After meeting Austrian State Secretary for Transport Helmut Kukacka on Wednesday, Croatia's State Secretary Drazen Berglec told a news conference in Zagreb that Croatia had asked for an increase in the number of transit and bilateral licences for road transport of goods through Austria too meet Croatia's needs.
Austria has granted Croatia 25,000 transit licences, 15,500 bilateral licences and 5,000 for the transport of construction material, Breglec said.
Kukacka presented his government's general position on trying to shift as much transport as possible from roads to railways and on rivers. According to him, the Austrian government is rather restrictive in granting licences for road transport to non-members of the European Union in light of the fact that local residents oppose intensive road transport.
The Croatian State Secretary for Maritime Affairs, Branko Bacic, said they had informed Kukacka of the Croatian government's plans in road construction, notably in the pan-European X corridor, sections of which pass through Graz, the Slovene city of Maribor and the Slovene-Croatian border crossing of Macelj towards Zagreb.
Bacic added that Croatia's section would be completed in April 2007.
Kukacka said that Austria would see that the section from Maribor to Zagreb was completed as soon as possible.
He also said that his country was interested in the development of inland navigation routes and in linking all countries in the Danube River basin.
For that purpose Austria is organising a European conference on inland navigation for mid-February next year, and Croatian officials have been invited to present their projects.
In this context, Bacic spoke of Croatia's plans to modernise four river ports by 2010, which would require some 132 million euros.
The Danube river port of Vukovar would need between 60 and 70 million euros, while the port of Osijek on the Drava river would need 38 million euros for their modernisation. An additional five million euros should be allocated to the port of Sisak and 19 million euros to the port of Slavonski Brod on the Sava river.
According to him, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have already shown interest in projects aimed art modernising the said ports.
Bacic said that Zagreb would also ask Austria, which will chair the EU in 2006, to help include such projects in pre-accession funds.