Mission statement:
Creating a forum within which we may present, discuss and share ideas about the appropriate path to Croatia's ecological well-being while respecting her continued economic and industrial development.

Committee Presentations

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Ana Špehar, Agroproteinka
Damir Subašić, APO-Agencija za opasni otpad
Petar Thür, Biotehnološki Park Varaždin
Ana Marija Marić, Biotehnološki Park Varaždin
Tanya Šplajt, Coca-Cola Beverages Hrvatska
Nedo Stoić, Gavrilović
Milica Opačić, Gavrilović
Monique Peters, Karlovačka Pivovara
Vjekoslav Martinko, Lovranske Vile
Slobodan Časl, Montmontaža d.d.
Don Markušić, Borić & Partners
Sanjin Mrkić, Siemens
Marija Bajica, Oikon

GUEST MEMBERS:
Dr. Roko Andričević, Dean-University of Split
Dubravka Bačun, Ericcson Nikola Tesla
Mirjana Matešić, Hrvatski poslovni savjet za održivi razvoj
Natalija Koprivanac, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology
Savka Kučar Dragičević, AZO
Danica Ramljak, Ruder Boskovic
Tarzan Legović, Ruđer Bošković and EMS program
Dr. Esad Prohić, Ambassador to Iran and EMS Program
Dalila Uzelac, U.S. Embassy - The Commercial Service
Davor Inđić, EBRD
Saša Borić, Ivo Pilar Institute
Zoran Stanić, HEP, Renewable Energy
Svea Svel Cerovečki, INA
Žarko Horvat, Holcim
Maja Stanojević Pokrovac, HUP
Nenad Mikulić, Mzopu
Dubravka Turkalj, Croatia Airlines
Vjeran Piršić, Solar Cluster

Mission statement:
The AmCham Health Care Committee represents the leading research-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the United States and Croatia.
Member companies of the Committee are devoted to discovering and developing new medicines that will enable patients to live longer, healthier and more productive lives. In 2002 the companies invested more that $32 billion in discovering and developing new medicines, marking the 32nd straight year the industry has increased its investment in R&D.
The Committee’s mission is to conduct effective advocacy for public policies that encourage discovery of important innovative medicines for patients by pharmaceutical / biotechnology research companies.

Download: HCC Statute

Download: HCC code of practise

Vice Chair for Pharmaceuticals: Jadranka Pevec, Johnson&Johnson
Vice Chair for Medical Devices: Damir Detić, Johnson&Johnson

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
3M - Representation office
Abbott Laboratories S.A.
AstraZeneca
Eli Lilly
Johnson & Johnson
Medtronic
Pfizer

Guest Members:
U.S. Embassy
U.S. Embassy - The Commercial Service

Mission statement:
Intelectual Property Rights (IPR) Committee was founded in February 2009.

Participating Members:
3M, Abbott, American College of Management and Technology, Atlantic Group, Deloitte, Gavrilović, HSM Informatika, Matijević Law Offices, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Microsoft Hrvatska, NIKE, Philip Morris Zagreb, Vernexo, Vukmir & Associates, Zadar Film

Guest members include U.S. Embassy - the Commercial Service, Vujasin&Lacković-Starčević law firm

Our mission is to improve protection of IPR in Croatia.

Close cooperation with Governmental bodies, raising motivation of relevant authorities around IPR, engagement with existing or future IPR related projects, regional connections with IPR Committees in surrounding countries, raising awareness of the importance of IPR protection and education of the market are our main goals for the next period.

In the past period Committee and his members have been active in organizing meetings with Governmental bodies like Customs and State Inspectorate, judges and courts education, trainings and seminars and have been involved in EU Phare projects.
Committee is working close with local business community and other organizations that take care about IPR.

Mission statement:
MISSION STATEMENT:

Working on changing the new Law on Foreigners which is negatively affecting foreign managers working in Croatia.

Advocacy at work: Law on Foreigners Task Force
by Don Markušić, Vice President of AmCham; Chairman of Task Force on the Law on Foreigners; Solicitor, Partner, Law Firm Borić & Partners d.o.o.

As US Ambassador Robert Bradke kindly noted when addressing AmCham, the successful efforts of the Task Force on the Law on Foreigners to amend the Law have not only benefited our membership, but, just as importantly, set a powerful precedent for the kind of work the AmCham can do on behalf of the business community in Croatia.

