Ron Brown Forum

About 180 participants attended this year’s Ron Brown Forum held in Dubrovnik and organized by Croatian Chamber of Economy and the US Embassy in Croatia. The main theme of the forum „CIRAZ 2016: Harnessing Innovation to Drive Economic Growth – The Ron Brown Legacy“ was the establishment of the Center for Industrial Development of Croatia, goal of which is to improve cooperation between the scientific sector and economy.

The purpose of the Center for Industrial Development is to stimulate economic development through a concrete connection of economy and science, innovation, research and development. The project CIRAZ will be improving the future cooperation between Croatia and US through Ron Brown U.S. – Croatian Innovation Council, that is through the council for exchange of world best practices in the field of innovation.

At the first panel „Impulse to the economy competitiveness growth“, held as part of the conference, the way of making Croatian economy globally competitive has been discussed. President of the AD Plastik’s Management Board Marinko Došen has also participated in the discussion and he mentioned the importance of investing in development and innovation, emphasizing it as a generator of AD Plastik’s competitiveness. He pointed out the problem of infrastructure costs and unequal business conditions in countries where AD Plastik factories are located.

„Due to these infrastructure costs, there is a lot of room for improvement in Croatia. For the past three years, AD Plastik has invested about EUR 60 million in development, innovation and investments. This is precisely why we are competitive,“ explained Marinko Došen.