Najveći svjetski investitori nisu više kompanije sa Wall Streeta, već državne investicijske kompanije u JI Aziji i Bliskom Istoku. Upravo su one pumpale novac u Wall Street tokom ove financije krize. Zbog straha od političkih agenda iza tih investicija, Zapad podiže prepreke. WSJ piše o svemu tome na naslovnoj stranici u ponedjeljak. Država se afirmira i vraća u određene domene individua, poslovanja i investicija. Iako se ne radi o klasičnom protekcionizmu više, Thomas Friedmanov "ravni svijet" je sve manje ravan. On vjeruje da se radi samo o epizodi, dok Daniel Yergin vidi kraj lake globalizacije.

Rise of Nationalism Frays Global Ties - Trade, Environment Face New Threats; Balkanized Internet

By BOB DAVIS, April 28, 2008

The world isn't as flat as it used to be.

During the long march toward globalization, international borders and trade barriers came down. Communism fell. Protectionist walls in Latin America and elsewhere were dismantled. Governments -- long prone to meddling in trade -- took a back seat to broader market forces.

In a globalization manifesto, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared that the Internet and other planet-spanning technologies were erasing national boundaries. The world, he said in a 2005 best seller, was flat.

No longer. The global economy appears to be entering an epoch in which governments are reasserting their role in the lives of individuals and businesses. Once again, barriers are rising. Call it the new nationalism.

"The era of easy globalization is certainly over," says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin, whose 1998 book, "The Commanding Heights," detailed the triumph of markets over nations, starting with British deregulation under Margaret Thatcher. "The power of the state is reasserting itself."

(Ostatak teksta niže)

Just a decade ago, Asia, Latin America and Russia were on financial life support from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The U.S. was planning yet another round of global trade negotiations. The European Union was writing a constitution to shift power to Brussels from member nations.

Now borrowers shun the IMF and World Bank. Trade talks are shelved. Barriers to foreign investment are rising around the world. State-owned companies are expanding, particularly in oil and gas. Public support of immigration restrictions is growing in countries from the U.S. to India.

The rising influence of governments can be seen in massive state-funded investment pools, many backed by countries that were reeling financially a decade ago. Sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East are now propping up wobbly financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe, and may hunt next for real-estate bargains. The growth of state power may also serve to make dealing with global climate change -- the most borderless of all issues -- even more difficult.

Security Concerns

What accounts for governments' bigger role? The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, refocused the world on security concerns that can be addressed only by national governments. Countries enriched by the commodity boom are increasingly asserting their power, with Venezuela nationalizing oil fields and Russia threatening to cut off natural-gas supplies to Western Europe. A backlash against economic integration has also pressured national governments to retreat from multilateralism: Big pluralities in 21 of 34 nations polled by BBC World Service in December said the "pace of economic globalization" is moving too quickly.

The changes don't presage an era of full-blown protectionism. The 15 countries that have shared the euro since 1999 will, despite occasional grumbling, continue to do so. Governments continue to obey rulings by the World Trade Organization, even if they must rewrite their own laws to comply. Mr. Friedman, the flat-world theorist, says that the reassertion of state power may turn out to be an "episode" rather than a trend, and that technologies will continue to empower individuals across boundaries.

Even so, there are mounting indications that governments are on the ascendant.

National boundaries are going up even on the Internet, the emblem of the borderless world. The Internet was designed to be beyond the reach of governments, shifting power to individuals or private organizations.

Now, pressured by Russia, China, India and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. company that assigns Internet addresses is working on ways for countries to use characters from their home languages. The familiar .org, .com and country codes in Web addresses will be replaced with their equivalents in Chinese, Hindi and many other languages. While that should help locals navigate the Web, it would also put many sites behind curtains to users from abroad. That would spell the end of the days when anyone with a keyboard that produces Latin letters can see sites in any land -- essentially taking the "world wide" out of the World Wide Web.

"We're facing a step-by-step Balkanization of the global Internet," says Columbia University law professor Tim Wu. "It's becoming a series of national networks."

The rising strength of national governments expresses itself in different ways. For rich countries, it generally means higher taxes and more regulation. In the 30 mostly rich countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, tax revenue as a percentage of the local economy was higher in 2005, the latest year surveyed, than a decade earlier. That's because of the rising cost to governments of health care and social security.

In the U.S., the severity and scope of the current financial crisis has eroded the case for letting markets operate with ever-lower government guard rails. The current question is not whether regulation will increase, but by how much. All three presidential candidates say they would pass tougher financial-market regulation and would also boost government programs to retrain workers battered by the global economy.

