As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 2nd of August, 2020, while it is always good - and especially in this strange age dominated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic - to be careful in planning and predicting the future, it is hard to disagree with the claim that the future of Delnice looks very interesting, promising and we might even dare to say impressive at the moment, much more than it has for many years.

This way of thinking has been encouraged by the recently published news about the serious interest of foreign investors, particularly American ones, thanks to which a hotel that will be part of the world-famous American hotel chain Marriott should appear in no less than Delnice next year, according to a report from Novi list.

But even if it doesn't end up showcasing the internationally respected name of Marriott, it will be a hotel, and that, in itself, is an enormous plus for the typically overlooked Delnice, especially considering the way in which serious investors were initially reached.

With the aforementioned hotel, the vision of the City of Delnice in the next year, year and a half, will be further changed for the better.

In September, a business and shopping centre should appear on the site of Delnice's former mill and bakery. The construction of its elements are finished and their installation will begin in September, which means that this year Delnice will have an even better trade offer than it does currently.

Furthermore, for mid-October, the opening of the newly renovated Delnice City Library has been announced, which is already finished and which will be not only aesthetically pleasing but an excellent functional unit. In addition to book lovers, there will be places for everyone who enjoys different forms of culture there.

Additionally, if the promises of the Government of the Republic of Croatia are to be believed at all, the large Retirement Home will certainly finally be completed next year, for which part of the funds were provided from the legacy of Janet Majnarich. All in all, Delnice - despite the coronavirus pandemic, the crisis that has ensued as a result of it and a number of other details which plague the area - is becoming an increasingly interesting and high-quality living environment.

For more, follow our lifestyle page.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 13th of June, 2020, the very first Croatian VC fund, the Feelsgood Social Impact Investment Fund, has received the final green light to start working and can start things up as far as investments are concerned. The domestic startup fund, worth 30 million euros or a little less than a quarter of a billion kuna, has been collecting all the necessary permits for three years now.

Not only will the first Croatian VC fund help startups and their innovations with capital, but it has also become an innovation on the domestic financial market. The Croatian VC fund is also the first domestic "social impact" fund. The VC fund project was first given the green light back in March last year by the European Investment Fund. Then, at the beginning of August 2019, Hanfa approved the work of the Zagreb company Feelsgood Capital Partners, and now it has allowed it to establish the Croatian VC fund itself.

Renata Brkic, co-founder of the fund, says that the process was demanding, but that they are very satisfied with the result.

''The process was extremely demanding, but we're proud because the Croatian team managed to establish both a fund and a management company in their own country.

"We're extremely proud that we managed to establish a fund and a management company in our country as a Croatian team," says Brkic. In addition to Brkic, who is the High Commissioner of the World Business Angel Investment Forum (WBAF) for Croatia, the first Croatian VC fund will be managed by four other managers who are also the fund's co-founders.

Srdja Ivekovic, a VC fund manager with many years of experience in the industry in the markets of the Middle East, Egypt and the CIS, Dinko Novoselac, the former CEO of the largest pension fund in Croatia, AZ, and Peter-Pierre Matek, the former President of the Hanfa.

The fifth partner in the company and the fund is Tilen Sarlah, a financier from Slovenia, who also runs a trading board in Ljubljana's Geoplin and is an advisor in the startup Fintech Factory EU.

Renata Brkic says that they went through a complex process of coordination with the main investor, EIF, and the national regulator Hanfa.

"We hope that with this pioneering endeavor, we've encouraged others and paved the way for teams that think in the same way we do, and contributed to Croatia positioning itself one step higher in the European financial industry," says Brkic.

22.7 million kuna or 3 million euros will be the largest investment that the Croatian VC fund will be able to make according to the decision on the matter made by Hanfa. It should be noted that they are also ready to take their first step which comes in the shape of a sensitive topic in Croatia - investments.

Brkic states that in parallel with the process of designing the first Croatian VC fund and its main strategy, they held talks not only with potential investors in the fund but also with startups and other entrepreneurs whose projects are candidates for investment.

''Since we announced our intention to establish the Feelsgood fund at our conference on social impact investing in Zagreb last October, we've been contacted by numerous entrepreneurial teams from Croatia and Slovenia with the desire to present their projects, and we're now in a position to start talking concretely,'' says Brkic. She hasn't provided any details on that yet, however, she did point out that the most important thing is that the entrepreneurial scene is alive and kicking here in Croatia and that teams are thinking about how to achieve a positive social effect in addition to making profit.

