April 4, 2023 - Zagreb traffic will follow special regulations in April due to a new project. The estimated project value is EUR 29.2 million, and the funds are fully provided by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

As Poslovni writes, part of the track at Zapadni kolodvor will be closed to traffic from April 6 to April 19 due to railway renovation, HŽ infrastructure announced on Monday.

During the reconstruction period on April 6 and 7, from April 11 to 14, and from April 17 to 19, trains will not run on the routes Zagreb GK - Zaprešić and vice versa, Zagreb GK - Savski Marof and vice versa, and Harmica - Zagreb GK and vice versa.

At the Kustošija stop, the platform on the left (southern) track will be used for the entry and exit of passengers.

From April 3 to 5, traffic will flow as usual, and the works will have less impact on traffic compared to the works carried out from March 20 to April 2, and minor delays are expected.

Special traffic regulations are coordinated with the dynamics of the works and are planned periodically until the completion of the works, which is expected in the middle of 2024.

The project "Renovation of the railway on the section Zagreb Zapadni kolodvor (included) - Zagreb Main Station (excluded)" is carried out on a short but one of the busiest sections in Croatia, through which about 150 trains pass in a day.

The renovation of the said section starts from the Kustošija stop, which was renovated last year, to the entrance to Zagreb Main Station.

The works include the complete renovation of the upper and lower track structure, the rehabilitation of bridges and the construction of culverts, the construction of landscaped areas for passenger access, work on signal-safety and telecommunication devices, the modernization of the "Vodovodna" and "Republic of Austria" railway-road crossings, as well as the renovation and replacement of part contact network system.

The estimated project value is EUR 29.2 million, and the funds are fully provided by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Upon completion of the work on the project, trains will be able to travel at a speed of up to 120 km/h on that section, the level of safety and interoperability will be raised, and the throughput capacity of the railway will increase and the possibility of transporting a larger number of passengers in daily migration traffic.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

April the 4th, 2023 - Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) has obtained 37 brand new trucks to carry out deliveries as part of the company's continued investment in doing ''greener'' business.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a massive 2,717,474.40 euros (without VAT included) were invested in the purchase of these brand new trucks, and the price of the five-year contract includes maintenance costs, insurance costs and comprehensive Kasko insurance. The newly acquired trucks will replace similar vehicles obtained back in 2017 that have covered a total of 12.5 million kilometres since the beginning of the period of their use.

The new trucks that Croatian Post has obtained have engines that are characterised by reduced fuel consumption, they also have considerably lower maintenance costs and comply with the very strict Euro VI C environmental standards for the emission of harmful gases.

In line with the transformation of their business into a much more sustainable and ''green'' one, Croatian Post is continuing to modernise its entire vehicle fleet by purchasing vehicles that pollute the environment less and enable the more efficient transport of shipments and other types of cargo. Back at the beginning of this year, the biggest procurement cycle of electric vehicles was finally completed.

From October 2022 to January 2023, Croatian Post had its hands on 157 new electric vehicles, and for the first time, the company's delivery vans were included in the purchase. The postal green fleet now has more than 320 electric vehicles, including 114 vans and light delivery vehicles.

Along with the expansion of the green vehicle fleet, Croatian Post is also expanding its own network of charging stations for electric vehicles. So far, it has installed around 40 charging stations, and by the middle of this year there will be more than 80 of them dotted around the country. The charging stations will be located in as many as eighteen cities, from Osijek all the way down to Dubrovnik, which will ensure the prerequisites for expanding their fleet of electric vehicles throughout the Republic of Croatia.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

April the 4th, 2023 - Festigia taste&shop, Agrolaguna's newest tasting room and store, has opened in Porec with the aim of further enriching the already enviable gastronomic and wine offer of the Istrian peninsula.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last week, the brand new Agrolaguna tasting room and shop for the sale of Istrian cheeses, olive oils and wines was opened in Porec at Mate Vlasica 34. The new Festigia taste&shop concept will see Agrolaguna enrich the offer of eno-gastro tourism across Istria. The new store's opening was attended by Fabris Perusko, the CEO of the Fortenova Group, Sotiris Yannopoulos, the Executive Director of the Fortenova Group for the Food Business Area, Nerina Zec, the President of the Agrolaguna Management Board, Loris Persuric, the Mayor of Porec, and Boris Miletic, the Prefect of Istria County.

