SARAJEVO, June 5 (Hina) - Croatian Economy Minister Hrvoje Vojkovic and Bosnia-Herzegovina's Minister of Foreign Trade, Azra Hadziahmetovic, on Wednesday said the bilateral economic cooperation was improving and announced additional
measures to improve it, particularly in the field of joint investments in third countries.
SARAJEVO, June 5 (Hina) - Croatian Economy Minister Hrvoje Vojkovic
and Bosnia-Herzegovina's Minister of Foreign Trade, Azra
Hadziahmetovic, on Wednesday said the bilateral economic
cooperation was improving and announced additional measures to
improve it, particularly in the field of joint investments in third
countries. #L#
Vojkovic held talks with the Bosnian minister during his official
visit to Sarajevo, where he attended a regional investment forum.
The forum, organised by the Bosnian Council of Ministers, presented
some 60 development projects and several dozen privatisation
tenders, in which the Bosnian authorities would like to see foreign
partners, including Croatia.
Vojkovic said Bosnia was Croatia's sixth most important business
partner and that Croatian companies were in third place according
to investments in Bosnia. So far, Croatia has invested USD66
million in Bosnia, he said, adding that the sum could be larger.
"Our aim is to extend the agreement on investment stimulation and
protection, which is currently implemented between Croatia and the
(Croat-Moslem) Federation, to include the entire country,"
Vojkovic told reporters after his talks with Hadziahmetovic.
Bosnia's Hadziahmetovic said the two countries' businessmen would
soon meet to discuss the improvement of cooperation in third
markets.
The two countries, however, still have to solve some fundamental
issues, such as property-rights relations. Croatia is particularly
interested in solving those relations because of its pre-war
investments in power plants in Bosnia, Vojkovic said.
Zagreb and Sarajevo expect the international community's
assistance in reaching an agreement on avoiding double taxation.
This assistance is needed due to the separate tax polices of
Bosnia's two entities.
The Bosnian minister said her country regarded a previous dispute
with Croatia regarding oil transport by road as definitely settled,
but she also announced that Sarajevo would not abandon plans to
introduce new regulations on the quality of oil imports, which
would practically remove some Croatian oil company INA's
refineries from the Bosnian market.
(hina) sb ms