Germans seem to be vying for the title of the biggest foreign investor in Croatia hoping to edge the current leaders Austria and Netherlands from the top slots.

Foreigners invested 23.77 billion Euros in Croatia between 1993 and 2009, according to the data from Croatian National Bank. Austria invested 6.2 billion Euros, leading with a 26.1 per cent share of all investments. The second biggest investors are the Dutch with 4.4 billion euros or 18.5 per cent of the total share.

Germans are in the third place with 2.7 billion, but according to some analysts, this is about to change.

On a recent visit to Croatia, representatives of Germany’s leading economic institutions and companies agreed that the country is an important regional destination for Germany’s foreign investments.

"From now on, when German entrepreneur says region, he thinks Croatia," Klaus Mangold, the president of the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce said.

"Germans are satisfied only with the number one position, and our goal is to be the biggest investor in Croatia. We are convinced that it is worth to invest in all sectors," he added.

The main targets of foreign investments were the banks (8.4 billion Euros), wholesale trade (2.6 billion), chemical industry (1.6 billion), petroleum products production (1.6 billion), post and telecommunications (1.3 billion), real estate (1.2 billion) and retail (1.1 billion).

Due to the economic crisis, however, investments fell last year from 4.2 billion in 2008 to only 1.87 billion. The biggest single investor last year was Netherlands, with 1.08 billion Euros, followed by Austria with 420.7 million Euros, Hungary with 154.8 million Euros and Slovenia with 108 million Euros, Croatian daily Vecernji List writes