Croatia’s government has endorsed the 2017-2030 Croatian Transport Strategy. Under the strategy around €2bn worth of cohesion funds from the European Union will be invested in 20 rail, road, maritime and air transport projects. 

This will help Croatia tackle its transport infrastructure spending gap, which Global Infrastructure Hub, a G20 initiative, recently forecast would grow from $175mn in 2017 to $363mn in 2040. As tourist numbers increase, Croatia’s airport and port facilities in particular are coming under pressure. 

"The adoption of the strategy provides for the unconditional spending of EU funds for more than 20 transport projects worth €2bn in total," Minister of Transport Oleg Butković said according to a government statement.

Out of the projects in the strategy, Butković highlighted Peljesac Bridge, the purchase of electric trains, the renovation of the tram infrastructure in Osijek and Zagreb, the purchase of new trams, new ships to transport passengers to offshore islands, and the completion of construction works at Dubrovnik airport.

The government also endorsed the 2017-2020 Structural Reform Programme. Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Martina Dalić said the plan contains a list of 15 projects to be funded directly by the European Commission, worth €1.8bn.

The European Commission confirmed on the same day that it approved €145mn financing for the upgrade of the rail section between Križevci, in the centre of the country, and Dugo Selo, close to Zagreb. The section is part of the Mediterranean transport corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which links Croatia with its neighbours Hungary and Slovenia while also connecting Southern Europe and Eastern Europe from Spain to the Ukrainian border.

Global Infrastructure Hub forecasts that while spending on road infrastructure will remain in line with Croatia’s needs, it will lag significantly behind on ports, airports and railways. These sectors will see spending gaps of $133mn, $51mn and $178mn respectively by 2040. 

This is backed up by the World Economic Forum's survey on the quality of transport infrastructure, where Croatian road infrastructure scores well in contrast to the country’s rail and air transport infrastructure.