TWO-DAY CONFERENCE ON CROATIA'S MONEY MARKET STARTS IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, May 25 (Hina) - - The third annual conference "Croatia's Money Market" began in Zagreb on Tuesday. The aim of the event which gathered most important participants in the money market in Croatia, is to give an overview of the current situation, to discuss the organisation and transparency of the market as well as the reliability of the banking system and consider new instruments of financing, illiquidity and guidelines for the further development of the market. At the opening of the conference, Pero Jurkovic, who is Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's economy advisor and the head of the Croatian Institute for Banking and Insurance (HIBO), said the development of financial institutions required a significantly different environment from the current situation in Croatia. According to Jurkovic, Croatia is not surfeited by the number of banks (there are 61 of them), as the problem does not lie in their quantity but in their quality. One cannot expect the development of the financial market on the not developed economic basis, whereas a prerequisite for the economic prosperity is also the thorough and permanent restructuring of the financial sector, Jurkovic explained adding that it was necessary to change the domestic "obsolete" economic policy as well. The Zagreb Money Market Director, Josip Gotovac, is looking forward to measures which may decrease the current interest rates. To strengthen the financial and money market it is necessary to change and amend laws on securities, foreign transactions, since, for instance, the area of short-term securities is not yet regulated, Gotovac told the conference. The two-day conference, organised by the Zagreb-based Infoinvest, attracted about 50 representatives of banks, funds, insurance companies, brokers, big and medium-sized companies. (hina) ms