"I am pleased that the World Bank, or rather its Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, Shigeo Katsu, has responded and admitted that the assessment of conditions for doing business in Croatia did not include everything the government has done over the past two years," Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said at a government session in the northwestern town of Cakovec.
Sanader responded to the latest World Bank report "Doing Business in 2006" on Wednesday, noting that not everything that his government had done was included in the report, such as a one stop shop, ongoing judicial reform and so on.
"I did not mean to flex my muscles. We hold the World Bank in very high esteem, but we will protect Croatia's dignity. What is not appropriate and correct should be refuted," the prime minister said, stressing that his government had very good relations with the bank's leaders and its office in Zagreb.
Finance Minister Ivan Suker said that the World Bank's Zagreb office was expected to state its opinion on Croatia's ranking early next week during the presentation of a PAL loan agreement.
The bank's Zagreb office sent several letters to its Washington headquarters in June, underlining that what was said in the report about Croatia was not true, Suker said. He described the report as "poorly worded".
The minister said that two major things had happened for Croatia in Washington on Wednesday -- the World Bank approved a $150 million PAL loan and the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund concluded the first review of the stand-by arrangement and praised Croatia for the reforms it was implementing.