April the 29th, 2024 – Gorski Kotar is a region of Croatia few talk about – and wrongly so. It appears that it is beginning to take on a proper shape of its own, outside of being forced to dwell in coastal Croatia’s ever-present shadow.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Roksandic writes, the further development of country is not possible without stimulating economic activities in the continental and rural areas of Croatia. This includes the gorgeous but chronically overlooked region of Gorski Kotar. Macroeconomic development indicators for continental Croatia show stable, but slower growth compared to the coastal part of the country. This isn’t remotely surprising to most.
How we can manage bring the economies in these regions to a higher level was the topic of a recently held professional conference called “The sustainable future of continental and rural Croatia” the host of which was Municipality of Fužine, located deep within the heart of Gorski Kotar.
“The Municipality of Fužine is so close and yet so far, I’d personally say. We only have 1,500 inhabitants, and our idea is to show the state the potential of Gorski Kotar and other parts of Croatia”, said the Mayor of the Fužine Municipality, David Bregovac, in his opening address. He emphasised that the NPOO (Recovery and Resilience Programme) can contribute to the development of Gorski Kotar as a whole, but unfortunately this hasn’t yet been recognised.
The famous so-called “mountain riviera” is celebrating 150 years of organised tourism this year. Petar Mamula, deputy prefect of Primorje Gorski-Kotar County, said that they had already organised several similar gatherings that aimed to raise some questions about how they might begin to successfully tap into such a large unused resource.
Iva Novak, director of the Directorate for Strategic Planning and Coordination of EU Funds, knows a lot about the potential development of this particular region. Novak said that she adores Fužine both professionally and privately, and believes that the conference will be an inspiration for the further development of the continental regions of this country.