In rich and poor countries alike, immigration has become a powerful political issue, as improved transportation makes it easier for people to move across borders and compete for jobs with locals. There are backlashes against Burmese in India, Haitians throughout the Caribbean, Bolivians in Argentina and Zimbabweans in South Africa. In 44 of 47 countries polled by Pew Research Center last fall, majorities supported further restrictions on immigration.

In poorer countries of Africa and Asia, meanwhile, rising global food prices are prompting governments to erect new export barriers. "There is no place in the world that grows the food we need if we're forced to import," says India's finance minister, P. Chidambaram. "Therefore we have to be nearly self-sufficient in all food items."

Growing Influence

Capitals that once had little sway on the global scene now have a lot. The influence of Brazil, for example, has grown along with its economy. A week after WTO trade talks collapsed in July 2006, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab jetted to Brasilia to confer with the country's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, who also handles trade issues.

Mr. Amorim has become an unlikely power broker in the bid to wrap up the negotiations, which began in 2001. The talks broadly involve a prospective deal: The U.S. and Europe would slash agricultural subsidies if developing nations would lower their tariffs for industrial goods and broaden foreign financial firms' access to their markets.

In the past, developing nations essentially ratified global trade deals negotiated by the U.S. and Europe. But Brazil, India and China are no longer following that script. Mr. Amorim has put together a group of 20 developing nations that want to limit market openings at home while pressing for agricultural liberalization abroad. Their assent is essential to reaching a deal. So far they have withheld it.

"Brazil holds the key to getting this done," says Ms. Schwab.

'It Was a Party'

Citizens of poor countries feel exhilarated by their governments' new power. In Rio de Janeiro, Maria Aparecida Lemos, an AIDS patient who lost her sight, says she "celebrated like it was a party" last year when Brazil's president voided a Merck & Co. patent on an AIDS drug. A Brazilian company now makes the drug, Efavirenz, for a fraction of what Merck was charging. Under global trade rules, developing countries have the right to override patents in emergencies, but few had done so for fear of retaliation.

Merck says it had already reduced the price of Efavirenz and was willing to cut further, but not enough to satisfy Brasilia. "Brazil may not be the kind of place you want to invest in," says Jeffrey Sturchio, Merck's vice president for corporate responsibility. Brazilian officials shrug off such threats, figuring the country's growing wealth makes it a magnet for investment.

Energy companies have been among the first to feel the new nationalism. Since oil prices started rising in 2004, Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have nationalized foreign-owned oil assets, the first big wave of nationalization since the 1970s. After Venezuela's state-owned oil firm doubled its ownership of heavy-oil projects along the Orinoco River last year, ConocoPhillips pulled out, taking a $4.5 billion charge. Exxon Mobil Corp. left as well, and is suing Venezuela for compensation.

Growing petro-nationalism has prompted Royal Dutch Shell PLC to change the global scenarios its economists create to help the company plot its next moves. In the 1990s, Shell's scenarios assumed government power was diminishing. The company invested heavily in Russia's Sakhalin oil fields, assuming it would see minimal interference. But as the Kremlin tightened its grip on the energy sector, Shell was forced to sell half of its stake in the project to Russia's state-owned OAO Gazprom.

In this decade's models, governments play a more central role. One of Shell's two current scenarios envisions that government dominion over resources -- nearly 80% of world oil reserves are controlled by state-owned firms -- will continue. In the other model, governments are still at the center of decision making but recognize a common interest and agree to address climate change, says Jeremy Bentham, Shell's vice president for global business environment.

Recognizing the powerful role of state-owned oil companies, Shell is investing heavily in unconventional oil sources, many of which have little prospect of expropriation. It recently announced a $10 billion expansion plan in the tar sands of Canada. It has also increased its focus on biofuels made from, among other things, algae and wood chips.

Pitney Bowes Inc., a postal-machine maker in Stamford, Conn., is also trying to adapt. Over the past decade or so, it had moved a lot of its production to China. It also had outsourced back-office computer operations to India.

But more recently, the company has started worrying about the security of those supply lines. "We're always concerned that the nationalists there will come and take over" our suppliers in China, says Cynthia Schmitt, the company's vice president for enterprise risk management.

So over the past three years, the company and its overseas suppliers have begun stockpiling more postage-machine components. Pitney Bowes also began insisting that its vendors in India have backup servers in other countries. So many U.S. companies do business in Bangalore and other Indian cities, Ms. Schmitt fears they could become terrorist targets.

Similar concerns are felt by other big companies. AMR Research Inc., a Boston consulting firm, says it surveyed supply-chain managers at big U.S. firms in March about how they would rank the risks they face doing business globally. About 30% of them rated "country risk" -- geopolitical problems or natural disasters -- as their most significant.

Some companies are seeking havens closer to home. As some U.S. corporations relocate operations from lower-cost spots in Asia, Mexico -- which has a free-trade pact with the U.S. -- has seen a surge in foreign investment, up 21% last year to $23.2 billion.