Feelsgood is a Croatian VC fund that invests in startups here at home in Croatia. Five years ago, the VC fund South Central Ventures, worth a massive 40 million euros, started operating. Although it was entirely realised abroad, it is the very first VC fund with an office in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb.

It is also the first in which the Republic of Croatia has actually invested. Fil Rouge Capital, which is currently the largest VC fund in Croatia worth 45 million euros, also took a step forward last year. HBOR entered it as an investor, meaning that once again, such a promising step was taken here in the Republic of Croatia. Fil Rouge is also the first VC fund to invest exclusively in startups registered in Croatia.

Feelsgood, the third in a row, is the first to be fully incorporated in Croatia, meaning that it is the first VC fund that can be decorated with the title "100% Made in Croatia". As Hanfa's decision revealed, Feelsgood will invest in startups in Croatia and Slovenia. Although it will be open to all social SMEs, it will still be the most sought after instrument for startups or companies in their very early stages of development.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

As Vedran Marjanovic/Novac writes on the 31st of January, 2020, GEEN Holding, one of the largest Central European producers of electricity from renewable energy sources, will soon begin construction of its third biomass power plant in Croatia in Gospic, marking a valuable investment in Croatia.

''Over the coming days we'll start the final phase of site preparation for the project in Gospic. Construction will follow shortly, and after a year it will be finished and connected to the grid. The plant will be in full operation in the first half of 2021. Currently, over fifty percent of the necessary equipment has already been manufactured,'' they stated from the headquarters of GEEN Holding over in the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of December last year, GEEN Holding put a biomass-fired power plant in Zupanja into operation, and in October 2018, a power plant with the same facility in Benkovac was built. The raw material for production at both power plants is wood waste.

''The total investments in Benkovac and Zupanja amount to 80 million euros. The electricity from our two power plants is distributed through HERA, and thermal energy is used by other Croatian private companies for various business purposes. Biomass power plants in Croatia represent 40 percent of the installed capacity in our power plants,'' they stated.

The total amount of electricity generated by all power plants in GEEN Holding's portfolio is currently 113 million kilowatt hours. The power output of the Zupanja power plant is 4.93 megawatt hours and the Benkovac power plant - 4.96 megawatt hours. The thermal capacities of the Zupanja and Benkovac plants range between eight and ten megawatts.

When asked why they chose their investment in Croatia and use it as one of their major markets, GEEN Holding said they recognised the country's need for stable and strong energy sources.

''Energy in Croatia is significantly dependent on coal and gas from abroad. The capacity for new hydropower plants, for example, is very limited. Therefore, we saw a business opportunity in Croatia for the development and operation of biomass power plants,'' they say from the Czech company, whose annual revenue is around 30 million euros.

They also announced that in the coming months and years, they will focus more on increasing the efficiency of the power plants in Benkovac and Zupanja and on the better use of the heat produced, primarily, as they pointed out, for the production of pellets.

''A pellet production project alone could bring 20 new jobs to Croatia,'' GEEN Holding estimates.

According to the registry of the Croatian Energy Agency, sixty Croatian companies have licenses for electricity production. In addition to GEEN Holding's facilities, another dozen HERA-licensed companies produce electricity from wood waste. Although not the only foreign company to invest in biomass energy production in Croatia, GEEN is certainly the largest investor.

For more on investment in Croatia, follow our business page.

As Barbara Ban/Novac writes on the 27th of January, 2020, Pula's Arena Hospitality Group hotelier from is investing as much as 363 million kuna in its portfolio in southern Istria this year.

The largest investment, of about 245 million kuna, is the one in Pula's Hotel Brioni on Verudela, which has been expected for many years, and will last two years, then they'll invest in a nearby apartment complex called Arena Verudela Beach and the Medulin campsite Arena Grand Kažela.

