Two agreements on business cooperation in the area of regional development and infrastructure of this County were signed in the premises of Primorsko-Goranska County administration, today . MSc Gordana Kovačević, the president of Ericssona Nikola Tesla, signed the first one with Prof.DSc. Vidoje Vujić, acting county prefect, and the other one, with on the same subject with Prof. DSc Heri Bezić, the dean of the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka. The subject of the above agreements covers the linking of a local administration, education and industry that is a prerequisite for faster and better quality implementation of ICT technology, economic growth and the preparation for joining the networked society in future.

A special attention in the above collaboration will be paid to setting up a firm link in the given triangle, thus having impact to all parties included, in the sense of better and faster adaptation to requirements of a society development, and business activities along with the positive impact to the environment.

The prefect Mr Vujić underlined that the project “e - County" is important in two aspects, such as initiating necessary activities for the transformation of the County into a modern regional electronic administration that will engage the population in the information society and community, respectively. He also pointed out that the key prerequisite for the realization of the vision, and the development project of the County is the availability of electronic communications infrastructure. A key goal of the project is to organize the development of a broadband (optic) backbone of the County by using the existing state owned optical trunk routes, as well as those owned by the companies and institutions with state majority ownership.

Further on, Mr. Vujić said: “In order to prepare for the implementation of our basic goal in the best possible way, today signed documents that are fundamental for business collaboration in the segment of regional development and infrastructure with Ericsson Nikola Tesla. This will be an opportunity for us to get further assistance in education and consulting offered by the company that is a proven leader in new technologies and socially responsible entrepreneur, which shall be especially noted. The development of our project “e –County” covers three local communities in a pilot project. It is about local communities of Rab, Kastav and Delnice, which were selected in a pattern: a city from the coastal area, a city from an island, and one from Gorski Kotar (a mountain area). This type of collaboration with Ericsson Nikola Tesla, and the implementation of the set goals, will make Primorsko-Goranska County a leader in projects for informatization at the state level. Till the end of the current year, the county will be ready to run for EU structural funds, necessary for further implementation of the “e-County” project. And, this step forward has already been supported by the Croatian Government and the key Ministries, as well”.

The comment by Ms  Gordana Kovačević was as follows: “Ericsson Nikola Tesla is a regional ICT leader and the largest Croatian knowledge exporter that creates actively positive trends in the industry development. This has been primarily achieved through research and development and innovative activities with an aim to build a prosperous society of knowledge. Being a socially responsible entrepreneur, we are well aware of the importance of ICT technologies in the faster grown of other economic activities and the society as a whole. Thus, we consider the signing of such agreements our investment in the future. New technology can considerably add to improvement of the competitiveness and to enable the attraction of new industries and highly skilled workforce, in order to stop negative trends and provide employment for educated workforce.

This collaboration is in line with Ericsson vision of the networked society where all that may benefit from networking will be networked.  Such an approach opens limitless possibilities for innovativeness, but also for the need for the continuous investment in new knowledge, solutions, products and services. It is expected that by 2020, there will be some 50 billion networked devices and that the need for information exchange among people and devices will be more and more present. The networked society will mean interconnection among different industrial sectors, and the benefits will be obvious not only in the economic development but also in the public administration, transportation, safety, healthcare and education as well. 

Only together through interconnection and collaboration we can enable prerequisites for faster development of local administrations. By signing this agreement, Primorsko-Goranska County and the Faculty of Economics expressed a conscience on the necessity of connection with the industry thus making an important step forward by their own engagement in the organization of  networked society based on a mobile broadband access and cloud computing. I am very glad that we work together in creating prerequisites that will, along with benefits  listed so far, improve the quality of life of all citizens.“

The dean of the Faculty of Economics Prof. DSc Heri Bezić, presented the basic guidelines of activities of the Centre for the local economic development by the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka. He also underlined that projects in the frame of the collaboration with Ericsson Nikola Tesla and the County, are far beyond the regional importance, as concerns the development of the top level infrastructure, thus enabling the development in the whole territory of Croatia.

Communications Ericsson Nikola Tesla