DUBROVNIK, 8-9 OCTOBER 2024

ANNUAL FLAGSHIP FORUM

Geopolitical Dynamics Affecting Major Industries and Companies

Dubrovnik, 8-9 October 2024

ANNUAL FLAGSHIP FORUM

Geopolitical Dynamics Affecting Major Industries and Companies

The New Frontier Foundations’ Annual Forum in Dubrovnik featured international leaders, policy makers, business executives, think tankers and diplomats including former president of Croatia Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, 30th Chief of Protocol of the United States and 23rd White House Social Secretary Capricia Penavić Marshall, Martina Dalić, CEO of one the most prominent Croatia’s food companies Podravka, Neven Vrankovic Vice President for Corporate Affairs of Atlantic Group and Zbigniew Pisarski, Founder of the Warsaw Security Forum.

Dubrovnik, 9th October 2024 – The first annual forum of the think tank New Frontier Foundation (NFF) was held in Dubrovnik at the Hilton Imperial Hotel, which brought together international attendees from business, politics, diplomacy and think tank community of Central and Eastern Europe. The main topic of the forum was “2025 Competitive Edge: Business Strategies in a Geopolitically Dynamic World”, and although they were held separately, the forum was given additional importance by the “overlap” with the summit on Ukraine in Dubrovnik, where the geopolitical situation was also discussed. “Unpredictability damages investments and inhibits economic growth, so continuous monitoring of geopolitics and adaptation of business strategies for companies becomes a necessity. Today, politics and business are more intertwined and interdependent than ever. We focused on the region of Central and Eastern Europe, discussing how investments and capital markets work in these circumstances, what is the perspective of the EU’s competitiveness in the global framework, and whether the Three Seas Initiative can contribute to connecting its members”, said the founder and president from the forum Natko Vlahović New Frontier Foundation.

Among the forum participants was Capricia Penavic Marshall, a close associate of former American presidents, Democrats Clinton and Obama, who, from the position of ambassador in one of the most influential American think tanks, the Atlantic Council, emphasized the role that such organizations play in strengthening international cooperation, better understanding between politics and economy and understanding complex geopolitical relations. She also referred to the upcoming elections in the USA, which she thinks can significantly change transatlantic relations depending on the outcome.

The former president of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, as a participant in the forum, emphasized the importance of the Three Seas Initiative, and underscored that the war in Ukraine can be an incentive to strengthen the investment capacity of the Initiative and projects in the region, which is currently the “backbone of the EU’s resilience”.

As the leader or president of the board of the Croatian strategic food company Podravka, Martina Dalić spoke about the importance of sustainable production and security of food supply in the context of climate change, rising energy prices and global logistical disruptions.

In addition to them, the president of the Warsaw Security Forum Zbigniew Pisarski, the vice president of the Atlantic Group Neven Vranković, the advisor for political issues of Google Julia Schvarcova and others took part in the forum.

The New Frontier Foundation was initiated and founded at the end of 2023 by Natko Vlahović in cooperation with Ivan Kurtović and Tomislav Lacović.

One of the projects that the think tank started working on is finding a way to attract new capital to the fund of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI), and how to initiate cross-border projects that the fund would finance. The Croatian government has so far invested 20 million euros in the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund.