Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and five cabinet ministers as well as representatives of Hyundai and Porsche on Friday held talks at the Rimac Automobili company, located in Sveta Nedelja outside Zagreb, on the potential of the automobile industry and ways of attracting it to Croatia.

Rimac Automobili owner Mate Rimac also presented a study with concrete guidelines on how to attract such investments.

Earlier this week, Plenkovic held a meeting with Rimac, the founder of one of the leading producers of electric vehicles and high-performance technology, after which a visit to his company was announced.

Hyundai Motor Group and Kia have so far invested EUR 80 million in Rimac Automobili while Porsche has invested EUR 18 million.

Upon arriving at Rimac Automobili, Plenkovic and other guests first toured the company’s production units, after which Rimac presented a study with specific guidelines and measures as to how Croatia could attract investments in the automobile industry.

Rimac noted that Croatia could be attractive to car producers if it had comparative advantages. That way, it could become an investment destination, which unfortunately is not the case at the moment, Rimac said.

He singled out the examples of Slovakia and Estonia, which have a population of the size similar to that of Croatia and which over the last ten years have significantly increased their GDP owing to investments in the car industry, which Rimac believes is also possible in Croatia.

“The key to success in the automobile industry is a country’s strategy and vision of what it wants to achieve. I believe that now is the right time for Croatia to join the so-called third wave of investments in the car industry because we missed out on that opportunity in the last ten years,” said Rimac.

He said that the first investment wave in the car industry caught the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the second caught again Slovakia as well as Romania, while the third one could include Croatia, in which all of his partners were interested as were representatives of Hyundai and Porsche.

Hyundai owns a 14% interest in Rimac Automobili and Porsche a 10% interest.

“Your achievements are great, you have made an analysis that compares Croatia against other countries and shows how Croatia could become involved more strongly. That is why we will now hold two-hour talks on what we can do together in that regard,” PM Plenkovic said.