The forum of world businessmen and politicians most often takes place in Switzerland or Monaco. The 13-15 April event will be the first forum to be held in a south-eastern European country.
The chairman and founder of the Crans Montana Forum, Jean-Paul Carteron, has recently said that "Zagreb is an ideal place for hosting the forum" now when the European Union is to embark on its enlargement in south-east of Europe.
Carteron said in his interview with the Vjesnik daily in early April that that's why they had decided together with Croatian government to work on transforming Zagreb into the regional centre where people would meet, talk and make business deals. In this context he said that Croatia was the most developed and thriving country in south-eastern Europe.
Presenting the programmes of the Zagreb event, the State Secretary of the Croatian Foreign Ministry, Gordan Bakota said last week that "in addition to its economic aspect, the conference will also have great foreign policy importance, because Croatia will be presented as a candidate country for EU membership".
The chairman of the forum's organising committee and Assistant Foreign Minister, David Sopta, said then that the event was expected to draw between 400 and 500 participants from some 20 countries, including EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has sent letters to the prime ministers of Southeast European countries inviting them for an informal meeting as part of the forum on April 14. Sopta highlighted the importance of informal meetings at such conferences, saying that problems were often resolved more easily than at official meetings.
The conference will be formally opened by Sanader and will focus on a series of topics, including global and regional cooperation, European Union enlargement, the situation in Southeast Europe and the development of democracy, financial issues, energy sector, tourism, etc.
Some of politicians whose participation in the event is announced are Jan Figel, a European Commission member; Fabrizio Barbaso, the director of the EC enlargement directorate-general and the chief of the EU negotiation team for Croatia; Erhard Busek, the special co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe; and prime ministers Adnan Terzic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Vlado Buckoviski of Macedonia, Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro and Miroljub Labus, who is the deputy prime minister of Serbia-Montenegro.
The discussions on economic topics will draw governors of central banks, private banks' directors, finance and economy ministers, directors of international financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and company directors.
The Crans Montana Forum was established in 1989.