WORLD BANK TO GIVE CROATIA LOAN FOR HEALTH SYSTEM REFORM

ZAGREB, Feb 1 (Hina) - Croatian Minister for European Integration, Ljerka Mintas-Hodak, said on Monday Croatia should be granted a US$28 million World Bank loan for health reform and improved health care protection by June 1999. The Croatian Minister held talks with a representative of the World Bank, health and social insurance expert Christopher Lovelace. "We talked about the new project and the "Health 2" loan of about US$28 million, primarily to be used for measures of a long-standing reform of the entire health system and for increasing the quality of health care in Croatia", Mintas-Hodak told reporters after the talks. Lovelace said the "Health 2" agreement could be signed by June. He expressed optimistic views on partnership between Croatia and the World Bank in health. The partnership, according to Lovelace, is to open a more constructive path towards financial issues and improved efficiency of the Croatian health system. Apart from the new reform of the Croatian health system, the meeting also discussed former pension reforms and reforms in the social sector. Lovelace assessed his talks with Mintas-Hodak as excellent and added the talks were aimed at seeing how the World Bank could improve cooperation with the Croatian Government in the field of health reforms. (hina) it/ha