Some of the world's biggest new investors are government-run investment funds. In the Middle East and Russia, sovereign wealth funds are powered by oil revenue; in Asia, they're fed by other export earnings. In all, the funds have a total of $3 trillion in revenue and have used the money to buy stakes in Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and other battered Wall Street firms. While the infusions have been lauded by the U.S. Treasury and capital-short Wall Street firms, they also aroused suspicions here and internationally that the investors could have political agendas.

Now, many national governments are raising barriers against such foreign investment. The U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hungary and Greece are proposing or enacting restrictions on investment by state-owned firms from other countries, according to a forthcoming study by the Council of Foreign Relations. China and Russia, which have sovereign wealth funds, are staking out "strategic sectors" where foreign investment would be restricted, say the study's authors, investment-law specialist David Marchick and Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter.

National Muscle-Flexing

Muscle-flexing by national governments has also made it more complicated to tackle global environmental issues. In 1987, governments sent environmental ministers to Montreal to negotiate a global ban on the chlorofluorocarbons blamed for opening an ozone hole over Antarctica. The ministers expected the treaty would be ratified at home and enforced world-wide through trade sanctions. It was.

A decade later, the Kyoto Protocol flopped because the U.S. didn't sign, and China and India weren't required to limit emissions. Now, with national governments wary of making commitments, negotiators and think tanks in the U.S. and Europe are grappling with how to persuade states to take strong efforts to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions. One possibility: encourage governments to take specific actions to cut emissions now, and hold off on a treaty until states are more confident that their rivals are taking global warming seriously.

New nationalism could play out over a lengthy span, says Michael Klein, chief economist at the World Bank's private-sector arm, the International Finance Corp. "Disparate national interests may pull [countries] in different directions and render global actions more difficult," Mr. Klein says. "We're in for several decades of these centrifugal forces."

Isti video materijal poslan je na 16000 adresa pretplatnika fDi magazina, koji je također distribuiran učesnicima na godišnjem sastanku Svjetske banke i Međunarodnog monetarnog fonda održanom nedavno u Singapuru.

na naših spletnih straneh smo pripravili informativno gradivo za produkt P4a – Javni razpis za sofinanciranje nakupa nove tehnološke opreme v letu 2008 za mikro, mala in srednje velika podjetja z najmanj 1 in največ 9 zaposlenimi.

Gradivo smo pripravili s ciljem informiranja podjetnikov o pogojih javnega razpisa, ki je sicer še v fazi priglasitve v Uradu za kohezijsko politiko. Soglasje Urada za kohezijsko politiko je še zadnji pogoj pred objavo. V gradivu so zbrane informacije, na podlagi katerih se boste laje odločali o sami monosti prijave na javni razpis. Informativno gradivo je objavljeno na naših spletnih straneh pod rubriko razpisi v pripravi- P4a (www.podjetniskisklad.si/index.php?id=273) in se lahko do objave v Uradnem listu še spremeni. Takoj,ko bomo od pristojnih slub prejeli soglasje za objavo razpisa v Ur.l. RS, vas bomo o objavi obvestili.

Obveščamo vas, da je Slovenski podjetniški sklad, dne 22.2.2008 v Ur.l RS št. 18/2008, objavili javni razpis za produkt P2 - Sofinanciranje (subvencije) zagona inovativnih in inkubiranih podjetij v subjektih inovativenga okolja.

Podrobnejše informacije v zvezi z objavljenim razpisom najdete na spletnih straneh Slovenskega podjetniškega sklada; www.podjetniskisklad.si

Obvestilo upravičencem za P5 – sofinanciranje turistične infrastrukture v letu 2007/2008 in P4 – sofinanciranje nakupa nove tehnološke opreme v letu 2007/2008

Upravičence se obvešča, da sprejetje financiranja pomeni tudi sprejem dejstva, da bodo vključeni na seznam upravičencev, ki obsega navedbo upravičenca, ime operacije in znesek javnih virov financiranja operacije.

Podrobnejše informacije v zvezi z objavljenim razpisom najdete na spletnih straneh Slovenskega podjetniškega sklada; www.podjetniskisklad.si

Primalac leasinga sam bira dobavljača predmeta leasinga i sam ugovara cijenu i isporuku, a s ponudom se obraća leasing kompaniji da u njegovo ime kupi predmet leasinga. Davalac leasinga zadržava pravno vlasništvo nad predmetom leasinga, dok primalac leasinga stiče ekonomsko vlasništvo. Dvije najpopularnije vrste leasinga su: Finansijski leasing i Operativni leasing.

