WORLD BANK MISSION VISITING CROATIAN RAIL

ZAGREB, March 15 (Hina) - A World Bank mission, which visited the Croatian Rail (HZ) between 11 and 15 March, has recommended a set of measures the HZ and the Croatian government should undertake to achieve objectives from a project on the restructuring and modernisation of the Croatian Rail, which the World Bank will support financially until June 2003. The World Bank officials recommended at their final meeting with HZ officials that the HZ continually follow its major investments and reduce them should financial results require it. With regard to cuts in labour, they have been mostly within the agreed framework since 1998, when the World Bank started providing financial support for the project. The initial 21,000 railway workers in 1998 dropped to 18,170 in late 2001, while the projected number of workers at the end of 2005 is 12,781. The mission members voiced great concern over low subsidies for passenger transport compensation, which this year amounts to a mere 34 million kuna instead of the required 480 million. The mission will warn the government about this problem, the HZ said in a statement. (hina) sb rml