in the Sveti Nikola bay on the island of Mali Brion. Acting like a caring father, Duško Ljuština, is walking from boat to boat – from the big one with 300 people that sails to Fažana and small speedboats to yachts that transport VIP guests to the Neptun Hotel on the island of Veliki Brion. "Put those ropes away, someone will trip over and fall into the sea!" Duško warns.

Lidija Udovički, who jumped into the water at her own accord to celebrate the 20th birthday of the festival created by her talented sister Lenka, swam to the dock, hugged Duško and, glowing in the light of the midnight moon, said: "The past 20 years would not have been possible without him!" Responsible, moral, but also a jokester from Lika, who is still using the age-old expressions of people from Lika that I only heard my mother-in-law use and nobody else, Duško has been mas-

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terfully leading the Ulysses Festival for 20 years, just like he had managed the Kerempuh Theatre (formerly Jazavac) in Zagreb for almost three decades.

Three years ago. on Ulysses’ terrace, I watched him how he welcomed Ivan Todorić, the heir of the then bankrupt Agrokor and a former sponsor of the festival, and his wife Milica. The young Todorić, whose company they had longed for only a couple of years earlier,

from Fažana to the Brioni. As always, we were seated in the outdoor area of the Neptun Hotel and we ordered cheese from Pag and the Malvasia wine. Just as we were about to finish off the second bottle, Joely Kim Richardson, a Hollywood actress known to our audience as Julia from the series Nip/Tuck, came in, riding a bike. Joely is the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, a great friend of Rade Šerbedžija and the Ulysses Festival, and the sister of actress Nata-

She came instead of her mother, who does not travel during the pandemic due to her age.

By the way, Croatia is the first choice for summer vacation for many people from Serbia this year, since Croatia doesn’t have such strict entry rules compared to Greece, Bulgaria or Montenegro. All you need is a negative PCR test or a written confirmation that you will be accommodated for 14 days (in other words, you will spend two weeks in quarantine). Rovinj, the Brioni and the whole of Istria are full of tourists from Serbia. I saw them everywhere I went.

Oliver Dragojević’s song “Cesarica” plays on the terrace of the Neptun Hotel located on the other side of the harbour on the Veliki Brion. My room at the Karmen Hotel doesn’t have air conditioning but it has one of the best views of the Mediterranean. Once the clouds started casting a shadow over the harbour, the scene reminded me of the lyrics of the famous Šerbedžija’s song, written by Arsen Dedić – “Lead-gray sea and pine-coloured sky…”

The Austro-Hungarian industrialist, Paul Kupelwieser, built the hotel in 1913. In 1893, he bought the entire archipelago with a plan to develop tourism there. Kupelwieser’s ap-

SHORTLY AFTER THE WAR, IN 1947, JOSIP BROZ TITO SET FOOT ON THE BRIONI FOR THE FIRST TIME, AND THAT PAVED THE PATH FOR THE NEW HISTORY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO was shunned in Zagreb at that time, but Ljuština welcomed him with the same attention as he welcomed all the current festival patrons or Vanessa Redgrave or non-VIP guests.

A couple of hours earlier, I disembarked from a ship that was transporting passengers

sha Richardson, the late wife of Liam Neeson, who tragically died on a skiing trip in 2009.

Joely, who looks as if she hasn’t aged a year since the filming of Nip/Tuck in 2003, greets everybody with an elbow ‘hello’ in accordance with the practice imposed by the "new normal".

proach to implementing this plan was stern and typically German. To combat malaria, he turned to the famous bacteriologist Robert Koch, who first sent his associates to the Brioni, and then came the islands himself. According to their instructions, all ponds,

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which were home to mosquitoes that were the main malaria carriers, were covered in dirt, and patients were treated with quinine. The disease was eradicated in only one year.

