OPATIJA, Nov 12 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Wednesday his cabinet's principal achievement was a stable, open, and a more competitive Croatia.
OPATIJA, Nov 12 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on
Wednesday his cabinet's principal achievement was a stable, open,
and a more competitive Croatia. #L#
This government has adopted a long-term economic development
strategy under which GDP per capita in the next dozen years should
be twice that in 2001, unemployment has been halved while
macroeconomic stability has been preserved, Racan said at the 11th
conference of the Croatian Economists Society.
The three-day event, which began in the northern Adriatic resort of
Opatija today, has pooled hundreds of officials, economy experts,
and businessmen due to address Croatia's economic policy in 2004.
In line with the strategy, the government's tasks include a minimum
five percent annual GDP growth rate, a 2.3 percent annual inflation
rate, and reducing the number of the jobless to about 200,000 with a
maximum unemployment rate of 10 percent, said Racan.
He added that the growth of pensions should be adjusted to that of
salaries, and that projects initiated in road construction, the
modernisation of railways and supplying the entire country with gas
needed to be completed.
The export of finished goods has to be encouraged, privatisation
continued, and the destruction of the environment stopped, the PM
said.
He announced plans to further relieve taxpayers by introducing a 12
percent VAT rate for the agriculture, food, and tourism.
"We have improved the situation in the economy, social rights, the
rule of law, civil rights and freedoms, Croatia's relations with
the international community," Racan said speaking of his cabinet's
four-year term.
He added, however, that more ought to have been done, among other
things, in preventing and punishing white-collar crime and
corruption, making the rule of law more efficient, and stimulating
exports.
(hina) ha sb