The Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Damir Habijan, visited the company Sofascore and the association CISEx (Croatian Association of Independent Software Exporters), where he discussed key challenges and opportunities for the development of the digital industry in Croatia with leading representatives of the tech community.
The meeting was attended by Minister Habijan with his associates, Sofascore co-founders Zlatko Hrkać and Ivan Bešlić, who is also the President of CISEx, and Frane Borozan, Vice President of CISEx and Co-founder of the company Syskit.
During the discussion, the importance of Croatia as an excellent place for living and working in the IT industry was emphasized, as demonstrated by many Croatian companies such as Sofascore, Syskit, Aircash, Rimac, and Infobip, despite the growing labor costs.
Bešlić and Hrkać, co-founders of Sofascore – one of Croatia’s leading tech companies with 330 employees and more than 30 million monthly active users – highlighted one of the key challenges of the digital industry in Croatia: a slow and inefficient administrative system that forces IT company owners to open foreign branches or even relocate their business, leading to a loss of tax revenue for the state.
Minister Habijan stated:
“Digital transformation is a project of the highest importance at the level of the European Union, and Croatia must take part in these conversations. The experiences and needs of companies from the IT sector are our foundation for future positive changes that we can achieve only through joint cooperation.”
Damir Habijan, Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation
Challenges and Opportunities of the Croatian IT Industry
The Minister and representatives of the IT sector agreed that strengthening the IT community is key to creating high-quality projects with greater added value and that the IT sector has a significant impact on the country’s economic future.
“The Croatian IT scene already makes an important contribution to Croatia’s GDP, but the industry is growing and the IT sector is becoming a strategic sector for the future of Croatia.”
Frane Borozan, Vice President of CISEx and Co-founder of Syskit
The Need for Digitalization of Public Administration
One of the main topics of the meeting was the need to accelerate the digitalization of public administration. Among the proposals presented, the following were highlighted:
- Introduction of a digital public notary so that lower-value contracts can be signed and verified online, which would reduce administrative costs and increase efficiency.
- Enablement of digital apostilles on documents, as already practiced by Belgium, Estonia, and Spain.
- Automation of building permits and sending of digital decisions instead of traditional mail.
- Acceleration of the court registry’s operations, which currently experiences long delays in updating data, negatively affecting business processes in the country.
The Ministry stated that dozens of projects are currently being finalized, whose effects will be visible at the national level, such as improvements in the use of the e-Citizens platform. Other projects in the area of digitalization primarily relate to the further digitalization of the court registry and the e-wallet project, which, in accordance with European laws, will offer a digital solution for identification.
“In light of current global developments, the importance of Europe’s self-reliance is becoming a priority, which means that strategic projects aimed at strengthening Croatia have become even more important.”
Ivan Bešlić, Co-founder of Sofascore and President of CISEx
The Future of CISEx
During the meeting, it was announced that the presentation of the new identity and strategy of the CISEx association to its members and the wider, interested IT public will be held on April 14th at Wespa Spaces in Zagreb. The new direction of the association emphasizes a stronger focus on the Croatian and European markets, with the goal of making Croatia a center of excellence for the development of digital products and services.
Representatives of Sofascore and CISEx expressed their satisfaction with the constructive dialogue with Minister Habijan and believe that further cooperation will lead to positive changes for the development of the digital economy in Croatia.
