This year’s Financial Literacy Week once again proved its significance as a platform for exchanging knowledge and experiences on responsible money management. The 3rd Regional Financial Literacy Conference was held in Zagreb, bringing together leading experts, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and other public figures with the aim of advancing financial education.
The conference was officially opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, Prof. Dr. Sanja Sever Mališ, who emphasized that financial education must be accessible to everyone if we want to ensure a better and more secure future for citizens and help them make informed and responsible decisions.
One of the key topics of the conference was sustainable consumption, which was the focus of the panel discussion "Between Luxury and Minimalism: The Path to Sustainable Consumption". Among the panelists was our own Marko Dabrović, founder and partner at Studio 3LHD, who highlighted unsustainable trends in excessive construction and underutilized housing. "An incredible amount of buildings are being constructed that we don’t actually need, simply because people have chosen to save their money in real estate. There are over 50,000 vacant apartments in Zagreb alone, and in all of Croatia, that number is ten times higher. Just think about how many coastal apartments remain completely empty during the winter", Dabrović pointed out.
Through a dynamic discussion, panelists shared their insights on consumer habits, environmental and social sustainability, and responsible financial behavior, emphasizing the importance of legislative intervention and guiding consumer behavior towards a more sustainable and responsible direction.