After this successful endeavour, the construction of big hotels commenced. By 1913, four hotels with 320 beds and a dozen villas were built. In 1908, the islands got running water from the mainland. The islands were also advertised as a climatic health resort, and since 1910, they also had their own weekly called Brioni-Inselzeitung. The beautiful building in the harbour called The House for Boats, built in the Art Nouveau style, was home to a local doctor back in the day, while today it houses a small museum where we learned about many famous guests that vacationed on the Brioni – the Romanian King Michael, painter Gustav Klimt, inventor Guglielmo Marconi, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, writers James Joyce and Thomas Mann, composer Richard Strauss…

Shortly after the war, in 1947, Josip Broz Tito set foot on the Brioni for the first time, and that paved the path for the new history of the archipelago; even more spectacular than the one from the Art Nouveau era. In 1949, the Brioni was Tito's designated island residence. Here, as a host and statesman, he received 53 heads of states and political parties, even more prime ministers, government ministers and foreign delegations - from Queen Elizabeth II through Gaddafi, Khrushchev and Gorbachev to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Barton through to Sophia Loren to Gina Lollobrigida. During those thirty years, especially in the last decade before Tito's death, it seemed that the entire planet came to call on the President of Yugoslavia. The exhibition called "Tito on the Brioni" is also dedicated to this epoch. After seeing the exhibition, one can deduce that all the states that emerged from the disintegration of Yugoslavia will never succeed in having even a small part of the international reputation and prestige that Tito secured for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Ti-

to's 5.6-metre-long Eldorado Cadilac from 1953 is parked in front of the museum.

As in previous years, the reason why I came to the Brioni again was the famous festival Ulysses which a couple of artists and spouses Lenka Udovički and Rade Šerbedžija have been organizing for 20 years under the masterful baton

concert. Actors and directors who have participated in the festival over the last 20 years spoke via video messages, and there was a particularly emotional segment that was dedicated to actors and film workers who are no longer with us, including Nebojša Glogovac who starred in the play "A Drunk November Night in 1918".

everything is kind of frozen in time, as if you were back in 1983, during breakfast the hotel pianist plays classical melodies on the terrace, there are no bars with loud music, and no "drunk Englishmen" and "arrogant Russians" as elsewhere across the Adriatic - just nice people including a lot from Belgrade. My room has WiFi only

IN THE YEAR WHEN THE PULA FILM FESTIVAL AND THE FESTIVALS IN MOTOVO AND GROŽNJAN WERE CANCELLED, ŠERBEDŽIJA'S FESTIVAL ON THE BRIONI IS THE ONLY SUCH EVENT THAT TOOK PLACE

20 YEARS OF THE FESTIVAL: Rade Šerbedžija, Matija Dedić and Gabi Novak on the stage on the Mali Brion

of the aforementioned Duško Ljuština. In the year when the Pula Film Festival and the festivals in Motovo and Grožnjan were cancelled, Šerbedžija's festival on the Brioni is the only such event that took place. The concert in honour of the festival’s 20th birthday was held in a rather unusual way - the stage was on the island while the audience watched the programme from the boats in front. In addition to the hosts, Gabi Novak, Vlatko Stefanovski, Damir Urban, Darko Rundek and Matija Dedić also performed at the

The concert lasted the perfect two and a half hours and everything went smoothly except when two girls in bathing suits on a yacht nearby started talking so loudly (as a result of the content of their glasses) during Rade’s recital of the famous poem “Ne Daj Se Ines” that we felt tempted to throw them in the sea.

The Brioni is a national park and all facilities on it are owned by the state, which has had many negative but also several extraordinary positive effects.

There are no cars on the island,

on the terrace and occasionally, you can ‘steal’ the Internet from one of the yachts that are anchored a few metres away.

Everything here is unpretentious and a bit dilapidated, but with a charm that comes from an unusual mixture of Austro-Hungarian and socialist allure, which is a direct consequence of Kupelwieser's 20 and Tito's 30 years spent on the Brioni islands – the two la belle epoque archipelagos.

Everything before, after and in between did not have the same splendour.

