The foundation established by Chilean magnate and patron of Croatian extraction Andrónico Luksic Abaroa (Antofagasta, 5 November 1926 – Santiago, 18 August 2005) has provided financial support for Croatian specialists seeking professional training at the Harvard Kennedy School for the past thirteen years
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković took part in the opening of a workshop on the digitisation of public services at Zagreb’s Hotel Esplanade. The workshop ran from the 21st to 23rd of January at the State of School of Public Administration and was led by eminent professors from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The workshop programme for the digitalisation of public services in the Croatian state and public sector was created by professors with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in consultation with Croatian Government. Prime Minister Plenković thanked businessman Davor Luksic Lederer of the Luksic family for his efforts, the guests from Harvard University, the other organisers and the participants of the Digitisation of Public Services workshop.
The prime minister expressed his satisfaction, saying that this would further emancipate the work of the State of School of Public Administration in the public eye. The school has been active for the past nine years and is an important generator of knowledge for civil servants and public officials. He said he expected this workshop to further promote the identity and underline the importance of lifelong learning as a guarantee of success in various professions, in this case the national administration.
Plenković also expressed his happiness with the fact that many Croatians are receiving an education at Harvard thanks to the scholarships provided by the Luksic family. “This time,” Plenković noted, “we have turned the concept around and set the scene in Croatia with the essential and significant support of the Luksic family.” He also noted that digitalisation had a very important place in his government’s policies.
“We have adopted the e-Croatia 2020 strategy and the attendant Action Plan with plans for 126 projects funded with 2.7 billion kuna from various sources,” he added, noting that these included a number of projects that aim to digitalise the public administration, the chief among them being the establishment of a shared service hub, a kind of national Internet cloud service to serve as a single point from which all of Government’s electronic services would be developed and that would ensure the digital exchange of data between all government bodies.
The foundation established by Chilean magnate and patron of Croatian extraction Andrónico Luksic Abaroa (Antofagasta, 5 November 1926 – Santiago, 18 August 2005) has provided financial support for Croatian specialists seeking professional training at the Harvard Kennedy School. The school and the Luksic family have collaborated for the past thirteen years. The foundation was set up in 2006 to honour this Chilean magnate of Croatian roots and has provided assistance to over one hundred students from Croatia. The foundation’s scholarship programme, with individual packages worth sixty thousand dollars, is critical to knowledge transfer. Among the scholarship recipients in the 2000’s were current Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.
The Luksic business empire, one of the largest in South America and the world, was inherited by wife Iris Fontbona, daughters Paola and Gabriela and sons Guillermo (now deceased), Jean-Paul and Andrónico junior. According the American magazine Forbes the business empire of this family, which has some roots in Sutivan on the island of Brač, is worth some 17.4 billion dollars. In Croatia the Luksic Group has operated with success for twenty-four years, last year becoming the leading player in the tourism industry by expanding its portfolio with two major investments in the Dubrovnik area and the Istrian peninsula.
Source: Vlada RH/HMI