Addressing the two institutions' Board of Governors, Suker said the main objective of Croatia's policy was to reduce the external exposure stemming from the high external debt and budget deficit.
Suker said the main means of achieving that was fiscal consolidation, to which end Croatia intends to cut the budget deficit from 6.2 per cent of GDP in 2003 to three per cent in 2008.
The minister underlined that Croatia's cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank was good.
The IMF last year approved a stand-by arrangement for Croatia supporting the government's policy to limit problems resulting from the high external debt and budget deficit, and recently adopted the first report on its implementation.
The World Bank approved for Croatia a strategy directed towards fiscal consolidation and reform, and recently granted the first Programmatic Adjustment Loan worth EUR150 million, which is intended for reforms in the public and private sectors.
Suker said this was indicative of the efforts the Croatian government was investing in the macroeconomic policy and institutional reforms, and underlined that Croatia intended to continue with reforms.
The minister said Croatia intended to step up privatisation and reduce subsidies to enterprises, reform the judiciary and public administration, reduce business costs, and improve the effectiveness of the social sector and railways.
Suker said the recent World Bank report on the investment climate in 155 countries, which ranked Croatia 118th, was compiled on outdated figures and disregarded the reforms that had been carried out. He said this was unacceptable and called on the World Bank to publish corrected information about Croatia.
Suker met World Bank Vice President Michael Klein, the leading author of the report, who pledged that he would review the data in the report and after establishing that they were incorrect publish a correction.
Suker also met World Bank Executive Director Ad Melkert, who commended the Croatian government's progress in reforms.
The Croatian finance minister and the World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, Shigeo Katsu, discussed the activities the Croatian government intended to take to bring Croatia by the summer of 2006 into the World Bank's high scenario of borrowing, which would result in the approval of USD1.5 billion over a four-year period.
The talks also addressed the new projects the World Bank is preparing for Croatia.
Katsu voiced satisfaction with the preparation of a project aimed to upgrade Croatia's education system, for which a new loan will be signed early next month. Katsu said the World Bank was ready to support the reform of Croatia's health sector with an investment loan.
Suker also met Asaad Jabre, the World Bank acting president for its International Finance Corporation (IFC), which intends to increase support to the private sector in Croatia. The minister requested the IFC to become more active in the privatisation of Croatia's tourist facilities and the restructuring and privatisation of shipyards.