ZAGREB, CROATIA - “The issue of change in cities is of strategic importance to the economic development of Croatia” said the Croatian president Stjepan Mesic at the opening of the regional conference “Changes in Cities”.

The conference was organized by the companies Deloitte and Infoarena, and gathered 140 participants. Leading up to the world economic crisis, the conditions for financing utility infrastructure and public investments in cities is increasingly harder, so cities need to find alternative models of financing and management.

“An opinion exists that large cities have large problems and small cities have small problems. That is no correct, everything is in organization” said Mesic. He added that to overcome financial problems, cities must not run to protectionism, instead, they should cooperate.

Mesic added the problems of today’s cities are not only economic, like economical development and deindustrialisation, but are social like: unemployment, housing problems, and the uncertain future for the young.