Carl-Henric Svanberg arrived to Croatia in the evening of 10th June. Åke Enell, President of Ericsson Croatia and Head of MU Central Europe, greeted him at the Zagreb airport. Ericsson's CEO and President was invited to Croatia by the Croatian President, Stjepan Mesić, who visited Sweden and Ericsson's headquarters in Stockholm in October last year.

During his stay in Croatia Mr. Svanberg met not only the Croatian President, but also the Croatian Prime Minister, dr. Ivo Sanader. However, the official part of his visit was mostly spent in Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Ericsson's local company in Croatia, attending meetings with the company managers and talking to ETK employees.

As a representative of one of the first foreign investors in Croatia Ericsson's leader had much to share with the leaders of the Croatian state. Ericsson Nikola Tesla was singled out during these talks as a good example of mutually beneficial cooperation of the economies of the two states.

The way of Croatia into Europe, leads, among other possibilities, through successful cooperation of the Croatian economy and the creators of the global economic trends, Ericsson being one of them, it was concluded during the Sanader and Svanberg's meeting.

The meeting with President Mesić went in the atmosphere of a get-together of two good friends. Mesić and Svanberg touched upon the topics of the role Ericsson Nikola Tesla has in the Ericsson corporation. The position the company has as Ericsson's reference center within the field of e-business, or to be more precise, within the field of e-health, was considered as particularly important. There was a mutual agreement that such prominent role of the company in the group is based on the competence and dedication of ETK employees who give considerable contribution to the realization of Ericsson's regional and global projects. Owing to the expertise of its employees the company was able to successfully enter the area of integration of information and communications systems, which is also a unique example in the Eericsson corporation, it was said during the meeting.

After meetings with the Croatian Prime Minister and President, during which he was accompanied by the ETK President, Åke Enell, Gordana Kovačević, ETK Vice President and Snježana Bahtijari, Director of ETK Communication, Carl-Henric Svanberg gave an official statement to the gathered members of the press: "Let me say that it is a great pleasure to be here in Zagreb, in Croatia. I have had the chance this morning to speak both with the Prime Minister and the President of Croatia. I think that it is really inspiring to see how much they know about us and that they support Ericsson Nikola Tesla, a company that plays an important role in the Ericson Group. Ericsson Nikola Tesla is a company that has shown a great development and today it is at the forefront of what we do at Ericsson."

The afternoon of the 11th June was dedicated to the meeting with the managers and employees working in Ericsson Nikola Tesla. A tour of the company was a concrete show of the company's main strengths: solid knowledge base, motivated and dedicated employees, strong research and development, competence in end-to-end communications solutions and sales network spanning over several tens of markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa. A special Management Forum in Carl-Henric's honor was called and it was used as an opportunity to exchange messages about the role of Ericsson Nikola Tesla in the corporation, the company's strategy for the future and its further alignment with the corporation.

Following quite full schedule in Zagreb there came a more relaxing part – visit to Istria and Brijuni, an island and a national park with the presidential residence. The host to Carl-Henric, his wife Agneta and son Jacob was Ivan Jakovčić, the President of the Region of Istria. There Mr. Svanberg also met Boris Nemšić, CEO of mobilkom Austria and COO Wireless, Telekom Austria.

We trust that the visit of Ericsson's CEO and President to Croatia will strengthen the relations of the two countries but also contribute to the further development of Ericsson Nikola Tesla in the Ericsson Group.

Communication
Ericsson Nikola Tesla