The complete renovation and repositioning of the popular Brioni Hotel began this year. The opening of the newly renovated hotel is planned for the summer season of 2021, and the facility will be closed throughout this year. The hotel was built back in the early 1970s and was one of the most popular in the former Yugoslavia. Many celebrities of the time stayed there. The seven-storey hotel will remodel its rooms and other facilities such as meeting and conference rooms. It will also boast an indoor pool, a wellness centre with saunas and relaxation rooms, a fitness centre and an outdoor infinity pool with its own sunbathing area.

After the complete renovation, it will be a contemporary luxury hotel with 227 rooms and suites and the ambition to become the mainstay of the Arena Hospitality Group's hotel business, a statement from the company said.

Several restaurants and bars at the hotel will offer their guests a varied gastronomic offer ranging from local, Mediterranean cuisine to international specialities from around the world. After the investment, the hotel will be branded a world-renowned high quality hotel brand, the Arena Hospitality Group added.

Not far from the Brioni Hotel in the Verudela area, the renovation of the Arena Verudela Beach apartment complex, worth a massive 68 million kuna, will continue. Last year, ten accommodation units were renovated, and this year, the remaining 146 apartment units are to be renovated too.

''These modernly furnished and fully equipped apartments for four to six people will be categorised with four stars. In addition to the accommodation units, the Lighthouse restaurant, located on the beach in front of the resort itself, will be completely renovated, and thus the quality of the entire tourist product will be. A complete renovation of the Yacht restaurant underneath the Park Plaza Histria Hotel is underway, in which public spaces and rooms are being renovated,'' the Arena Hospitality Group from Pula said.

This year, they will also invest 50 million kuna into the Medulin camp Kažela, with a total of 150 million kuna already invested in this area last year. This is the second phase of the investment which will turn it into a modern and high-quality four-star category camping facility.

This year's works include the further replacement of mobile homes and the installation of 45 new luxury camping homes. For owners of modern campers, luxury, spacious lots will be adapted to the best, "premium" positions by the sea. These are large parcels of land larger than 150 square metres, offering complete infrastructure - electricity, water and drainage. As part of the investment, all the sanitary facilities intended for guests of the camping pitches will be renovated, which will increase its competitiveness among other campsites, the company said.

In addition, the restaurant, bar and sports centre with the proper horticultural landscaping of public areas will be completely renovated. Throughout the camp, guests will have high-speed wireless Internet access and IPTV services (TV channels through new OTT technology) via smart TVs in camping homes.

It's worth noting that last year, the Arena Hospitality Group invested more than 250 million kuna in its tourism portfolio. With this year's investments, the Arena Hospitality Group will almost completely rebuild its facilities at Verudela and bring them up to an impressive four-star level.

Make sure to follow our business page for more on investment in Croatian tourism and beyond.

As Morski writes on the 12th of January, 2020, the governing board of the Crikvenica County Port Authority has adopted the port authority's work and development plan and programme for 2020, and this year the largest investment cycle in its history, which will realise projects worth 60 million kuna, is set to continue. This investment for Crikvenica will involve several projects and phases.

Namely, the annual program of work and development of the ports under the care of the County Port Authority for 2020 envisages the continuation of investments for Crikvenica in the upgrading of the port opened for public traffic, which is considered to be important at the county level. The project has secured nearly 33 million kuna in European Union (EU) grants to be invested in the construction of the secondary breakwater and the extension of Mala palada.

''The fact that this project was the second in Croatia and the first in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County among the projects financed by the Competitiveness and Cohesion operational programme emphasises its importance,'' stated Mario Kružić for Novi list, noting that in addition to the realisation of the main bulk of the works, we can also expect the installation of a hydrant network and horticultural landscaping and much more during the first half of 2020.

In addition, as part of this massive investment for Crikvenica, part of the coastal wall in the port of Selce will be reconstructed.

At the end of 2019, a valid building permit was finally obtained for the project of upgrading the port open to public traffic (Podvorska), and the plan is currently to secure more funds through tenders from the competent ministry and from Primorje-Gorski Kotar County for the realisation of this project.

This project foresees the demolition of the existing middle pier, with the exception of the very top of the pier, and the construction of a brand new pier at approximately the same position, followed by the construction of yet another pier. The concession plan also envisages an arrangement being reached to lead to the realisation of the project's legalisation and the upgrading of the Črni mul port, which is open to public traffic, in order to better protect the vessels in the port, and to increase the number of communal and nautical berths available.

