PREMIER RACAN OPENS ECONOMIC FORUM AT ZAGREB FAIR

ZAGREB, Sept 18 (Hina) - Unemployment, especially involving young people, the slow process of reforms and the lack of an entrepreneur environment are dominant problems and challenges which the government will be facing and which must be solved in the upcoming period, Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Tuesday, opening the Croatian Economic Forum at the Zagreb Fair. The Croatian economy must also solve two key issues -- a lack of new products for export and low degree of competitiveness -- but with the support of the government, Racan said. We achieved a lot in the reform of public companies which have been consolidated and will be privatised soon, Racan said. He announced the further privatisation of the Croatian Telekom (HT) and the start of privatising the state-run oil company INA, electric supply company HEP, Croatia Insurance, and the Dubrovacka and Croatia banks. The prime minister stressed he did not expect significant turbulence in the banking system which has completely been consolidated, and added the government only plans to keep ownership in the Croatian Postal Bank (Hrvatska Postanska Banka). Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac announced that earnings from privatisation would not be laid into the budget, but rather into the development of the economy. The global market economy is evidently on the threshold of recession, and this gives cause for the government to raise the question how to enter capital markets and continue with the privatisation, and there is also the possibility of tied inflation because of high prices of fuels. Tourism could feel the consequences, Economy Minister Goranko Fizulic said. (hina) lml