CONFERENCE ON TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES BEGINS IN CAVTAT

CAVTAT, June 27 (Hina) - The 8th International Dubrovnik Conference on transitional economies, organised by the Croatian National Bank (HNB), began in Cavtat on Thursday. #L# The central theme of this year's conference are problems of monetary and currency policy in countries with a high presence of foreign currencies in their financial sector. Participants will also discuss the experiences from the Argentina case and about what the introduction of the euro and the creation of a European monetary union means for developing transitional markets. The conference was opened by Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac who said that Croatia's banking sector was believed to be "the most stable and developed among transitional countries". Croatian banks have transformed with their strategic partners into strong and safe banks and all assessments about the financial sector are very positive, Crkvenac said. The central bank's deputy governor, Boris Vujcic, said that since 1999, important headway had been made in improving the banking system structure in Croatia and its efficiency, which can be seen from the decrease of interest rates and increased profitability of banks. This all indicates that the efficiency of the banking system is significantly improving, Vujcic said. This year's conference has gathered about 80 participants, mostly financial experts from Europe and the world, including representatives of the World Bank, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. (hina) lml sb