The newly opened Festigia taste&shop store will offer its customers and visitors a very wide large selection of top Festigia and Vina Laguna wines, Ol Istria olive oils and Spin Istrian cheeses. Thematic evenings and education about wine, oil and cheese will all also be organised in the tasting room. During consumption, guests and customers will be made intimately familiar with the entire process and experience of creating Agrolaguna's top products. The goal is for this shop and tasting room to also be a favourite meeting place for all gourmet lovers who appreciate local Istrian products.

"The complete renovation of this facility is an important part of the transformation of Agrolaguna into a modern producer of wine, oil and cheese, which is a change that the Fortenova Group supports both organisationally and through investment. The top quality of our products has been confirmed by numerous international awards, and bearing in mind the tourism potential of this entire region, with this new concept we're making a step forward in presenting what it has to offer, because as important as tourism is for the overall development of Istria, is equally important as a lever for the development of Agrolaguna.

It's our wish that the tasting room, as well as some other parts of the company, such as the vineyard or the cellar, become an indispensable point of the tourist offer of this region. In this way, the company is confirming its responsibility towards the environment, contributing to the construction of modern destination tourism, and at the same time developing a partnership relationship with the local community,'' said Fabris Perusko, Fortenova's CEO.

Nerina Zec, president of the Agrolaguna Management Board, also spoke on the occasion of the opening of the Festigia taste&shop store: "This new concept represents a great opportunity for us to showcase our long-term and new customers how much knowledge, experience and expertise we continue to invest in the production of high-quality, local Istrian products. Our new Festigia tasting room and store offers a unique shopping and tasting experience, which will enable all customers and visitors to get even closer to Istrian culture."

Boris Miletic, Istria County's prefect, spoke at the opening about the importance of promoting Istrian products and the county's wine and gastronomic offer, as did Loris Persuric, Porec's mayor: "Every city would be proud to have such a large manufacturer in its ranks, but it isn't only large, it's also of high quality. Olive oil, cheese, wine, all of these are products marked by their numerous awards for excellence. That's why I'd like to congratulate you for deciding to open a new tasting room and boutique today, because your products deserve it. I believe that this boutique will quickly become a favourite place for all those who want to take the taste of Porec and Istria back home with them. I'd also like to congratulate the people who create these products and I wish them much success in their future business."

The long-standing tradition of Agrolaguna connects a modern approach and the quality of local products; premium wines from 630 hectares of vineyards, extra virgin olive oils from more than 65,000 olive trees and hard cheeses produced exclusively from fresh domestic milk from Croatian farms. These are high-quality products, the quality of which is best demonstrated by numerous awards won at prestigious Croatian and international competitions, and it's precisely the new Festigia taste&shop store that will enable their better presentation and promotion.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

April 3, 2023 - The SuperSport HNL 27th round was played from March 31 to April 2, 2023. The round of 1-1 draws also featured a crucial win for Hajduk, now just 7 points behind Dinamo in the first place. 

Slaven Belupo - Istra 1961 (2-0)

Belupo and Istra opened the 27th round on Friday, March 31, in Koprivnica in front of 593 fans. 

Mudrazija put Belupo ahead in the 39th minute for 1-0. Krstanovic made it 2-0 in the 73rd minute, which is how the game ended. Surprisingly, Belupo only had 35% possession during the match, but a total of 13 attempts on goal, five of which were on target. 

Belupo is currently in 5th place with 36 points, while Istra is in 7th with 35. Belupo meets Varazdin next weekend, and Istra meets Hajduk. 

Gorica - Dinamo (1-1)

Gorica and Dinamo met on Saturday, April 1, in Velika Gorica in front of 4,084 fans. 