Finansijski leasing

Davalac leasinga, uz prethodni dogovor sa primaocem leasinga, kupuje predmet leasinga od dobavljača i daje mu na korišćenje. Primalac leasinga koristi predmet leasinga u poslovanju i po tom osnovu stiče prihode koji mu omogućuju da isplaćuje ugovorene obaveze koje ima prema davaocu leasinga. Tokom perioda otplate, sa trajanjem do 60 mjeseci, predmet leasinga ostaje u pravnom vlasništvu davaoca leasinga. Po isteku ugovora, primalac leasinga može da se odluči da vrati predmet leasinga davaocu, ili da ga kupi za cijenu koja je znatno niža od očekivane tržišne vrijednosti.

U praksi se najčešće (ali ne i obavezno) ugovorom predvidi da plaćanjem posljednje leasing rate, primalac leasinga automatski postaje i pravni vlasnik predmeta leasinga. Finansijski leasing je često definisan kao alternativni vid finansiranja novih investicija preduzeća. U odnosu na bankarske kredite finansijski leasing ima veliki broj prednosti kako za davaoca tako i za primaoca leasinga.

Operativni leasing

Namijenjen je prvenstveno korištenju predmeta leasinga sa učešćem i budućom vrijednošću i trajanjem ugovora do 60 mjeseci. Operativni leasing pruža mogućnost korisniku leasinga da po isteku ugovora predmet leasinga vrati ili obnovi ugovor za novi, moderniji predmet leasinga. Kod operativnog leasinga rata se knjiži kao trošak, a predmet leasinga se vodi i otpisuje u knjigama davaoca leasinga. Pored ove osnovne podjele postoje još i podjele prema osobinama predmeta leasinga, prema trajanju leasinga, prema broju angažovanih lica itd.

Zašto leasing?

Finansijski razlozi - nije svako preduzeće ili pojedinac u mogućnosti da kupi opremu neophodnu za pokretanje, proširenje ili modernizaciju sopstvenog poslovanja. Ne raspolaže svako preduzeće adekvatnim sredstvima koje bi moglo da ponudi kao obezbjeđenje za bankarske kredite. Leasing predstavlja odgovor na takve probleme tako što pruža mogućnosti primaocima leasinga da pribave neophodnu opremu.

Ekonomičnosti i pogodnosti - korisnici predmeta leasinga plaćaju leasing rate iz profita ostvarenog po osnovu korišćenja predmeta leasinga. Veoma često leasing obezbjeđuje 100% finansiranja za projekat. Leasing se najčešće nudi bez dodatnih sredstava obezbjeđenja - jedna od glavnih prednosti leasinga je ta što davalac leasinga pruža finansiranje bez zahtjeva za dodatnim obezbjeđenjem (upravo iz razloga što je on pravni vlasnik predmeta leasinga). U privredama u tranziciji se često traži i dodatno obezbjeđenje, ali je ono u ovom slučaju daleko manje nego kod tradicionalnog bankarskog kreditiranja.

Brza obrada zahtjeva - Upravo iz razloga što dodatno obezbjeđenje najčešće nije potrebno, leasing može biti ugovoren daleko jednostavnije i brže nego klasični bankarski kredit (u idealnom slučaju za svega jedan dan). Odluka se donosi u većini slučajeva (u zavisnosti od procjene boniteta) na osnovu sposobnosti potencijalnog primaoca leasinga da izvršava svoje mjesečne obaveze koje proizlaze iz ugovora o leasingu.

Fleksibilnost - leasing daje mogućnost da se započne ili razvije biznis sa minimalnim početnim ulaganjem (učešćem). Plan otplate leasing rata može biti podešen tako da odgovara specifičnim potrebama korisnika leasinga. Preko davaoca leasinga se često mogu obezbjediti dodatne usluge kao što su povoljnije održavanja mašina i opreme, što se ne može očekivati u slučaju bankarskog kreditiranja. (ekapija)

Česta pitanja menadžera bh kompanija su fokusirana u sistematično biranje tržišta za poslovanje, suradnju i osiguravanje uspijeha, je "Da li sam učinio pravi korak". Uvijeti za uspijeh su uvijek mogućnosti za prodaju, t.j. količina prodaje određenih surovina, robe i materijala. Takvo razmišljanje nije problematični. Problemi nastaju tokom implementacije kompanija na određeno tržište, traženjem pravih partnera, osiguravanjem finansijske rezerve za promociju, tz. marketing i razvoj kompanije na trom tržištu. I tu nastanu svi problemi. Da bi bili konkuretni na stranim tržištima uvijek moramo imati dobru ponudu, kvalitetu i prijaznu cijenu.

Došao, vidio, osvojio - je kratka formula o uspijehu svakoga uspješno pojedinca koji prilikom osvajanja novog tržišta uvaži sva pravila i prepreke, koje se pojavljivaju na svakom tržištu. Da bi svatili tržište, moramo poznavati "njegov mentalitet", a pritom imati postujući odnos do tog tržišta. Ne smijemo podcjeniti ni jedne činjenice, koja uvijetuje razvoj posla.

