ZAGREB, Dec 13 (Hina) - Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice President Ewald Nowotny on Wednesday signed a framework agreement on the cooperation between Croatia and this bank.
ZAGREB, Dec 13 (Hina) - Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac and
the European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice President Ewald Nowotny on
Wednesday signed a framework agreement on the cooperation between
Croatia and this bank.#L#
The contract lays foundations for all further activities of the EIB
in Croatia, Nowotny said adding that the document was also
important as it made possible for the Bank, owned by European Union
member-states, to act in Croatia in accordance to the same
principles which it applied in countries-applicants for the EU
membership.
Besides, the agreement is yet another step in Croatia's bids to come
closer to the EU, as the return of the EIB to Croatia was the
consequence of the political decision of the EIB owners, he
explained.
After the ceremony of the signing of this document in Zagreb,
Minister Crkvenac said the EIB was currently preparing to invest
approximately 250 million euro in Croatia.
The agreement was signed at the best possible moment for Croatia,
now when the parliament should adopt the budget for 2001 and when
projections of budgets for coming three years were being drawn up.
Therefore this contract with the EIB should facilitate
negotiations between Zagreb and other international financial
institutions, Crkvenac added.
During this visit we agreed on three concrete projects - the
financing of the railway line between Beli Manastir and Vrpolje
(eastern Craotia), loans for small and medium-sized businesses
particularly in the field of tourism (which should be done in
cooperation with the Croatian bank for Reconstruction and
Development) and the financing of the upgrading of the safety and
security at the airport of Zagreb, the EIB Vice President said.
In 2000, this bank earmarked approximately 33 billion euros in
three basic fields of its activities - the long-term loans for
infrastructure projects, loans for small and medium-sized
businesses and the financial support to joint venture societies.
Therefore it has become a leading world bank in relation to
investments and the EIB would like to become active in these three
segments in Croatia as well.
Besides, Crkvenac and Nowotny discussed the EIB's possible active
participation in projects of the environmental protection of the
Adriatic and its cooperation with the Croatian joint stock company
for the management over highways which should soon be established.
(hina) ms