ZAGREB FAIR ZAGREB, June 3 (Hina) - Current economic relations between Croatia and Russia feature a significant deficit in foreign trade exchange at the expense of Croatia and so the objective of future co-operation should be to
increase good exchanges but also to introduce a greater range of services while at the same time decreasing Croatia's deficit in exchanges.
ZAGREB, June 3 (Hina) - Current economic relations between Croatia
and Russia feature a significant deficit in foreign trade exchange
at the expense of Croatia and so the objective of future co-
operation should be to increase good exchanges but also to
introduce a greater range of services while at the same time
decreasing Croatia's deficit in exchanges. #L#
This was pointed out on Tuesday by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic
at the start of the Economic Forum dealing with inter-regional co-
operation between Croatia and the Russian Federation's central
federal county at the Zagreb Fair. Mesic noted that the exchange of
goods between Croatian and Russia last year amounted to almost
US$800 million however, of that amount Croatia's exports amounted
to only US$83.6 million.
President Mesic pointed out a good example of co-operation with the
investment by the Russian Mecelj company into the Sisak ironworks
as well as the Rosneft oil company as one of the interested
competitors in the privatisation process of Croatia's INA oil
company.
Financial co-operation also had good examples such as the positive
developments in negotiations concerning the repayment of Russia's
clearing debt to Croatia on the basis of succession from former
Yugoslavia. It is now necessary only to determine the dynamics and
model of repayment while the repayment of this debt is not
questionable, Mesic said.
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce organised bilateral meetings
after the Forum with representatives from over 70 Croatian and
Russian companies dealing with food production, steelworks, ship
building, oil, textiles, finances and the building industry.
The Russian economic delegation was headed by Deputy Premier and
Agriculture Minister of the Russian Federation Aleksy Vasiljevic
Gordeev along with representatives of ministries of transport,
culture, communications and information as well as a delegation
from the city of Moscow and the central federal county and numerous
businessmen.
(hina) sp ms sb