Along with unemployment, Mesic said corruption and unfavourable status of pensioners also represented a problem, calling on competent bodies to clear up irregularities in the privatisation process and in purchasing arms for Croatia, and to solve the justified requests of Croatian pensioners.
Mesic said he was dissatisfied with the state of Croatia's economy adding, however, that it could be improved.
"Croatia must implemented the policy of full employment and apply objectives and instruments from the Lisbon strategy. Strategic objectives of the development policy must include full employment, namely reducing the unemployment rate to less than five percent, productivity growth and social and territorial cohesion," Mesic told some 300 participants in the Opatija conference.
Commenting on the economic growth, the president of the Croatian Economists' Association, Ljubo Jurcic, said that in the second half of 2006 the growth could be projected at between 4 and 4.5 percent.
Without a favourable economic growth rate none of the fundamental problems can be solved, Jurcic said.