U razgovorima sa mnogim predstavnicima bh kompanija, njihov najveći strah za nastupanje, t.j. osvajanje novih tržišta nastaju kad im se otkrije to tržište. Pojave se mnogi strani termini, novi jezik, susret sa novom kulturom, mentalitet potrošača je drugačiji, odnos do proizvoda nije uvijek ravnodušan ili ga doživljavaju stranim, što je sasvim normalno. Svjetske korporacije su taj problem prepoznale i našle unikatno riješenje za postoječi problem. Coca Cola je jedna od takvih. Predstavništva Coca Cola-e uvijek u svojim proizvodnim firmama zapošljavaju domaće stanovništvo, domaći menadžmenti i sl. Time daju legitimitet tom tržištu da taj proizvod usvoje kao domaći, a time i koriste znanja lokalnog stanovništva za razvoj svoje poslovne budućnosti. U narodu bi rekli: dvije muhe na jedan mah. I tako je u realnom svijetu. Iskoristiti treba potencijale koji su vam u datom trenutku najprihvatljiviji.

Slovenačko tržište je često problematično neiskusnim bh menadžerima koji moraju ovu prokletu državu preći želeći uću u tržište EU. Očekivajući znanje slovenačkih menadžera, pravnika, savjetnika i sl. bosanski jezik je najčešća prepreka. Istina je da se prosječni Slovenac ponaša lajički do bosanskog, kao manje vrijednog jezika, ali u poslovom svijetu se ta mogućnost ne smije dati nikome. Menadžeri, koji zastupaju vašu kompaniju moraju biti uređeni, ljudi visokog kulturno nivoa, poznavači poslovnog bontona, a najvažniji element, koji svaki menadžer mora imati u svojoj torbi je znanje najmanje dva evropska jezika, ako mu je strani slovenački jezik. Kad bi preporučavao bi to onda bila opcija: njemačkog i engleski, italijanski i engleski, španski i engleski, njemački i francuski, i sl. Gore navedeni elementi su često odlučujući faktori za uspijeh u poslu, sklapanju dogovora, kvaliteti pregovaranja i poštovanja pravila tržišta.

U većini primjera su bile napravljene greške prilikom pregovaranja, dogovaranja, implementacije na određeno tržište, te je u protivrijednosti nastala visoka cijena nepotrebnih troškova. "Šta mi je to trebalo?", su riječi menadžera, koji su se prvi put susreli sa novim poslovno-mentalim okolišom. Al' ništa nije džabe pa ni znanja i iskustva koja stičemo. To moramo razumijeti kao normalno.

Praksa uspiješnih manjih i srednjih kompanija su jednostvane. Oni su za svoje potrebe platili stručne advokatske urede te iznajmili agente, koji brinu za razvoj i nastupanje na stranom-domaćem tržištu. Samo troškovi su bistveno manji jer se smanji administracisko vrijeme, sva nepotrebna letanja, neznanja i sl. Posao kvalitetno odrađen i osigurana prva faza za početak poslovanja. Ako u tome uspijemo prepoznati naše mogućnosti, smo na konju, kako bi narod rekao. A na konju je važno biti, jer svijet konkurencije je krut, nimalo tolerantan i često negativno naelektrisan protiv nove konkurencije. Mada za sve postoji lijek, a takav odnos je manje-više normalan, jer ulazite u tuđe područje trgovine i poslovanja.

Iza svakog uspiješnog čovijeka stoji uspiješna žena, a iza svakog uspiješnog menadžera stoji kvalitetan poslovni plan, mozaik znanja i skustava.

Ernest B. Kulauzović
gen.sekretar »Foruma bh privrednika Slovenije«

Objava: Udruženje Kupujmo i koristimo domaće BiH

11 zemalja istočne Europe je do sada uvelo flat-tax (proporcionalni porez). Zemlje Zapadne Europe, koje su se u početku bunile zbog "nepoštene" porezne konkurencije novih članica, sada same režu poreze zbog povećane konkurencije iz Istočne Europe gdje se režu porezi kako si bi privukle investicije, olakšala ponuda i jednostavno stvorilo konkurentniju, zdraviju, ekonomiju. Jedna od razloga za uvođenje flat-tax u Bugarskoj je zbog smanjenja udjela sive ekonomije. Socijalisti u Španjolskoj obećavaju ukidanje poreza na bogatstvo jer je jedno od najviših u Europi i jer "kažnjava štednju." Kod nas se smanjivanje poreznih stopa koristi samo kao jeftini izborni slogani, ne misli se ozbiljno o tome. Hrvatskoj nije nužno potreban flat-tax, iako uvođenje bi imalo neke benefite, jer problem, za sada, nije na prihodovnoj strani, već rashodovnoj. No Hrvatskoj jest potrebno smanjenje određenih poreza i rasterećenja ekonomije od rentijerskih skupina zbog kojih porezi jesu visoki. Da ne duljim....

