CROATIAN ECONOMISTS BEGIN SYMPOSIUM IN OPATIJA

OPATIJA, Nov 13 (Hina) - The government's fiscal policy in the last pre-election year will not be changed, the government will continue taking austerity measures in the state budget, and support structural changes in Croatian companies, a Deputy Prime Minister, Slavko Linic, said at the tenth annual symposium of the Croatian Economists' Society, which started in the coastal resort of Opatija on Wednesday. #L# The three-day symposium, called "The Economic Policy of Croatia in 2003", has pooled some 400 Croatian experts in this field. Speaking about the economic policy in 2003, Linic said the country's basic problems were a high jobless rate, insufficient competitiveness of the Croatian economy abroad, problems in reforms in science, education, obsolete technology, a huge external debt, bureaucratic obstacles, grey economy and inefficient judiciary. In 2003, the government intends to try to solve these problems, he added. He predicted that a five-percent growth in the Gross Domestic Product in 2003 could be achieved. The controlling of state spending will go on, and the annual state deficit should not exceed the planned 2.5 percent. The government, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, will try to maintain positive trends in investments, and debts which will be incurred for the continuation of investments in infrastructure will not threaten the stability of the budget, he said, adding that public spending had been cut in the last three years, but the decrease was still insufficient. Linic said some 50,000 companies and tradesmen had failed to meet their obligations towards the government on time. The senior government official is in favour of amending the current bankruptcy law as the course of ongoing bankruptcy processes is not satisfactory. Linic proposed that the changes should stipulate the duration of the bankruptcy procedure and make it possible, if necessary, that the assets of the debtor may be sold for one kuna. "Somebody has to answer for damaging property and human resources," Linic asserted. Commenting on the process of privatisation of state-owned companies, he branded stories about the sale of state resources as unjustified. "Some companies are a heavy burden rather than a wealth," he said, adding that in the last three years, only 31 state-run inefficient companies had been sold. The state is still a majority owner in 178 companies. According to Linic, most of them have been devastated and it will be difficult to sell them. Linic described the structural changes in HEP (Power Industry), the Croatian Post, the Croatian Water Management and the Croatian Forestry Management as insufficient and changes in INA (Oil Industry), Croatian Railways (HZ) and JANAF (Adriatic Oil Pipeline) as positive. On behalf of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who is the sponsor of the Opatija event, his advisor Igor Dekanic said the high unemployment rate was a major problem. "Croatia needs a more efficient development policy with objectives such as the revival of production, re-industrialisation, higher competitiveness, a stronger growth in export and cuts in unemployment," Dekanic said. Economy Minister Ljubo Jurcic announced for the near future the beginning of functioning of an agency for investment stimulation and an agency for industrial development. This year Croatia for the first time has been added to a world report on competitiveness, said a member of the national council for competitiveness, Goran Radman. According to macroeconomic indicators Croatia is ranked 58th and according to microeconomic indicators 52nd out of 80 nations. In other words, Croatia is placed in the fourth group together with Bulgaria and Romania. Slovenia, for instance is 28th, Radman said. (hina) ms