The City of Bjelovar

The county of Bjelovar-Bilogora
URL address: http://www.bjelovar.hr/

Town Profiles
Bjelovar

Regional Contact
POSLOVNI PARK BJELOVAR d.o.o. (Business Park Bjelovar Ltd.)
Local development agency for development and investment
Eugen Kvaternik Square 6, 43 000 Bjelovar
Tel: ++385 (43) 221-590
Email: bjelovar@poslovni-park.hr , inkubator@poslovni-park.hr
Web: www.poslovni-park.hr
Functions and services provided:
- human resource development
- provides in detail locally specific information and guides investors through local administration and procedures
- investment promotion (domestic and foreign)
- managing industrial zones of small and medium entrepreneurship SOUTH and EAST and the Free zone «Novi borik-Lepirac»

Key Companies Operating in the Region
• Esco –spring factory
• Lura – dairy industry
• Koestlin – wafer industry
• Prima Commerce – furniture industry
• Metalind – metal processing industry
• Česma Group – wood-processing industry
• Pevec Group - transportation

Regional Profile
The County of Bjelovar-Bilogora has a population of 42,000 and an area of 187.5km2. The labor force amounts to 15,529 while the number of unemployed persons is 11,940. It is located in the north-western part of Croatia. The administrative center of the county is the Town of Bjelovar with 28,000 inhabitants. It is 80 kilometers from Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. The two cities are connected by roads leading through the Town of Vrbovec and the Town of Čazma. There is a direct railway connection to Zagreb. Bjelovar is a traffic junction in this area – it is connected to motorways and Europe.

The main sectors of the economy in Bjelovar are: metal products and machine construction, timber products and furniture production, and wholesale and retail – the sector employing most of the workers. There are two industrial zones for small and medium entrepreneurship and a free zone equipped with infrastructure available for Greenfield developments.
There are two higher education institutions in Bjelovar: The Institute of Economics and Professional Studies of Business Economy with around 500 students enrolled. The proximity to Zagreb, with the largest university in Croatia, contributes significantly to the availability of a highly educated work force in all fields in the Coutny of Bjelovar-Bilogora. Today there are eight secondary schools in Bjelovar: grammar school, secondary elecrotehnical school, secondary school of Economy and Administration, craft school, commercial school, catering school, nursing school and music school. Over 3,000 pupils attend secondary schools.
Beautiful domestic landscapes and warm-hearted people provide excellent conditions for catering and tourism, which is oriented towards health and sports tourism. There are lots of excellent high-quality hunting districts, opportunities for fishing and country tourism with various types of recreation and relaxation facilities.

BUSINESS PARK BJELOVAR Ltd

The Business Park Bjelovar is a local agency for development and investments. The Agency was founded on 29th November, 2002 and is 100% owned by The Town of Bjelovar. The Agency has been established as the result of valuable knowledge and practical experience gained during several Participant Training Programs (PTPs) in local, incubator and zone development, and investment promotion. The Agency’s main activities are: free and business zones management, educational and training programs for entrepreneurs, human resources management, and management of Business incubator. The goal of the Agency is to generate quality foreign and domestic investment that will increase employment, exports, usage of new technologies and know how in the Town of Bjelovar and the Bjelovar region. The mission of the Agency is to increase the standard of living of all the citizens of the Town of Bjelovar.

The Business Park Bjelovar currently works on the development of infrastructure within and management of 3 business zones and a duty free zone, investment promotion and generation and the management of the Business incubator. In addition, the USAID donation in 2003 helped the Business Park to equip a training room with 13 computers. Since then the Agency has successfully organized and implemented a number of trainings for entrepreneurs that helped generate new employment in the Bjelovar region.

The Business Park Bjelovar also coordinates the development of the high-education institutions in Bjelovar. Apart from the Business Colleague, two new Faculties will be established in Bjelovar in 2007 (Technical studies – the Mehatronics, and the entrepreneurship studies department of the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb).
In addition, there are intensive works on developing a business manufacturing incubator in support of start-ups.

One of the goals of the Agency is to generate quality investment projects through the development of business related infrastructure, i.e. business zones, incubators, training facilities. Since 2004, the Business Park Bjelovar successfully started, organized, managed and implemented a number of development projects. It founded the Entrepreneurial Zones, constructed the complete infrastructure of the Business Zone East (from the initial works to the final infrastructure and 4 industrial halls were built in only six months). In 2006 two new entrepreneurial zones were registered in Bjelovar. One of them will be equipped with the infrastructure in 2008 and another one is assigned for energy facilities, greenhouses and recreation centres. That zone is assigned for building geothermal energy plant, as well. The outcoming temperature is 170°C. The Park has also started an active domestic and foreign attraction campaign, making contacts with embassies and entrepreneurs from the EU member countries and making multi-lingual presentations. In order to further raise the awareness about investment opportunities in Bjelovar and to successfully attract quality investments, the Park has developed a website and targeted promotion materials and serves as a one stop shop for investors coming to the Bjelovar region.

Functions:
• human resources development
• promotion of investments ( domestic and foreign )
• managing industrial zones of SME
• managing the Free zone «Novi borik-Lepirac»
• managing portfolio of the real estates owned by town Bjelovar which are corresponding for business investments

Goals and tasks:

• educating the manpower
• make new working-places
• investments
• increase of export
• improving the technology
• continuous investment into developing projects
• improving investment and enterpreneur climate
• sustainable development based on the strategic development of Croatia
joining the international organizations and institutions network

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House of multiregional cooperation

The City of Bjelovar