EMO World Tour: Inspiring SME in Zagreb
The team of the EMO World Tour 2017 remains tireless also in Europe. On Tuesday, April 4, Christoph Miller from VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) and Hartwig von Saß from Deutsche Messe AG spoke to journalists and interested visitors in Zagreb (Croatia). They presented the concept and contents of the EMO Hannover 2017, a trade fair which also explicitly focuses on the small and medium-sized enterprises strongly represented in Croatia. Among them is Boris Budinjaš, a board member of SAB, who praised above all the internationality of the world leading trade fair. He runs SAB in the second generation and with almost 50 employees. In any case, he wants to participate as an exhibitor and win new customers at the EMO Hannover 2017.
Croatian economy is gaining momentum
After several years of reversing, the Croatian economy is recovering. The drivers of development are foreign demand, as well as consumption and investment.
For 2017, the EU Commission forecasts economic growth for Croatia of 2.5 percent. The government's planned measures, such as the rehabilitation of public budgets, the reduction of debt and the improvement of the general economic climate, will be helped by the reduction of bureaucracy and the reduction of the tax burden on companies. Additional impulses are to be set by privatizing public companies and investment projects in the infrastructure sector. The projects are supported by EU funds.
An internationally competitive industry must necessarily invest in modern machine tools. Finally, machines worth 70 million euros were introduced in 2016 according to VDW World Statistics. The most important supplier is Germany with a share of more than one third, followed by Slovenia, Italy, Taiwan and Austria.
In 2016 German exports to Croatia amounted to approx. 25 million euros. This corresponded to an increase of almost a third. The main focus was on processing centers.
"The EMO Hannover 2017 is the best platform for informing about new products and solutions for industrial production," says Christoph Miller from VDW. Machine tool manufacturers from 42 countries, including all important suppliers for the Croatian industry, present their production technology from simple, robust and economical to high-tech and high-priced. Stand-alone machines are presented as well as linked systems, transfer lines and large machines, equipped with a high degree of automation. "EMO Hannover is not only the ideal platform for large investors," explains Miller. "In particular, we would like to encourage the small- and medium-sized users of machine tools as well, there are more than 400 machine builders in Croatia - to get a detailed insight into the world of metalworking."
Photo: VDW