After a scoreless first half, Ljubicic put Dinamo ahead in the 60th minute for 0-1. Mitrovic equalized in the 85th minute for the final 1-1. Dinamo had 60% possession during the match and 14 total attempts, with four on target, while Gorica had 15 total attempts and seven on target. 

Gorica is in last place with 17 points, while Dinamo is in first with 60. Gorica plays Osijek next, and Dinamo meets Lokomotiva. 

Sibenik - Hajduk (2-3)

Sibenik and Hajduk met on Saturday, April 1, in Sibenik in front of 2,718 fans. 

A goal from Livaja in the 45th minute made it 0-1 for Hajduk at halftime. Mlakar and Pukstas made it 0-3 for Hajduk by the 60th minute. Dolcek returned with a goal for 1-3 in the 63rd minute and Kvrzic for the final 2-3 in the 90th. Sibenik had 54% of possession and 13 total attempts compared to Hajduk's 14 total attempts and eight on target. 

Sibenik is in 9th place with 24 points, while Hajduk is in 2nd with 53. Sibenik plays Rijeka next and Hajduk meets Istra. 

Rijeka - Osijek (1-1)

Rijeka and Osijek met on Sunday, April 2, at Rujevica in front of 5,864 fans. 

Frigan put Rijeka ahead in the 31st minute for 1-0. Zaper didn't equalize for Osijek until the match's final minute for 1-1. Rijeka had 47% possession compared to Osijek's 53%, while both sides had 14 total attempts on goal. 

Rijeka is in 6th place with 35 points, while Osijek is in 3rd with 38. Rijeka plays Sibenik next and Osijek meets Gorica. 

Lokomotiva - Varazdin (1-1)

Lokomotiva and Varazdin closed out the 27th round on Sunday, April 2, in Zagreb in front of 759 fans. 

Gorican made it 1-0 in the 5th minute, and Puclin equalized in the 51st for the final 1-1. Lokomotiva had 58% of possession during the match with 20 total attempts, 11 of which were on target. 

Lokomotiva is in 8th place with 33 points, while Varazdin is in 4th with 37. Lokomotiva plays Dinamo next and Varazdin meets Belupo.

You can check out the HNL table HERE. 

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

April the 3rd, 2023 - A considerable number of individuals, 300,000 of them to be more precise, could end up losing their Croatian health insurance as a new law is now in force.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a new law will fully enable the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (Croatian: HZZO) to ''clean up'' the records it holds of insured persons from so-called "fictitious" insured persons. Many such people with ''fictitious'' insurance have now left Croatia, got a job abroad and actually no longer have the right to access public Croatian health insurance. According to estimates by the health administration, that figure could total around 300,000 insured persons, writes Novi list.

Amendments to the Law on Compulsory Health Insurance have now entered into force, which prescribe the obligation for insured persons to report to their local HZZO office in person if they have reached the age of eighteen, terminated their employment, or served military service or a prison sentence. In the case of an application to the employment office, such reporting to HZZO offices is not necessary.

The obligation to report in person to HZZO in order to check the circumstances on the basis of which their Croatian health insurance status was determined (if they aren't registered in the records of unemployed persons of the Croatian Employment Service) is prescribed by new legal provisions for everyone after the age of eighteen, after the end of the school year in which they finished their mandatory education or after passing their final exam, or after the termination of an employment relationship.

According to the new law, all those who have just served military service and prisoners (after having been released from an institution for the execution of criminal and misdemeanor sanctions), as well as from a health or other specialised institution, such as a secure psychiatric hospital, must also report to HZZO.

The aforementioned categories of insured persons must report in person to the nearest HZZO office within 90 days from the date of entry into force of the Act, i.e. no later than June the 29th, 2023. If they don't want to remain without any Croatian health insurance, they will still have the obligation to come to HZZO in person once every three months, except for the times during which their names can be found in the records of unemployed persons at the Croatian Employment Service.

Those who do not fulfill their obligation within the prescribed period, i.e. by the end of June this year, and after that once every three months, will simply be deregistered from compulsory Croatian health insurance ex officio, without issuing any kind of special decision.

