The awareness of the role of regional development in overall development of the Republic of Croatia has been on the rise over the last years. The activities in the field of regional development intensified additionally after the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union in October 2001.

Regio Internet Portal was launched on the initiative of the Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit-GTZ and the Institute of Economics Zagreb , who have been cooperating for several years on a project called ‘Consultancies in Regional Development Planning in Croatia ’. The aim of the project is to provide support to the institutions of Croatian Government and relevant civil society institutions, rendering them capable of developing and setting up regional development programmes on their own and of improving framework conditions for their realization. Experiences gained in the project indicate that insufficient communication between regional experts could become an obstacle to successful regional development management and that modern means of expert communication should therefore be established.

For the purpose of clarification and synchronization of approaches to regional development, it has become a necessity to work on the transfer of knowledge and experience. The establishment of an Internet portal for regional development is one of the tools which enable the networking of experts pursuing regional issues and simultaneously bring regional topics closer to a broader circle of interested individuals.