Croatia – Digital Croatia Strategy for the period until 2032

• August 3, 2023
• Andrew

The Digital Croatia Strategy for the period until 2032 was adopted by the national Parliament in December 2022. Aim of the Strategy is to digitalise the Croatian society, public administration, and the economy in the period until 2032.

Based on the objectives and targets of the Europe’s digital decade, the strategy sets the frame for national, EU and private investments in the digital transition in Croatia and defines strategic objectives in the digital transition of the economy, the digitalisation of the public administration and justice, the digital connectivity, and the development of digital skills and jobs.

Strategic objectives are set in 4 priority areas:

• Developed and innovative digital economy.
• Digitalised public administration.
• Very high capacity networks (VHCN) deployed, available, and taken up.
• Developed digital competences for working and living in a digital age.

The main obstacle to realising the digitalisation potential is the lack of compliance of workforce skills with labour market needs, not only in terms of the number of ICT specialists, but also digital skills of the workforce outside the ICT sector. Other key weaknesses of Croatia in the area of digital competences and digital workplaces that need addressing entail the lack of primary and secondary school teachers in STEM areas (primarily maths, physics, and informatics) who leave the education system on account of low salaries. Shortage of ICT specialists on the labour market considering the needs and potential growth of companies also constitutes a major weakness. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that not enough of Croatian citizens participate in lifelong learning to acquire digital competences.

Priority areas of the digital competencies development: 

• Increasing the number of ICT specialists on the labour market.
• Developing citizens’ digital competences for working and living in a digital age, with the help of ICT.
• Digital transition supporting the development of the education and research system.

Croatia aims to become a country with digitally and economically competitive enterprises and digitalised public administration by creating a regulatory, investment, and tax environment that fosters technological development and innovation, investing in citizens’ digital competences, and increasing the number of ICT specialists in the private and public sector.