BULGARIAN, CROATIAN DELEGATIONS DISCUSS FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

ZAGREB, 7 July (Hina) - Croatian and Bulgarian delegations, led by Croatia's Deputy Economy Minister Jasna Boric and Bulgary's Deputy Trade and Tourism Minister Hristo Mihailovski, held talks on preparations for the signing of a free trade agreement in Sofia this week. The two sides agreed that the two sides should meet in Zagreb in late October to discuss the terms and methods of liberalising trade in agricultural, food and industrial products, the Croatian Economy Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The three-day talks, which started on July 5, also focused on the economies and macroeconomic policies of the two countries, as well as on their cooperation and possibilities of expanding it. Croatia's Boric also attended a ceremony at which the first of 44 engines of Bulgarian railways, to be modernised with microprocessors, was put into operation. Modernisation works, worth about 44 million dollars, are the result of modernisation of Koncar-Ellok company and other companies whose parent company is Croatia's "Koncar". The company has so far placed its modernised engines on the Turkish and Bosnia-Herzegovina markets and it recently signed a contract with the Romanian railways. (hina) rml