According to the new legal provisions, insured persons who have registered a temporary departure outside of Croatia can retain their Croatian health insurance until the end of June at the latest, and HZZO will deregister them from compulsory health insurance ex officio at the end of that period, and as stated above, they'll do so without issuing a decision.

These are mainly emigrants who have now left Croatia and gone to work abroad in the last decade, and yet they have remained on the list of insured persons at HZZO and occasionally use healthcare services when in Croatia. At the beginning of 2022, a comparison of the number of inhabitants in the last population census and the number of people who hold Croatian health insurance showed that there are 200,000 more people insured through HZZO compared to the total number of inhabitants in Croatia.

For more, check out our dedicated news section.

April the 3rd, 2023 - One large Croatian tourist agency has unfortunately been the target of malicious malware, and the concerning thing is that there was very little help at hand through the police, the state institutions or even by insurance companies.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, Adriagate, a well known Croatian tourist agency, almost had 22 years of hard work disappear in just a few hours. This Split-based Croatian tourist agency, which deals with renting out private properties, had a close call with a cyber attack. On the night of January the 17th to the 18th this year, they suffered a hacker attack with an extortion of 500,000 dollars, in which 90 percent of their data from about 30 servers in Split and Zagreb was encrypted in a mere two hours, and about 50 applications crashed, as did their website, and their accounting data just disappeared. It is still not known who the perpetrator was.

The founders of the Adriagate agency, Igor Popovic and Toni Blaskovic, told this bizarre, almost cinematic story about how they managed to stop the attack and get their data back, and how much support they had from the appropriate institutions and infrastructure here in Croatia. They recalled their experience during the Days of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies (UHPA), held in Brela. Their testimony is valuable to the extent that at least fifteen members of the Association from this meeting recalled having suffered a similar attack, but chose to pay the demanded ransom and continue to work with the risk of a new attack - because, as is known, hackers come back. Here are more of the details.

"We have a monitoring system for our applications that notifies us when something isn't working properly. When I woke up, I saw that I'd received a message on my phone that our website had crashed and was unavailable. Well, that's nothing strange, so I went to make some coffee, and when I connected to the server with that coffee, I was greeted by a message from AvosLocker entitled "Get your files back". I quickly extinguished everything and for five hours everything remained off, but for three days we didn't know the extent of the damage done to us, because we didn't know if it would continue to work if the process was not completed. We reported the case to the police, we contacted data recovery companies from Croatia and Germany, we tried everything, but with this variant of this virus there is no solution except possibly just paying a ransom, but without any kind of guarantee," explained Blaskovic.

AvosLocker is a relatively new ransomware virus that has been active since 2021, and works by encrypting data with a ransom offer. This Croatian tourist agency first received a payment request in the amount of 500 thousand dollars, which was reduced to 250 thousand dollars after further communication with the hackers. In the end, Adriagate did not pay, because the general recommendation is not to pay in such situations.

"We started communicating with the hackers, but we didn't pay, but we managed to get the data back with our own resources. A criminal report has been filed, but only in 0.05 percent of cases are the perpetrators are found, and even then, they are very well protected. The last case from Germany shows this level, it was an attack in which the perpetrators were discovered but they were not even arrested, they were only detected and identified by Interpol. You're never sure that they aren't already there somewhere in the system and that they won't do it again. Now that we've been setting everything back up again, we set up the entire infrastructure in a totally different way, we put together a totally new system from the beginning on new servers with completely different protection,'' added Blaskovic.

"There's always a risk that you pay a large amount without having any guarantee that the data will be returned to you, and we were afraid about how we'd manage to pay such a large amount through the company, how the tax administration would look at it, they would also accuse us of embezzlement from our own company,'' said Popovic. It should also be noted that this type of attack requires payment in crypto-currencies that must be purchased beforehand, there are no legal channels to do this and the hackers are completely protected.

Since the accounting data is also encrypted in these cases, the attacked company will also be late with reporting their obligations to the relevant state institutions. In addition to that, it seemed to Adriagate that the Croatian police don't really have a lot of resources or experience in dealing with this type of crime, which has become more and more common with ongoing digitalisation. Adriagate pointed out that even Croatian insurers don't have policies for protection on offer for such cases, unlike in some other countries where this is understood as a relatively common issue.

