PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN CROATIAN SEAPORTS

The modern era, with the concept of supremacy of the neoliberal economy and understanding the role of the state and its institutional forms, has opened space and caused the need for finding new business methods and models, primarily in the area of project financing. As part of the sustainable development contents, the emergence and development of the public-private partnership is based on an effort to improve quality and availability of goods and services without the imposition of the additional taxes and funds for new projects. Furthermore, current trends in the world market, such as liberalization and globalization have impacted directly on the port environment and led to the new models of financing port investments in collaboration with the private sector. The aim of this paper is to elaborate the current situation in the Croatian seaports in terms of financial capacity to fund capital projects and to indicate the need for private sector participation, domestic or foreign origin, in financing the port infrastructure and suprastructure through "healthy" and sustainable projects of the public - private partnerships. In addition, this paper elaborates the Croatian experience in applying public-private partnerships, as well as the legal framework that supports or limits the influence of private capital in the port sector and previous experience of the private-public partnerships in the port of Rijeka. The sustainability approach of funding through the public-private partnership in the seaports systems is not purpose by itself. The need for more business requires a partner who will be able to meet three key criteria: the achievement of port operation efficiency (economics, profitability) at the global level, price competition against the Northern and Mediterranean ports and the quality of port services at the global level.