Tom Kelsey, the Commercial Counsellor at the US Embassy raised this issue at a Board of Governors meeting where it was decided to establish a Task Force to convince the Croatian government of the need to make changes to the Law on Foreigners. His successor, Pamela Ward, took the baton, with other representatives of the US Embassy’s consular and commercial sections also being very active on the Task Force. It was crucial that the Task Force included other Chambers and foreign embassies’ point of view in its arguments. This provided a very strong platform to engage the Croatian government on this issue and created a model for our approach to future issues of mutual concern.

Essentially, procedures have been streamlined whereby applications for initial work and temporary residence permits are now submitted, as well as issued, simultaneously. The most contentious issue pertained to restrictions on family reunification whereby foreigners were only able to bring their families to join them in Croatia after they had been in the country for at least two years. In response to our business argument that experienced foreign executives would effectively be discouraged from coming to Croatia and transferring their skills and know-how, a list of exemptions were added which included executives, key personnel, other professionals and missionaries. Whilst this encompassed Task Force members, we decided to keep fighting for all categories of foreigners on the basis of fundamental human rights regarding children in particular, which resulted in the two year ban on family reunification being removed altogether.

The Task Force established an excellent rapport during its high level meetings with various Ministries because we showed that it was also in the government’s interest to remove detriments to attracting foreign investment, particularly during a recession. Hence, we were able to obtain drafts of the proposed amendments on which we provided our comments and suggestions. We adopted a specific format whereby we set out the government’s proposed position on the various issues and our desired position, side by side, and proposed ready-made texts as solutions in order to make the government’s job easier. This document was sent to the highest levels of Government, including Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and relevant Ministers and Heads of Department.

We had several meetings with Mr. Žarko Katić, Assistant Minister and Mr. Dražen Horvat, Head of Department of Foreigners of the Ministry of Interior (MUP), during which we discussed our arguments point by point, illustrated with practical examples from members of the Task Force who were directly affected by particular provisions. A proposed draft of the amendments which only partially adopted our proposals was almost rushed through Parliament in the law-making frenzy before the summer recess. However, during an unrelated meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, wearing my Transparency International hat, she agreed to take the Bill out of the fast-track procedure so that we could continue to argue for our remaining proposals. She was particularly concerned by the family reunification issue.

The work of the Task Force did not end with the enactment of the new Law. A Power Breakfast was held in May 2008 to provide an opportunity for participants to raise practical issues arising from the implementation of the new amendments which were directly answered by the guest speaker, Mr. Dražen Horvat of MUP. A major outcome of the event was that Task Force members are able to continue to engage the Ministry of Interior on issues of concern regarding the Law on Foreigners.

The work of the Task Force has become a model for AmCham advocacy initiatives. Building on the success of the Task Force, new Committees have been formed such as the Trade and Investment and IPR Committees focusing on particular areas of concern to the business community.

Mission statement:
GOALS & OBJECTIVES:
1. increase AmCham membership
2. increase advertising in AmCham publications, website
3. promote AmCham exposure in media and business community

TASK FORCE MEMBERS:
Tomislav Krmpotich, DOK-ING d.o.o.
Ana Marija Marić, Biotehnološki Park Varaždin
Vedrana Likan, Colliers International
Jasna Kržanić, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Zoran Maksić, TBWA \ Zagreb

Mission statement:
Participating Members:
Aucris, CB Richard Ellis, Coca-Cola HBC Hrvatska, Colliers International, Deloitte, Dioki, Eco-Logic Systems, Ernst&Young, Gardiner& Theobald, Karlovačka pivovara, LS Property, Microsoft Hrvatska, Midia grupa, PricewaterhouseCoopers d.o.o., SECCF-South European Centre for Contemporary Finance & US Embassy - the Commercial Service

SUBCOMMITTEES:

Transparency/Bureaucracy (Chair to be determined)
Issues covered:
•Permitting
•Dysfunctional regulatory system
•Permitting, registration and bureaucracy time
•Non-efficient judiciary

Competitiveness/Cost
Chair: Mr. Nikolaos Kalaitzidakis, Coca-Cola HBC, General Manager
Issues covered:
•General Tax
•Para Fiscal Tax
•Labour Cost
•VAT
•Corporate Tax