"We have an excellent partnership with Croatia," said Bartenstein, expressing hope that Croatia would start the membership talks in early 2005 and stating that his country strongly supported Croatia's admission to the EU with Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.
He said that Croatia was one of Austria's most important trade partners and that he did not rule out the possibility of this year's bilateral trade reaching two billion euros.
Austrian investors are interested in Croatia's tourism, financial sector, banks, industry, trade and telecommunications, the Austrian minister said, adding that the economic cooperation between the two countries was very good.
Vukelic said he was very pleased with the interest of Austrian business people in making investments in Croatia, especially in its tourism, agriculture and industry, which he said were sectors which had not seen any major investments in the last ten years.
Describing his visit to Austria as successful, Vukelic said the Croatian Day business event, which was held today, and the talks with his hosts would contribute to new projects by Austrian business people in Croatia as well as to bilateral trade.
At the Vienna event Minister Vukelic presented the Croatian government's economic programme, held talks with the chairman of the Austrian Chamber of the Economy, Christoph Leitl, and gave an interview for the Austrian Der Standard daily.