''As a key to sustainable development, the Crikvenica County Port Authority has opted for transparent and responsible operations, which we'll continue with in the coming years,'' Mario Kružić told Novi list.

Make sure to follow our lifestyle page for more on investments for Crikvenica.

A much needed and huge investment of 3.5 billion euros is in the works for Croatian railways.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josip Bohutinski/VL writes on the 13th of January, 2020 the total length of the network of railway lines operated by HŽ Infrastruktura (HŽI) is 2617 kilometres, of which 2343 kilometres are single tracks and only 274 kilometres are double tracks.

Croatia has invested tens of billions of kuna in the construction of highways, and now the turn has come for Croatian railways. Sveti Ivan Zabno - Gredec, the first new railway in the last 52 years in Croatia, opened at the end of last year, and the 258 million kuna invested in the construction of this railway line is only one small part of the 3.5 billion euro investment cycle launched for Croatian railways, Vecernji list writes.

The total length of the network of railway lines operated by HŽ Infrastruktura (HŽI) is, as stated, 2617 kilometres, of which 2343 kilometres are single tracks and only 274 kilometres are double tracks. According to data, 980 kilometres of the network were electrified. But in the next ten years, and mainly thanks to European Union funds, this should change significantly. Thus, by 2030, Croatia should have up to 681 kilometres double-track lines and 1,022 kilometres of electrified lines.

Thus, the length of two-lane lines should increase by 361 or 407 kilometres, depending on the future route of the section of the lowland railway. HŽI explains that along the RH2 corridor, ie the Croatian part of the Mediterranean corridor, the length of two-track lines will increase by at least 145 kilometres, which includes the sections Križevci - Koprivnica - the state border, Dugo Selo - Križevci, Hrvatski Leskovac - Karlovac and Škrljevo - Rijeka - Jurdani.

For the sections Karlovac - Oštarije and Oštarije - Škrljevo, study documentation is being prepared which will define the routes. For the section Karlovac - Oštarije, the possible length of the route is 40 kilometres, and for Oštarije - Škrljevo, 67 or 113 kilometres. HŽI also says that the length of two-track sections will increase by 82 kilometres on the RH1 corridor, and that will be on the Dugo Selo - Novska section. In addition, 42.6 kilometres of single-track lines will be electrified in this investment cycle, namely the Zaprešić-Zabok (23.9 km) and Vinkovci-Vukovar (18.7 km) lines.

EU co-financing is currently underway for the reconstruction of the existing track and construction of the second track on the 36.4 kilometre long Dugo Selo - Križevci section. The project is worth 196.9 million euros. Work on the reconstruction of the existing and construction of the second track on the section Križevci - Koprivnica - state border, totalling 42.6 kilometres, should begin soon.

The decision to select a contractor for the job with an estimated value of 283.9 million euros was made, but appeals were also lodged.

A tender for the reconstruction and construction of the second track on the Hrvatski Leskovac - Karlovac section will also be announced this year. The estimated value of the works stands at 315 million euros, and this section is 44 kilometres long. For the Karlovac - Oštarije section, however, as HŽI claims, a public procurement procedure is underway to select the designer of the study documentation, as it also is for the Oštarije-Škrljevo section.

The estimated value of works for the Karlovac - Oštarije section is 400 million euros, and for the line from Oštarije to Škrljevo - 667 million euros, depending on the selected technical solution of the route. For the project of the construction of the second track, modernisation and reconstruction of the Škrljevo - Rijeka - Jurdani section, the main project is underway. The section is 27.5 kilometres long and the estimated value of the works is 270 million euros.

Financing has not yet been resolved for the sections of the lowland railway from Karlovac to Jurdani, but it is possible, according to the announcement of the Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, that Croatia will receive EU funds for the construction of these sections.

Chinese companies have shown interest in building these Croatian railways under a concession model. The estimated value of the works on the Dugo Selo - Novska section is 570 million euros, which would make the entire RH1 corridor two-lane. The design speeds for these new lines are 160 kilometres per hour. There will be new trains on the new tracks.

HŽ Passenger Transport has so far contracted the purchase of 28 new trains with a maximum speed of 120 km/h. It intends to finance the acquisition of 21 trains with 1.1 billion kuna in grants and the remaining 19 with a loan from the World Bank and Eurofima.