A Supply-Side World

January 7, 2008 Page A12

Democrats in Congress remain committed to raising taxes on grounds that tax rates don't much matter to economic growth, and in any case they only help the rich. They may be the last public officials on the planet to believe this. In recent weeks alone, some of the unlikeliest political leaders have endorsed tax rate cuts in the name of making their economies better.

Start in Europe, where Socialist Party Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero pledged in December that if re-elected, "One of the first decisions I would take is to eliminate the wealth tax [up to 2.5%]," which he says is one of the highest in Europe and "punishes savings." Mr. Zapatero is no conservative. But he's joining the European march down the Laffer Curve on taxes, having already phased in reductions in Spain's corporate tax rate to 30% from 35% and its personal income tax rate to 43% from 45%.

Like France and Germany, Spain is cutting rates because of the tax competition from their European Union neighbors such as Ireland and East Europe. There are now at least 11 nations formerly behind the Iron Curtain with flat rate taxes of 25% or lower. On January 1, a new flat tax of 10% became law in Bulgaria, replacing its progressive rate structure and as far as we know the lowest such rate in the world. The newly elected Polish parliament is also planning to cut taxes, though an earlier flat-tax proposal earned a veto threat from the president.

And this just in: In the Middle East, Kuwait has decided to slash its corporate income tax on foreign companies to 15% from 55%. Finance Minister Mostafa al-Shemali argued for the cut, noting that Kuwait attracted less than $300 million in foreign investment last year, compared to some $18 billion in lower-tax Saudi Arabia (which has a religious tax but no corporate or income tax on Saudi nationals). "This law will encourage foreign investors to enter Kuwait," says Ahmed Baqer, head of the parliament's finance panel.

It's getting lonelier all the time at the top for America, which with a corporate tax rate of 35% is one of the few developed nations left with a rate of more than 30%. Economist Dan Mitchell tracks these trends for the Cato Institute, and he finds that 26 developed nations have cut either personal or corporate income tax rates since 2005. Since 1980, OECD nations have sliced their average personal income tax rate by 24 percentage points, to 40% from 64%. Corporate tax rates have fallen by more than 20 percentage points. Foreign leaders have learned that, in a world of easy global capital flows, high tax rates chase away investment and entrepreneurs.

Some of these tax-cutting nations -- such as Estonia, Ireland, Russia and Spain -- have seen revenues rise even as rates have fallen. This is what turns socialists into supply-siders in Spain, if regrettably not in the U.S.

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U jednom djelu Vujčić kaže,

"...Hrvatska se poimence spominje samo u kontekstu ocjene MMF-a da se u uvjetima politike stabilnog tečaja, ograničavanje snažne domaće potražnje, koja povećava vulnerabilnost ekonomije, ponajprije treba oslanjati na restriktivnu fiskalnu politiku. To, međutim, piše i u svakom naprednijem udžbeniku makroekonomije.."

Rad, kao što sam ja i pisao prije, i kaže da je kontrola (smanjenje) fiskalnih rashoda glavni instrument obrane. Ne moramo čak ni ići u napredne makro knjige, za koje javnost nema interesa. Pogledajmo što Alan Greenspan kaže u svojim memoarima u vezi Argentine, s kojom se Hrvatska stalno uspoređuje iako ne pretjerano opravdano, i neke stvari će nam biti jasnije.

"Cavallovi pogledi na reforme (Domingo Cavallo je bio Argentinski Ministar Ekonomije) su mi zvučali mnogo razboritije nego neinformirana retorika koja je dolazila u to vrijeme od mnogih Argentinskih zakonodavaca i provincijalnih guvernera. Njihovi pogledi su podsjećali na fiskalnu neodogovornost ranijih desetljeća. Sjećam se da sam gledao u Cavalla preko stola na jednom od G20 sastanaka i pitao se da li je on svjestan da će backstop posuđivanja prema pesu ostati izvor podrške samo ako se ne koristi pretjerano. Održavanje velikog buffera dolara bi vjerojatno omogućilo održavanje fiksnog valutnog tečaja u nedogled. Ali, politički sistem Argentine nije mogao odoljeti korištenju izobilja naizgled besplatnih dolara u pokušaju akomoditacije biračkih zahtjeva. Postepeno ali neumorno, kapacitet posuđivanja u dolaru je iscrpljen."

