PREMIER RACAN: ATMOSPHERE AT PLITVICE MEETING ONE OF OPTIMISM

PLITVICKA JEZERA, Aug 25 (Hina) - The atmosphere at the meeting at Plitvicka Jezera, where government representatives and social partners are discussing the concept of Croatia's development for the next three years, is one of optimism, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Friday. Representatives of the Government, unions, employers, business people and the President's office, discussed today, among other issues, proposals by the Finance Ministry regarding the reduction of public spending, the employment of 30,000 persons annually, and a stable fiscal policy. The meeting is very dynamic, Racan said after a three-hour debate by some 50 participants on the state budget until 2003 and the framework of the strategy of economic development as well as on changes to the taxation system. The Prime Minister said he and his associates would tomorrow visit the fire-stricken areas so that they could decide on measures which should be taken to curb the fires. He added that preparations for firefighting for the next year have already started. Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac said the atmosphere at the meeting so far has been a working one, including open discussions on all relevant problems. He dismissed claims that the Government and unions would agree on a social truce at the Plitvice meeting. Labour and Social Welfare Minister Davorko Vidovic said he expected the bases of social truce to be defined and discussed at the meeting. The secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (SSSH), Vitomir Begovic, said it would be pretentious to expect that any document on social truce was signed at Plitvice in four days. That document will probably be signed by the end of this year, said Begovic, who also chairs the Economic-Social Council, a tripartite body in which representatives of the Government, unions and employers are harmonising their interests. (hina) jn rml