15.4.2016
- Hrvatski Telekom – technology leader and driver of social changes in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County
Željko Kulić - Barcelona, Ivica Perica - Deloitte Hrvatska, Peter Hajdu -CISCO, Saša Kramar - Hrvatski Telekom
The “International Investment Forum Dubrovnik 2016” closed its doors today. It had gathered numerous representatives of international and national companies and of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, as well as representatives of local and regional authorities. The Forum’s participants informed investors about opportunities to invest in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, making use of information and communication technologies. One of the items pointed out was the need to achieve harmonisation with the strategies, regulations, and policies within the framework of the Digital Agenda for Europe, in the context of filing applications for various EU funding. Furthermore, it was emphasised how important it is to build trust among investors, representatives of local and regional self-government units, and the academic community in order to establish joint support for research and innovation in the ICT area.
The Forum’s host, Nikola Dobroslavić, Prefect of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, placed emphasis on the importance of recognising ICT for economic and social development in general, and added that the County had launched two projects to that end. One of them is to set up broadband Internet access to cover three zones within the County: Pelješac and the islands, the Neretva Valley, and the city of Dubrovnik and surrounding area. The other project deals with the development of the County as a Smart Region that will provide high quality analytical data needed for investment and entrepreneur project planning. Hrvatski Telekom is also actively involved in both projects that eventually will stand for improvement and raising the level of quality of living for all citizens of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County.
During the Forum, three panel discussions were held that saw, among others, the participation of representatives of Hrvatski Telekom as the Forum’s event partner, as well as a representative of Deutsche Telekom.
The panel discussion entitled “Smart Cities and Smart Communities – Drivers of Development” dealt with Smart Cities and Smart Regions, presenting the experience of the leading players in this area. In addition to representatives of Cisco and Deloitte, one of the participants was Saša Kramar, performing the duties of Member of the Management Board and Chief Operating Officer Business at Hrvatski Telekom. On this occasion, he stated: “Overarching digitalisation, mobility, the Cloud, the Internet of Things, Big Data, social networks... are changing our lives and the way we do business. In addition to being the technology leader in Croatia, HT wants to be recognised also as a driver of social changes and improvement of quality of living in communities, by application of the above mentioned technologies. This is exactly why we have launched several initiatives and pilot projects in Croatia, in order to become technology partners of Croatian cities and regions. In this approach, the most progress was made with the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the City of Dubrovnik, but we certainly also have to mention Zagreb, Rijeka, Zagreb County, Velika Gorica, the island of Krk, and many others.”
The final panel discussion “Smart Investment Financing Models” brought interesting thoughts about possibilities and potentials of smart investments, sources of funds for smart investments and smart investment financing models. Ralf Nejedl, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Deutsche Telekom, while participating in this panel discussion said: “Deutsche Telekom is actively involved in initiatives promoting change and investment based on new technologies. By co-financing numerous pilot projects and investing in our network infrastructure, we contribute to creating awareness of all stakeholders involved in transformation-related changes, thus indirectly promoting development of local communities and creating prerequisites for attracting other investment projects, but also for developing local entrepreneurship“.