For more, check out our dedicated news section.

April the 3rd, 2023 - Despite the slowing down of inflation across the country for the fourth consecutive month now, more Croatian price hikes appear to be on the horizon.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, after a long time of everything seeming to cost the earth, it has finally been confirmed (at least according to the first estimate of the CBS for March), that inflation is continuing to slow down. That said, the prices of goods and services for personal consumption, measured by the consumer price index, are 10.6% higher on average on an annual basis, and 0.8% higher now than they were back in February.

However, compared to last March, food, drink and tobacco are still the most expensive items - they are 15% more expensive on an annual basis, and although the government and ministers still claim that there is no justification for most of the Croatian price hikes we've been seeing for some time now, some in the trade sector still listed more new prices recently, and these include the manufacturers and suppliers of detergents, cosmetics, pasta, chocolate, and so on.

Some prices have been in effect since March, writes Vecernji list, but some are still waiting for their old stocks to be used up/sold first, as was explained by the leaders of the HGK and HUP merchants' associations, Ivica Katavic and Martin Evacic, as well as the KTC and NTL retail chains.

Katavic claims that foreign companies were the strongest of all in announcing price increases, but there are Croatian companies very much engaging in the same as well. This new wave of Croatian price hikes mostly regards increases of around 8 to 10%, but there are also those of 25 to 30 percent. Evacic added that the rise or fall of prices also depends on the sources of supply of the retailers themselves, contracts, agreements, terms... and the public.

Branko Roglic, the owner of the well known Croatian Orbico Group, otherwise the largest distribution company in the country's immediate region, says that they've raised their prices for their customers only by as much as their suppliers raised them for them.

''We will not increase our margins, but only transfer the prices we receive from our suppliers to our customers. We've been doing this for more than a year and a half, since the prices started to rise. We don't have any special earnings from this, nor do we want such earnings,'' he said.

For more, check out our dedicated news section.

Hvar, April 2, 2023 - Press Release - After last year's opening of the Beach Bay Hvar Hotel, as the first sustainable hotel in Hvar, and joining the UNESCO sustainable tourism program, with an investment in a new solar power plant project, Sunčani Hvar confirms its leadership position in the application of energy efficiency and green transition programs, setting new standards both in the hotel industry and in the economy in general.

Namely, Sunčani Hvar hotels are the first hotel company in Croatia that will install solar power plants in all its hotels and buildings in order to produce its own electricity. The total planned installed capacity of the power plants will reach 1 MW of energy, which will make Sunčani Hvar the largest private producer of solar energy on all Croatian islands and in Dalmatia. The estimated amount of electricity that will be produced in the installed solar power plants is sufficient for 40% of the entire annual needs of Sunčani Hvar, which will significantly reduce the impact of increased costs of energy sources, and thus increase the competitiveness and sustainability of business. By using renewable energy sources, it also contributes to the Green Plan of the European Union, which aims to create a green and sustainable Europe in the coming decades and at the same time contribute to the preservation of the environment.

"Sustainability is no longer just a trend, but an unavoidable business principle. In Sunčani Hvar, we continuously work on projects of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. We also strive to find ecological solutions that increase the competitiveness and sustainable growth of the company. By introducing solar energy, we contribute to the European Green Plan and to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, all in accordance with the global ESG strategy of the CPI PG group to which we belong," said the President of the Management Board, Gordana Tomičić.

The island of Hvar is the sunniest Croatian island and one of the sunniest islands in the Mediterranean. Due to the longest insolation of over 2,700 hours per year, it enables the accumulation of a large amount of light and heat energy on the roof surfaces of buildings where solar panels are located. The advantage of so many hours of sunshine is a significantly faster return on invested funds and greater profitability.

Investing in innovations confirms the leadership position of Sunčani Hvar in the implementation of solutions that directly encourage a green and sustainable transition and at the same time enable the creation of new jobs and the global competitiveness of the EU.