Hrvatska nema fiksni tečaj, ali opasnosti populističkih politika koje bi neizbježno bile fiskalno lakomislene ipak postoji. Gosp. Vujčić kaže da je vidio dotični rad i prije njegovog objavljivanja i kako za HNB ne piše ništa novog što se već ne zna. Nema novoga ni što se tiče javnosti, ako sa pažnjom pratite što se događa. Interpretacije rada u domećem tisku su proizašle iz novinarskih olovaka, ne stručnih radova i modeliranja. To dakako ne znači da nema problema i mjesta za unaprjeđenje ekonomskog zdravlja zemlje. HNB, kao primarius, već dugo poduzima mjere usporavanja vanjskog zaduživanja. To ste mogli i pročitati u Ponedjeljak u PD. Nove mjere HNBa koje će utjecati na ponudu kredita će detaljnije tek biti predstavljene, no ideja je sljedeća:

"Kako su banke dosad prednost u kreditiranju davale građanima nauštrb malih poduzeća, HNB-ova revizija mjera vodit će se ekonomskom logikom koja bi trebala utjecati na te preferencije. Dakle, valja očekivati određeni troškovni udar na kredite stanovništvu kojim bi se oni učinili manje profitabilnima, a to znači i svojevrsni poticaj kreditiranju poduzetništva."

Nove bi mjere pogodovale i malim domaćim bankama koje nemaju velike inozemne izvore prihoda. Pošto uvijek postoji neki trošak, mjere će netkome stati na žulj, biti korisne u jednom pogledu a nekorisne u drugom. No postepeno smanjenje kreditiranja građana, tako da postane manje profitabilno, a povećanje domaćih poduzetnika u kreditiranju bi zapravo značilo kreditiranje investicija. No koliko će ta zamjena u ponudi kredita biti uspiješna, tj. do kolikog će selektivnog kreditiranje doći, ovisi i o poduzetničkoj klimi u zemlji. Bankama se ipak ne mogu ruke usmjeriti na arbitralan način. Tu opet dolazimo do teme koliko smo slobodni za pokretanje, razvoj, biznisa i natjecanje na tržištu da bi poduzetnici bili uspiješnijii i zašto nismo više. 

(Ja sam boldao najupečatljvije rečenice)

By KYLE WINGFIELD
October 25, 2007

SISAK, Croatia -- The first thing you notice after passing the gate to the old iron works and the oak trees filled with shrapnel, but before you reach the shiny new machines for polishing silicon wafers, is the sign -- brightly painted, low to the ground and slightly trapezoidal, straight out of Office Park, U.S.A. It represents the fresh face that Matt Sertic is trying to put on his depressed hometown, and Croatian business generally.

Two decades ago, Mr. Sertic left his job at these iron works to find success in Silicon Valley. Now he owns the communist-era building where he once worked and is equipping it to make various products for the semiconductor industry.

You might think that Croatian officials, facing 14% unemployment and mindful of the need for foreign investment, would move mountains to smooth the way for this local boy made good. Heavily shelled during the 1991-95 war with Serbia, Sisak is particularly desperate for jobs so that residents don't have to commute -- or move -- to the capital, Zagreb, about 35 miles away.

If only. Mr. Sertic had to jump through more hoops than he cares to recount to open this week the Croatian division of his company, Applied Ceramics.

"You have to somehow see that people are not mean. This is just the way systems run, how they live here," says Mr. Sertic, the president of the privately held firm out of Fremont, California, a supplier to Intel, Sony and Motorola, among others. The company has put $12 million into the Croatian venture, which employs about 100 people.

"You cannot be called, for example, 'Applied Ceramics Croatia,'" he begins. "Why not? Well, someone might think that you are a state-owned company." Another picayune trouble arose over naming the street out front -- a public road that apparently existed without a name for decades -- so that he could put an address on business cards and begin to advertise. "Everything [has] to run through official bodies, and so there are always a lot of people involved and with a lot of people nothing gets decided and nothing gets done, and everything turns political. Even the name of the street."

Registering the business was more of an ordeal. First, the original California business-registration paperwork for the company was deemed too old. Then the Croatian authorities wanted the company's current financial statements to magically be included in those same founding documents, which are now 13 years old. "So it took three months until some judge went on vacation, and another judge came and says, 'All right,'" Mr. Sertic says with a weary chuckle.

To close on the purchase of a building and land, located on a larger industrial park, took over a year. In between the time Mr. Sertic thought he had a deal with the president of the iron works until he was able to move in this past March, he was forced to go through three separate public bids for the property. It took three months to get the supervisory board of the iron works to sign off on the sale, and even longer for them to vacate the place.

Then there were the taxes. Applied Ceramics received government approval to import new, American-made machines without paying the normal 22% tariff. Well, without paying it permanently, anyway. "You have to pay it, even though they return it back to you," Mr. Sertic says. "So then you have to submit all these documents, and then they return the tax to you in two months....If you don't have additional money, then you just wait for this money to use it for the next import.

