In the report compiled by the National Competitiveness Council the Croatia’s competitiveness status as of 2004 is compared with that of other 10 countries (Italy, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro). The document points out a set of areas in which Croatia lags behind and identifies a bunch of elements in which the changes for better have been noted. The Report suggests Croatia to work urgently in three main directions as follows:

• The structural reforms related to the transition process and EU accession must be speeded up.
• The activities aimed at improvement of the cost competitiveness and work of public administration, increase of the public expenditure productivity, promotion of innovation in production and business processes as well as creation of a more attractive business climate are to be developed.
• Scenarios and platforms for negotiation with EU shall be prepared.The recommendations for detailed priorities along with specific activities and measures relating to these three strategic areas are outlined in the report.

The structure of the report as a whole follows the structure and logic of the competitiveness pyramid: the first part shows the results of competitiveness on the basis of the macroeconomic indicators of economic growth and employment; the second part is based on comparative ranking of Croatia in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Reports; the third part evaluates intermediates of competitiveness, i.e. productivity, investment, exports, costs and prices; the fourth part analyses the extent to which Croatia has improved its basic competitiveness policy inputs, i.e. business environment, technological and economic infrastructure, education and training, entrepreneurship and enterprise growth as well as activities related to innovation, quality and development); the fifth part provides conclusions and suggestions for action.