The official start of the Dubrovnik Winter Festival tomorrow also see the opening of the children's festive program.

On Saturday at 3.00pm the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, will open the Dubrovnik ice-rink in the tennis courts in Lapad. The mayor will start at the funfair on the Sunset Beach in the Bay of Lapad and then catch the special Advent train to arrive at the nearby tennis courts at 3.00pm.

Tomorrow sees the official opening of the 2017 Dubrovnik Winter Festival with the lighting of the first advent candle in the heart of the Old City of Dubrovnik at 7.30pm which will be followed by a concert by popular Croatian pop star Gibonni.

Flydubai, the low-cost airline from the United Arab Emirates, in its summer flight schedule for 2018 has introduced a new line to Croatia: flights to Dubrovnik – Avioradar reports.

That will be the first regular line from the Middle East to Dubrovnik. The new Dubrovnik-Dubai flights will start operating on the 10th of April next year with three flights a week, every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

From the 13th of June there will be an additional flight per week that will operate on Wednesdays. Tickets for all the flights are available until the end of summer flight schedule or more precisely until October 25th. Prices start at around 350 Euros for a return ticket.

Last week the Croatian Ministry of Labour sent a proposal to employers and trade unions about an increase of the quota for employing foreigners in 2018.

Considering the situation in the country as a result of a massive migration wave of Croatians to other EU countries in search of a better life, the Ministry of Labour suggested to increase the number of working permits for foreigners to almost 29,000.
Out of the envisaged 29,000 working permits, the quota for new employment would be 17,810 permits (2.5 times more than in 2017), for the extension of already issued working permits 9,000, and for seasonal employment 1,940 working permits.

However, while employers welcome the ministry’s decision, trade unions say that this employment measure will prove a total failure.

According to data, the construction sector in Croatia has recorded the highest lack of workers. The most sought after professions are carpenters, masonry and bar benders. As far as tourism is concerned, the most needed are chefs (100), masseurs (100), tourist animators (50) as well as diving instructors (5) and experts for mindfulness meditation (5).

Around 1,600 new working permits are to be assigned to the shipbuilding industry, 1,100 to the metal industry, and 800 to the sector of agriculture and forestry, out of which 35 are envisaged for cattlemen and shepherds.

Furthermore, 770 working permits for foreigners will be assigned to the food industry, 765 to the transport sector (600 truck drivers), 580 to the manufacturing industry, 70 to healthcare (60 doctors and 10 dentists) and 22 working permits to culture (12 ballet artists).

Croatia has the lowest early school-leaving rate in the European Union, however, basic skills have declined and are below the EU average, reported the EU Commission.

The European Commission’s annual comparative report Education and Training Monitor 2017 encompasses 28 country reports about education system and training in EU member countries. The country reports explore investment in education and training and national policies to modernize school education, higher education, vocational education and adult learning.

‘’Croatia is one of the countries where the impact of the education system is relatively weak, and the situation has worsened over the past few years’’, emphasized Stefaan Hermans, the director of the EU Commission’s Directorate General for Education and Culture at the report presentation held at the House of Europe.

The report shows that Croatia has a very low early school leaving rate (2,8%), the lowest in the EU, which is among the main strengths of the country's education system.

However, basic skills have declined and are below the EU average. There are differences in performance linked to socioeconomic status, but the quality of curricula and teaching appear to be the main driver of Croatia’s poor performance.
Furthermore, participation rates in early childhood education and care and in adult education are among the lowest compared to other EU member countries.

The report also shows that despite recent robust economic growth and a more promising labour market situation, low skill levels need to be addressed. The same applies to the relevance of skills acquired in vocational and higher education.

Even though a number of reforms have been prepared in the context of the Strategy for Education, Science and Technology and the associated curricular reform, progress in 2017
has been limited.

In addition, Stefaan Hermans pointed out that education is a matter of the future, which is why it is important to improve the education system, thus Croatia, as well as other EU member countries, have the support of the European Union.

Knightfall, the series history drama filmed last year in Dubrovnik, will finally have a premiere in December.

This latest historical series from the History channel, deals with medieval politics and the conflicts of the Templars, the most powerful and richest military order in the Middle Ages. Their order was founded after the First Crusade, and they were committed to defending the paths that lead to Jerusalem.

Knightfall was directed by Don Handfield and Richard Rayner, and the main role was played by Tom Cullen, who appears as the Knight Landry. Jim Carter, Olivia Ross, Ed Stoppard, Julian Ovenden, Sabrina Bartlett, Pádraic Delaney, Bobby Schofield and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina also appear in the series too.

Knightfall was partly filmed in Dubrovnik in the summer of 2016. The bay of Pile directly in front of the Old City walls of Dubrovnik was chosen as a location for an all-action scene with Templar Knights fighting and escaping on waiting ships.

The premiere will be on Wednesday, December 6th. It will be fun to see Dubrovnik in its new role!

The sweetest party of the year, the Cake Party, will be held for the tenth time this year on Saturday, December 9th. This event is organized by the Dubrovnik Tourist Board and it offers, as you could guess, a lot of cakes! The sweet delights are donated by the media houses, as well as the restaurants, hotels, etc.

This is one of the favourite events of the Dubrovnik Winter Festival, since everyone is invited to buy a piece (or two) of cake, all for good cause! Every year the Tourist Board picks an association and donates all the collected money.

The party will take place in front of Saint Blasius Church at 10 am. Don't be late because the cakes disappear fast!
Last year this event was a great success since over 830 pieces of cake were sold and 13 thousand Kunas was collected.

‘’A meeting of 16 Eastern and Central European countries (CEEC) with China was very important to Croatia for positioning in relations with this world superpower which, in recent years, has shown an interest in investing in this part of Europe’’, commented Andrej Plenković, the Croatian Prime Minister at the China-CEEC forum held in Budapest a few days ago.

Plenković also added that key spheres of Croatia’s interest are infrastructure, ports and especially tourism, which recorded a significant increase in the number of arrivals of Chinese tourists this year.

‘’Next year, probably in the spring, Dubrovnik will host a meeting of tourism ministers in the form 16+1 and China in order to confirm the interest of Chinese investors in Croatian tourism and position ourselves’’, explained the Prime Minister. He also added that the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) will open its office in Shanghai this week, which is another signal for ‘improving the overall trade exchange’’ which has significantly increased over the past years.

According to information, China has agreed to invest an amount of 30 million Euros in the popular Croatian thermal spa Krapinske Toplice, whilst the Chinese company Camel will invest the same amount in Rimac Automobili, the Croatian manufacturer of high-performance electric cars.

Beluga caviar is one of the most famous, most luxurious and most expensive types of caviar in the world, with a price of stunning 80,000 Kunas per kilogram or more than 10,000 Euros per kilo.

The fact that this popular delicacy has its fans in Croatia was confirmed seven years ago when, despite its ever-astronomic price, beluga caviar was sold out in a delicacy shop in Zagreb at a price of 2,442 Kunas per 30-gram jar full of this luxurious delicacy.

However, good news for Croatian beluga caviar fans is on the horizon. The Ribnjačarstvo Poljana farm fish in the Požega-Slavonia County has been farming fish in ecologically intact environment for years. Recently they came up with an idea to farm the beluga sturgeon ‘Huso huso’ and produce beluga caviar of the highest quality.

With a 115-year long tradition of freshwater fish farming, this Croatian company has both, the knowledge and the courage to engage in such a project. The whole idea was sparked by an interesting lecture about the sturgeon farming and the production of caviar at the International Conference on Aquaculture held in Vukovar two years ago.

The Queen of Water or the Gentle Giant, as people call it endearingly, the beluga sturgeon or ‘Huso huso’ can reach up to seven metres in length and around one tonne and a half in weight in its best years. However, it is less known that this living fossil, protected by the CITES convention as a critically endangered species, once lived in Croatia in the waters of Danube, Sava and Drava Rivers, thus its farming, as it is conceived by Ribnjačarstvo Poljana, would surely save this valued fish from extinction.