Osijek-Baranja County

undefinedCapital: the city of Osijek

Area: 4,152 km2

Population: 320,617

Demographic profile:
Age: average age 38.7 years
Gender: 48% men; 52% women

Economy

GDP: 2,538 million EUR; 7,875 EUR per capita (2007)

Export and import data: the value of external trade in 2009 topped 880 million USD.  Coverage of export by import was 93.7%, and the most important foreign trade partners of the County in 2009 included: Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Serbia and Slovenia.

The most exported products: machines and their components, food products, paper and cardboard, chemical products, wood products, furniture and textile.

Key sectors:

  • agriculture (the largest number of registered organic agricultural products producers in Croatia)
  • construction
  • tourism
  • traffic
  • trade
  • processing industry
  • education

Trends in the economy:

  • production of milk (the largest in Croatia)
  • rural tourism recognised as the generator of new economic

The most important investments in the economy (2008):

  • agriculture (20.9% of the overall investments)
  • trade (17.8%)
  • construction (17.5%)
  • processing industry (15.3%)
  • real estate sector (13.1%)
  • water supply and waste management (6.8%).

Structure and education level: the majority of population holds a secondary school degree (65%).

Manufacturing sector

The most important sectors: food industry, production of paper and cardboard, production of chemicals, production of non-metal mineral products, production of machinery and devices  

Employment: manufacturing sector employs 42.8% of the total number of employed persons in the County

Overview of the most important companies (according to revenues in 2009): 

  • Našicecement – cement manufacturing plant, Našice
  • Belišće – production of paper, cardboard packaging, machinery, Belišće
  • Saponia – chemical, food and pharmaceutical industry, Osijek
  • Kandit Premijer – production, transport and services, Osijek
  • Food and Agricultural Concern Valpovo
  • Meggle Hrvatska – dairy industry and trade, Osijek
  • IPK – oil manufacturing factory Čepin
  • NEXE Beton – production of concrete
  • IPK Kandit – production of sweets and chocolate.

Services sector

Key sectors (according to revenues in 2009):

  • trade – accounts for over 30% of the overall revenues, employs 18% of the overall number of employees on the County level
  • construction – accounts for over 15% of revenues, employs 17% of the overall number of employees in the County

The most important investments: GTC, a leading Central European company for property development, was granted by the EBRD financing of the project Avenue Mall Osijek worth 41.1 million EUR, bringing the modern concept of shopping centre in Slavonia

Employment: services sector employs 57.2% of the overall number of employed persons in the County.

Overview of the most important companies (according to revenues in 2009): 

  • Žito, Osijek (production and trade)
  • Osijek-Koteks (construction and trade)
  • INA-Osijek Petrol (internal and external trade)
  • Biljemerkant (production, transport and trade)
  • Gradnja, Osijek
  • MD Profil (construction, trade, services)
  • Vodovod-Osijek (water supply and sewage system)
  • NEXE Grupa
  • Plodovi Fructus (production, processing and purchase of fruit and vegetables)
  • Werkos (construction engineering)

New Economy

Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Osijeku, Technological Department of BIOS – the Business Incubator,

IT Cluster Slavonia - IKS, TERA TEHNOPOLIS Ltd.

The most important companies: Werkos ltd., Osijek, TEHNO FILTER ltd., Beli Manastir, Solar Tehnika ltd., Valpovo.

Business infrastructure

Business centres: 7 (Osijek, Bilje, Donji Miholjac, Belišće, Valpovo, Erdut, Beli Manastir), and Technology Development Centre TERA, Osijek.

Business zones: a total of77 zones, out of which 21 is fully operating with 310 active while 56 zones are still in the preparation stage.

Business incubators: BIOS, ltd. (Osijek) and OSVIT (Donji Miholjac)

Technological parks: the construction of two new technological parks is planned, one in business zone Tenja and the second one in business zone Valpovo.)

Traffic infrastructure

Traffic corridors: corridor X (Salzburg – Zagreb – Beograd – Istanbul) and the parallel Drava Corridor and the Vc corridor (connecting central Europe, across Budapest, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the Adriatic coast and the port of Ploče).

Drava and Dunav represent important river waterways towards Central Europe and eastwards, to the Black Sea. Osijek airport is mainly oriented on cargo transport, but it also provides for passenger transport, and apart from East Slavonia and Baranja, it will be meeting the needs of the neighbouring areas of Hungary, Vojvodina and northern BiH. 

Education

Josip Juraj Strosmayer University in Osijek is the only university east of Zagreb and it includes 11 faculties (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Construction Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture, Food Technology, Economics, Philosophy, Faculty of Teacher Education,  Faculty of Theology), 4 departments (Maths Department, Biology Department, Physics Department, Chemistry Department) and one academy (Academy of Arts), and an interdisciplinary area of science (Study of culturology at the University).

A total of 18.874 students enrolled in Osijek University the academic year 2009/2010.

Other organisations for technical and professional training:

  • 2 centres for professional rehabilitation
  • 5 open universities
  • 7 IT schools
  • 6 schools of foreign languages

Secondary education: a total of 30 secondary schools with 13,812 students; half of that number attend four-year secondary schools.

Further information about the County

Osijek-Baranja County
Regional Development Agency of Slavonia and Baranja
Tourist Board of Osijek-Baranja County
Invest in Croatia - Osijek-Baranja County
Osijek-Baranja County - business zones