President Milanović Tells Tradespeople: Go by Business and Financial Culture of Wealthiest EU States, not by Party Politics

The President of the Republic attended a ceremony on the occasion of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts Day. In congratulating the tradespeople on their day, he stated that he knows what it means to be a tradesperson and what the definition of a trade is, and how difficult a job it is today. “I know how hard it is to endure this crisis and how important it is for the state to help on a short term basis because in the long term it won’t be possible. But ultimately every tradesperson is their own boss, their own manager, their own creator in something that makes the Croatian economy”, the President noted.

Furthermore, he underlined that in the last twenty, thirty years the Croatian economy has ventured too far into the service sector, primarily tourism, and that such a view of the economy encourages a conformist approach to higher education. He explained that the war, the aftermath of war, and the involvement of politics in the privatization process, missed the opportunity to put the best business literate people who were honoured and created by the socialist regime, namely, craftspeople and tradespeople, in the first row of Croatia’s entry into capitalism and entrepreneurship. “That didn’t happen, politics outweighed it”, the President noted.

Besides having sufficient work and healthy finances, President Milanović told the tradespeople that he hopes they have no connection to party and daily politics, because it will cost them their credibility. “In Croatia today, a great deal of manipulation of people is taking place in the work place. To a large extent the business and financial culture, which would equate us with the wealthiest states of the European Union haven’t been adopted. And that’s the only criterion I recognize, and something to go by, and from which we still have to learn, yet keep our own”, President Milanović stated.

The Croatia of workers and of crafts, especially Zagreb, has not and will not become extinct. It’s alive, you represent it”, President Milanović said, in referring to the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, assessing that the Chamber is doing a good job. Those are hundreds, thousands of professions, trades, and all of them together without a support system would not function”, President Milanović concluded his address.

At the ceremony held under the auspices of the President of the Republic, the most successful tradespeople were presented with recognitions of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts and new master tradespeople were promoted.

Also addressing the gathering at the ceremony in addition to President Milanović were the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development and envoy of the Prime Minister Tomislav Ćorić, and the president of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts Dragutin Ranogajec. Attending the ceremony in the company of President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for the Economy Velibor Mačkić.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta