COMMISSION FOR ILLIQUIDITY HOLDS FIRST SESSION

ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - The Croatian Government Commission for implementing the programme of government activities in solving the problem of illiquidity met in Zagreb for its first session on Friday. The Government formed the Commission at a session held on December 24 last year. At the 24 December session, the last one in 1998, the Government adopted a programme for overcoming illiquidity, based on three guidelines. Those guidelines refer to changing the methods in securing payments, to be carried out by the Payment Operations Board, followed by changes to several laws, including the law on payment operations and bankruptcy, which are aimed at protecting the creditors and accelerate the bankruptcy procedure. The third guideline from this programme envisages Government's commitment to recognise an interest rate amounting to the Croatian National Bank (HNB) discount rate to all its creditors, in cases when it fails to make payments or makes them after the expiry of a 90-day period. The Commission has been entrusted with drawing up and implementing these measures. According to the Payment Operations Board, the value of orders of transfer that have not been carried amounts to US$2.04 billion, while about 27,000 companies are insolvent. (hina) mm rml