The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Petar Cobankovic, said that rural areas accounted for 91.6 percent of Croatia's territory and were inhabited by 46 percent of the country's population.
Speaking of the national rural development strategy, Cobankovic said that his ministry had launched a number of measures aimed at providing information and education, promoting the establishment of farming cooperatives and the processing and selling of farm produce, subsidising hunting tourism, establishing and developing fish and shell farmer associations, and subsidising beef producers.
Rural areas have already started drawing funds from the SAPARD program and will also gain access to structural funds once Croatia joins the EU, Cobankovic said, adding that rural areas have a good prospect of becoming not only developed, but desirable for living.
The Zadar conference was also addressed by a state secretary at the Italian Agriculture Ministry, Guido Tampieri, and Franz Fischler, the Croatian government's advisor in EU entry talks.