"So if next month comes another container of equipment, you have to pay again. You cannot tell them, 'Look, you owe me one million, and here is coming another million, let's split it, right?' No way! You have to pay again. And so that's how the state constantly works with your money, and basically my view is it stimulates you not to do anything," he laughs again. Many small-business owners in Croatia choose to forgo the tax refund rather than deal with the bureaucracy and risk a visit from the state's financial police.

Did he ever think about giving up? "Several times I came to the point that something seems it cannot be done," Mr. Sertic says. "And then I would stop calling or pushing. And then I would find out that, two months later, things get done by themselves."

He had decided to try the European expansion only after talking with a professor in Sisak whose students were training as machinists, chemists and metallurgical engineers. "Then he says, 'You know, their best bet is they can be waiters in hotels or in restaurants,'" supporting Croatia's main growth industry, tourism. "And that looked to me like a huge pity and a waste of talent." With the professor's help, he identified 19 young people who went to Fremont for six to eight months of training. They now form the core of Applied Ceramics' Croatian team.

Eventually Mr. Sertic made it to Tuesday, when dozens of dignitaries, including President Stjepan Mesic, attended a grand-opening ceremony. "What Croatia needs is greenfield investment. We want investment in production for exports," Mr. Mesic told me through an interpreter after the festivities.

Perhaps the president isn't aware that, in his country, state incentives for such investments are, like the names of streets, subject to the interpretation of local officials. Applied Ceramics didn't qualify for "greenfield investor" incentives, even though it represents an entirely new industry for the country, because it renovated an existing building rather than constructing a new one.

* * *

Mr. Sertic's story, so far, has a happy ending. Many don't. Lawyers and bankers in Zagreb say corruption in the country's judiciary, particularly when it comes to registering property deeds, is pervasive. The Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation's 2007 Index of Economic Freedom ranked Croatia only 30% free when it comes to property rights, 34% free from corruption, and 50% free for foreign investors. All three scores are below the world averages in those categories, and Croatia's overall score of 55.3% free places it well below neighbors Slovenia (63.6%) and Hungary (66.2%).

"We have lost on a fairly steady basis good [foreign investors] who come in, try, can't do it and get out," says Mark Gero, a past president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia who has tried since 2000, unsuccessfully so far, to set up a waste-management business.

In the past, Mr. Gero says, "it was who you know here, and the deals that can be done through the people you know." Pressure from foreign investors working inside Croatia, as well as from outside forces such as the European Union, which Croatia aspires to join, has helped to level the playing field only slowly.

For his part, Mr. Sertic says he "never came to be in the situation that I had to grease up anybody with money or promises or anything like that." But he's aware that his new venture will be viewed as a barometer for how much has really changed. "Croatia got liberated in 1991, and then during this first decade, many Croatian Diaspora people returned to Croatia to start something, to invest somewhere, and some of them succeeded, but I would say especially small ones did not," he says.

"So I would say in Silicon Valley there are several Croatian-owned companies that are now looking: Will I survive or not?" He laughs again. "Then they will decide that maybe they can go too."

--Mr. Wingfield edits the Business Europe column.

Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Tipičan primjer problema sa investiranjem u Hrvatskoj je Američki Hrvat Matt Sertić koji je prisustvovao na konferenciji. Matt je predsjednik i direktor Applied Ceramics Inc. kompanije u Kaliforniji i jedan od donora Adriatic Institutu. Govorio je malo o svom projektu i problemima na koje nailazi o otvaranju high-tech pogona u Hrvatskoj te obajsnio da je njegova investicija primarno zbog emocija i ljubavi prema domovini. “Američki Hrvati uglavnom ne ulažu u Hrvatsku sa svojim glavama, već sa srcem.” To su naši “strani” investitori koji unatoč problemima ulažu u Hrvatskoj.

Za vrijeme konferencije sponzorirane od strane Adriatic Instituta, Sertić nije otkrivao previše detalja oko svog poslovanja u Hrvatskoj, ni gdje ni kada.

No, danas se otvara njegov visokotehnološki pogon u Sisku vrijednosti oko $12 milijuna, a na svečanosti bi trebao sudjelovati i Predsjednik Mesić. Na službenim stranicama Applied Ceramics Inc. objašnjeno je da je Sisak izabran kao idealna lokacija za realizaciju naših poslovnih ciljeva u potpori našem europoskom tržištu. Nadalje, ovakvo širenje omogućava Applied Ceramics-u tržišno vodstvo sa značajnom troškovnom prednošću i dostupnosti alternativa u opskrbljivanju svjetskog tržišta poluvodiča. Još na KapitalPlus i business.hr