Other major projects include the Zaprešić-Zabok railway (the value of the modernisation and electrification project is 80.8 million euros), the Vinkovci-Vukovar railway, the Rijeka port (a project worth almost 36 million euros) and the Rijeka railway station where work is already underway.

Make sure to follow our dedicated travel page for more on Croatian railways.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of January, 2020, the company Zhongya Real Estate (Nekretnine) which still hasn't paid the remaining amount for the purchase of the controversial former Political School building in Josip Broz Tito's hometown of Kumrovec, announced on Thursday that they had not abandoned the investment in Kumrovec.

Zhongya Real Estate said that investor partner Jiang Yu failed to allocate money to the Republic of Croatia for technical reasons within the aforementioned period. However, they say that modalities are still being found in order have the aforementioned money arrive in Croatia as soon as possible. Accordingly, they are ready for new talks with the government, and have stated that, should a new tender be announced, they will of course respond to it.

"The Chinese Government has been actively working for months to control the export of capital from the country. Part of these problems have reached Europe as well as Croatia itself in the case of a transaction related to the former Political School in Kumrovec. We're witnessing that Chinese investments in Europe are significantly falling, and part of the reason for this is certainly the restrictions that come from officials in Beijing,'' Zhongya Real Estate explained in a statement.

"Economic problems inside China and the China-US trade war are the main reasons China is trying to control the ''export'' of money from out of the country. The State Administration for Foreign Currency Relations (SAFE), a key government regulator, announced in mid-December that the task for the next year is to prevent ''abnormal'' capital outflows and thus prevent illegal trading activities,'' Zhongya Real Estate also stated.

Zhongya Real Estate noted that "they proved their seriousness by paying the full tax amount for the purchase of the real estate (which they have not yet managed to purchase) and the surrounding land of almost 27,000 square metres. In total, both transactions are worth over one and a half million kuna, adding in the amount from the tender last spring, we reach the figure of over two million kuna which has already been paid by Chinese investors. Therefore, they say, they don't want to give up on their planned business idea.

The statement from the company, signed by director Mario Rendulić, also said that "the Ministry of State Property announced that the decision on the fate of the Zagorje Hotel has yet to be made by the government."

“Zhongya Real Estate d.o.o. had not paid the rest of the funds for the purchase of the Zagorje Hotel or the political school in Kumrovec by the 31st of December, 2019. The Ministry of State Property will keep the amount of 598,000.00 kuna. Given that the estimated value of the said property is more than 7.5 million kuna, the decision on further disposal of the real estate will be made by the Government of the Republic of Croatia at one of the next sessions,'' the Ministry of State Property announced.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes on the 19th of December, 2019, Ante Mandić from Insig2, Damir Sabol from Photomath, and Ivan Mrvoš, founder of Include - are the most famous names from the Croatian technology community who decided to invest in STEMI educational and technological startups. The Zagreb-Rijeka based company presented its campaign on the Funderbeam SEE platform back on November the 28th, 2019.

The campaign aims to raise a minimum of 300,000 euros that STEMI will invest in growing and scaling its new school-based subscription business model and accessing a part of the global market where more than 3.5 million schools are interested in developing their students' STEAM skills and knowledge. The campaign is still ongoing and investors in STEMI have already indicated an amount of 225,000 euros, as Funderbeam SEE announced on Thursday.

In addition to the investors already mentioned, Vedran Brničević from Suprabit, Luka Abrus and Viktor Marohnić from Five, Hrvoje Pušelj from Dataciph and Tajana Barančić and Mihovil Barančić from Astra Business Engineering decided to participate in this campaign. Tomislav Car from Infinum, Luka Sučić from Eternity, Davor Runje from Airt, Bozidar Pavlović from Oradian, Damjan Miklić from RoMb Technologies, Scott Coleman and Goran Deak from TDA, and Hrvoje Bujas from Crno Jaje also decided to invest.

''We currently have over 150 investors from about twenty countries, and most of them are looking forward to the support of the local tech community, which shows that success is not lost if we stick together. Our programmes need help to reach the global market and people have recognised that,'' said Marin Trošelj, CEO of STEMI.

Include's Ivan Mrvoš said he met a team from STEMI a year ago and has been following their successes ever since.

