Study on the Utilization of National and EU Funds in Financing Capital Investments of ICT Companies

Abstract

The EU programmes and national funds, among others, are supporting regions and companies to reach their economic potential, create innovative products, services and increase employment, thus contributing to the economic and developmental goals of their country and the EU as a whole. Nevertheless, the authors found out that during the last five years the Croatian ICT companies insufficiently used these funds in the implementation of their capital investments. With the aim of identifying the reasons for the low utilization of national and EU funds, the authors conducted a survey among Croatian ICT professionals which showed that those respondents who think that ICT companies are reluctant to use grants from EU and national programmes also think that the application process takes too much valuable time. Therefore, the complexity and the time necessary for the application, development and evaluation could be a reason for low utilization. This finding is considered a valuable signal for policy-makers to conduct changes on administrative levels for the following funding period, with the aim of increasing the utilization of available grants in ICT sector investments.