Croatian High-Tech Industry: Current State and Prospects

The goal of this study is to investigate the current state of Croatian high-tech sector and to evaluate its prospects. The growth of the high-tech sector was greatly impeded by the economic crisis. Despite some progress in recent years, the analysed data suggest that the potential of Croatian high-tech industry has not been sufficiently exploited. The share of high-tech products in Croatian international trades is still low, with imports significantly exceeding exports. For years, the electronics and telecommunications industries have been Croatia's largest high-tech export and import sectors. Lately, the leading high-tech exporter has been the pharmaceutical industry, while the imports and exports of computers and office machines have shown a downward trend. The data also indicate that research and development expenditures have increased substantially over the past several years. However, this is just one of the prerequisites for high-tech industry development. So far, Croatia has not provided an environment that encourages high-tech investments. There are many areas that need improvement for Croatian high-tech sector to become a generator of economic growth, such as creating a positive business and investment climate, stimulating flexible and innovative entrepreneurship, and building an education system capable of meeting the needs of the high-tech industry.