"The fact that they have already penetrated into nine markets, including the US market, certainly encouraged me to join their investment cycle as a small investor," Mrvoš said.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of December, 2019, according to INA, the decision on a heavy-waste treatment facility comes one year after the announcement of INA's R&M New Direction 2023 program, which aims to transform INA's refining system to generate profits instead of losses.

Today, INA made a decision to invest a massive four billion kuna in a heavy waste treatment plant at the Rijeka Oil Refinery. As was explained during an extraordinary press conference in Zagreb, the company's supervisory board gave its prior approval for the construction of the Heavy Duty Processing Facility in Rijeka, and INA's management board then made a unanimous decision on the investment. Works on the new plant will begin early next year, they say, and it is expected to start operating at some point in 2023.

Sándor Fasimon, CEO of INA, said the decision on the heavy-duty processing plant marks an important step in the implementation of the R&M New Direction 2023 program, as well as an important moment in the company's history as it is the largest investment INA has made in decades.

"With this decision, the Rijeka Oil Refinery will be transformed into a modern European refinery while ensuring that INA maintains a leading position on the market. It's a major investment that will significantly affect the company's operations in the future," said Fasimon.

The chief executive officer of the MOL Group and the deputy chairman of INA's supervisory board commented that this decision confirms the MOL Group's commitment to INA. "By constructing a heavy waste treatment plant, we'll significantly increase the complexity and efficiency of the Rijeka refinery. I firmly believe that this investment will have a significant positive impact on the company's profitability in the future,'' said Molnar.

Tomislav Ćorić, Minister of Environment and Energy, said that the announcement of about four billion kuna in investment over the next three years is the most wonderful Christmas gift to Croatia that could be expected.

''Today's decision to launch the modernisation project of the Rijeka Oil Refinery is a major step forward. This is one of the biggest investments in our energy sector and I'm glad that it was realised precisely during the term of this current government. This investment will improve the product structure of Rijeka, increase profitability and improve the company's competitiveness in the field of environmental protection by significantly reducing CO2 and other harmful gases,'' stated Minister Ćorić.

A year ago, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković promised us a "Christmas present" in the form of an announcement that Croatia would go ahead with the purchase of MOL's stake in INA.

According to INA, and as previously mentioned, the decision on this treatment facility comes one year after the announcement of the R&M New Direction 2023 program. The program includes the concentration of crude oil processing activities in the Republic of Croatia at the Rijeka Oil Refinery and, as part of this, the conversion of the Sisak Oil Refinery into an industrial centre that will cover the production of bitumen, which was approved in March this year and is set to launch in 2021.

Still to come is a logistics hub and, potentially, lubricant production and even a bio-component refinery. With the implementation of all activities covered by the INA R&M New Direction 2023 program, after 2023, INA expects an average annual EBITDA growth of over 1 billion kuna in total.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of December, 2019, the company Zhongya Real Estate (Nekretnine), whose Chinese co-owner is Jiang Yu, paid a massive 1.14 million kuna for some construction land covering nearly 27,000 square metres in Kumrovec.

The construction land the Chinese investor has now paid in full for is Josip Broz Tito's hometown, is in the immediate vicinity of the controversial former political school, more specifically hotel Zagorje, located in Krapina-Zagorje County in the northern part of the country, close to the Sutla river and the Croatian-Slovenian border.

This payment regards a plot of land for which Zhongya Real Estate signed a contract with the Ministry of State Property back at the end of October this year, and paying the price for the land was one of the Chinese's arguments in the sense that the aforementioned company would also fulfill its obligations to take over the former political school, for which they had already requested a delay in payments twice previously.

As we reported last month, the Croatian Government approved Yu's latest request for a payment deadline extension and the new payment date was the 31st of December, 2019. Had the investor failed to pay for the land in Kumrovec by the aforementioned date, the hefty advance payment would have been kept by the government regardless of the investor's next move. 

The land in Kumrovec has now been paid for in full, meaning that the obligation to pay and the deadline were both fulfilled and met by the Chinese investor.

The eventually agreed price investor Jiang Yu needed to pay stood at an enormous 14.09 million euros, according to a report from Vecernji list.

As mentioned, Yu asked for an extension of the payment deadline, explaining that the current tensions in Hong Kong made it difficult to transfer money abroad.

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