Original scientific paper
Managing Island Development: the Croatian Case
Nenad Starc
orcid.org/0000-0002-2412-4572
; Institute of Economics Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Managing Croatian islands development - the subject-matter of this paper-
is a highly important issue since 1,246 Croatian islands make the second largest
archipelago in the Medite rranean. Not more than 110,000 islanders inhabit not
more than 40 islands. The population peak was reached in 1921, and then followed
the decades of slow or less slow decrease. Since the 1981 tili the end of the
2oth centwy the Croatian islands population has rapidly decreased. Being based on
the natural environment, the island economy is generally simple, its structure apparently
primitive compared with the mainland. To the present day there are
whole areas of economic activity missing there.
It is commonly assumed that the Austro-Hungarian empire was the first to manage
the development of the Croatian islands. Eff01ts of that sort were severely reduced
in the times of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After 50 socialist years the picture that
has emerged features a number of small islands which still have some population
but no economy, and several larger ones which seem to be prospering at least
judging by the standards devised on the mainland.
The islands and their development have been reconsidered since 1995. The newly
formed Ministly of Development and Reconstruction put island issue on its agenda
and formed an interdisciplinary expert team which produced the Island Development
Programme in 1997. the Parliament passed it as the first development document
of the State of Croatia that dealt with a particular region. NIDP scoped comparative
advantages, detected limitations and deduced that the islands arrived at
the development crossroads from which the path of sustainable development
should be taken. Its goals, principles and measures favour sustainable development,
and »from the bottom<< development management, i.e. starting from the island
community.
The Island Act was produced and passed as a lex specialis in April 1999.The most
important development measu res and tasks prescrihed by the Act are passage and
implementation of the 22 island sustainable deve lopment programmes and 19 state
infrastructure and superstructure programmes. Eight years after the passage of the first Constitution of the independent Republic of Croatia the institutional framework
needed for an efficient island development management is finally built.
Keywords
Croatian islands; managing development; National Island Development Programme
Hrčak ID:
100344
URI
Publication date:
12.12.2002.
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