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BEGINNER’S LUCK

Why Democracy Thrives in Some Places and Not in Others It’s a matter of history and good fortune, says David Stasavage wo common beliefs about democracy are that it began in ancient Athens and, on spreading from there, remained peculiarly Western. David Stasavage, a professor of politics at New York University, finds both views mistaken. Without them, he thinks it will be easier to get hopes and fears for present-day democracy into better perspective and balance.

Understood as government by consultation and consent, democracy, he shows, can be found in many early civilisations, not just classical Greece—including ancient Mesopotamia, Buddhist India, the tribal lands of the American Great Lakes, pre-conquest Mesoamerica and pre-colonial Africa. With that spread in mind, he writes that under given conditions, “democratic governance…comes naturally to humans”. The puzzle is that autocratic governance was just as natural. It, too, was found in many places. In pre-modern China and the Islamic world, for example, autocracy— together with a centralised bureaucracy—was for centuries the norm.

To find out why early democracy occurred where it did, the author draws on evidence from archaeology, soil science, demographics and climate studies. The key, in his account, was information.

Early democracy tended to flourish where rulers knew little of what people were growing and had few ways to find out. They might underguess taxable produce (forgoing revenue) or overguess (provoking non-compliance). It was better to ask people how much they grew and, in return, listen to their demands. That pattern was typical where populations were small and a central state weak or non-existent.

With big populations, consultation was impractical. Rulers instead sent officials to see how much was grown and, before long, how many young men could be drafted into armies. Bureaucracies emerged. With their aid, autocratic rule imposed itself on local custom. In pre-modern settings, this autocratic bureaucracy was more common where soil

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PRE-MODERN EUROPE HAD (WITH EXCEPTIONS) DEMOCRATIC CUSTOMS AND WEAK RULERS WITHOUT EFFECTIVE BUREAUCRACIES was good, yields high and knowhow advanced, especially in writing and measuring. Such systems were able to tax heavily. Song China (10th-13th centuries) and the Abbasid Caliphate (8th-13th centuries) extracted at their height respectively 10% and 7% of gross yearly product. Medieval European rulers managed barely 1%.

Once established, central bureaucracies were hard to dismantle. They took well to modernity and new technologies. Early democracy, by contrast, was notably—although not fatally—vulnerable to the rise of modern states and rapid economic development. It accordingly vanished in many places, while surviving in others.

Modernity and central states, in other words, allowed for either autocracy or democracy. But was there a pattern? Mr Stasavage thinks so.

He calls it “sequencing”. “If the early democratic institutions of government by consent are established

first,” he writes, “then it is possible to subsequently build a bureaucracy without veering inevitably into autocracy or despotism.” It depends on what went before.

FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE Awkwardly for this argument, the West is the one part of the world where early democracy of the smallscale, direct kind evolved most securely into modern, representative democracy. Does that not make democracy peculiarly Western after all? In modern democracy’s three waves—in the 19th century, post1945 and post-1989—Western democracy was first. Despite glaring collapses, it has fared best. Yet, in Mr Stasavage’s telling, there was nothing essential—a liberal outlook, say, or respect for property, or a gift for industry—that tied the West and modern democracy together, beyond the luck of the past.

Pre-modern Europe had (with exceptions) democratic customs and

weak rulers without effective bureaucracies. Where it occurs, and is not wiped out by autocracy, consensual government, the author writes, leaves “very deep traces”. Democracy and autocracy each have strong roots. There are good reasons to expect each to endure.

That conclusion may seem small yield for such intellectual labour.

But a bracing stringency is one of the virtues of “The Decline and Rise of Democracy”. It sweeps across the globe in command of recent scholarship. It takes an economic view of politics as putative bargaining between rulers and ruled, dispensing with what actual people thought and did and skirting fastidious analysis of key ideas. Its strongest lessons are negative: it shows how complex democracy’s patterns are and, on the evidence, how simpler accounts of its past and prospects stumble.

The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today.

By David Stasavage. Princeton University Press; 424 pages; $35 and £30.

From The Economist, published under licence.

The original article, in English, can be found on www.economist.com

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