The Port of Rijeka is the biggest and the most important Croatian port, officially declared to be the port of special economic and international significance for the Republic of Croatia.

Its natural position in the Kvarner Bay protected from big waves and strong strokes of wind and with depth of sea of 60 m makes it capable to accommodate either small or the biggest vessels during the whole year.

 

The basis of the Port of Rijeka were founded in the 13th century, and in 1873 it was connected by railway via Ljubljana and Vienna to West Europe and via Zagreb and Budapest to Central and East Europe. At this moment it is under construction the Rijeka-Zagreb highway, and connection of the by-pass around the city of Rijeka to the Ljubljana highway is under preparation.

Nowadays these connections make the port of Rijeka to be the most significant port for transit of goods of Central Europe. The advantage of geographic position of the Port is that the distances to the Middle and Far East ports are shortened considerably.

On basis of the study of long-term traffic development plan of the Republic of Croatia it is estimated that the turnover of the Port of Rijeka will be increased to about 8 million tons of goods in the next 10 years Should development of the Port be accompanied with foreign investments, for which great interest exists, the turnover could reach the quantity of about 20 million tons since such quantity already now gravitates naturally from Central Europe to Northern Adriatic.