FOREIGN INVESTMENT NEEDED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEV'MENT - PORGES

( Editorial: --> 3929 ) AMSTERDAM, April 1 (Hina) - Croatia has an overwhelming need for development of its infrastructure which the state and banks are unable to finance alone, Croatian Economy Minister Nenad Porges told an investment conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday. Porges is in the Dutch city for an international conference on infrastructure investment in countries of central and eastern Europe (CEE). Given that private investors do not take over the total risk for projects, financing of infrastructure projects in Croatia depends on investment by international financial institutions. But Croatia does not have access to some loans by international financial institutions, especially loans by the European Investment Bank (EIB) through which infrastructure is harmonised in European Union countries. EIB loans are given to countries which regulate first level relations with the EU, Porges said. At the conference on infrastructure investment in CEE countries, which was organised by the Dutch government, it was emphasised that coordination was important between international financial institutions, the European Commission, governments and the private sector in infrastructure projects. It was concluded that private sector investors needed to be included in the development of infrastructure in those countries, under the condition that their investments were secure. Members of the Croatian delegation held talks in Amsterdam with a number of representatives of international financial institutions and delegation members of other countries. Included among the 300 or so participants at the conference were 30 ministers from Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) countries, South Korea and Japan. Porges also had discussions with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development vice-president Charles Frank, the director of the American agency for trade and development, Joseph Grandmaison, and American State Department coordinator for aid to European countries in transition, James Holmes. (Hina) jn mb /as 012014 MET apr 98