November 10, 2020, companies interested in making transformative investment in central and eastern Europe participated in online discussions of the potential of the region for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, high tech research and sustainable manufacturing, and value-added tourism at an international American Chamber of Commerce Conference.

At the conference introduction, John Gasparac, Managing Partner, PwC Croatia said: 2019 marked yet another record year for technology investment in CEE, with almost €1.5 billion in venture capital attracted to the region. But, in this pandemic, tech is not only there for the businesses. The way we learn, entertain ourselves, shop, eat, communicate, shifted dramatically. It is estimated that almost 12 million new users of online services appeared in CEE—more than the population of Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia put together.

Central and Eastern Europe represent a significant slice of the EU’s current and future economy. 28% of all EU citizens live in the countries that comprise the region. 15% of the EU’s total GDP is generated there. And, since 2015, 20% of the EU’s GDP growth has come from the businesses operating in those countries. While manufacturing in the EU has risen by 12% and high-tech manufacturing by 25% since 2010, manufacturing in the region has risen by 27% and high-tech manufacturing by 53%.

The Conference was divided into three thematic panel discussions: Digital Economy, Tourism Industry and Sustainable Manufacturing.

The digital panel addressed the region’s talents and digital infrastructure availability. John Gasparac, Managing Partner of PwC Croatia moderated a panel consisting of Ondrej Vlcek, CEO of Avast; Dorin Pena, CEO of Cisco for CIS and Romania; Predrag Lesic, CEO of doMEn; Dalibor Kacmar, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Czech Republic and Slovakia; and Palo Luka, COO of ESET.

The tourism panel debated how the region could recover once the pandemic allowed international travel to return. Sinisa Topalovic, Partner and Global Head of Tourism Advisory for Horwath, moderated the panel including Yilmaz Yildilimlar, Area Senior Vice President, Central & Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey, Radisson Hotel Group; Markus Ekland, Global Managing Partner of FCM Travel Solutions; Kai Dieckmann, General Manager, Regent Hotel, Porto, Montenegro; and Zeljko Kurkurin, President and CEO, Valamar Hotels who said: „The crisis has shown us that companies which excelled and invested in good stakeholder relations before the crisis will continue to do so during the crisis. This approach strengthens stakeholder trust and enables faster economic recovery. Valamar has actively managed the crisis in 2020 and positioned itself well to successfully resume growth and development during 2021 and 2022 when business normalization is expected.“

Sinisa Topalovic pointed out in the panel introduction: „In next 5 years the region expects almost 37 thousand new hotel rooms and total investment volume estimated at approximately 5 to 6 billion EUR. It is interesting to note that around two thirds of rooms in the development pipeline will be branded. Another optimistic finding is that more than 80% of the planned hotel capacities is going to be in segment of 4 and 5 stars, meaning that the overall quality of the tourism product in the region is going to be further improved, being a continuation of the positive trend during last decade.“

The sustainable manufacturing panel included topics such as a case study on public/private cooperation on product development to sustainable investments into more efficient production. Michel Perret, General Manager Europe for Carrier Refrigeration guided a panel with Ruza Tomic Fontana, General Manager of Coca-Cola HBC for Croatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Slovenia; Milan Slapak, President and CEO of GE Czech Republic; and Ivan Mihaylov, President of the Automotive Cluster Bulgaria.

„In Coca-Cola HBC sustainable business practices are at the heart of what we do. We believe that more positive environmental impact is integral to our future growth. Therefore, through our investments in sustainable manufacturing we are expanding our technical capabilities and ensuring productivity while making a positive environment impact.“ said Ruza Tomic Fontana during panel discussion.

American Chambers in the region are working to increase direct investment with the USA. The conference will be followed by a series of targeted events focused on specific sectors, and particularly high-tech industries.

“We wanted to create an opportunity for an open sharing of information among companies which had already made the decision to place the region at the core of their global growth strategy and those companies still considering it.”, said Andrea Doko Jelusic, Executive Director of AmCham Croatia.

Conference was organized by AmCham Croatia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia with participation of the US Chamber. The conference was attended by 150 distinguished representatives of business community and public sector from CEE countries as well as the USA.