CROATIA & SLOVAKIA SIGN AGREEMENT ON USING ADRIATIC PORTS

( Editorial: --> 8714 ) BRATISLAVA, Sept 7 (Hina) - A new agreement has been signed which will allow Slovakian firms to use Croatia's Adriatic ports open to international trade under the same conditions as Croatian firms. The agreement between the Republic of Croatia and the Slovak Republic was signed in Bratislava on Monday by the countries' respective Transport Ministers, Zeljko Luzavec and Jan Jasovsky. The signing of the Agreement on the Use of Croatian Ports Open to International Transport followed the signing of a series of other inter-state agreements on cooperation in transport and intensive negotiations by the two ministries over the past year. Thanks to a significant share of Slovakian exports and imports arriving through Croatian ports, the first sixth months of this year recorded a 70 per cent increase in transport just through Rijeka's port and railway line in relations to the same period last year. This newly signed agreement gives Slovakian firms the same conditions as Croatian partners in the use of Croatian ports and ports capacity, to invest in them and realise operations in accordance with Croatian legal provisions and tax responsibilities as paid by Croatian companies. Before the signing of the inter-state agreement the two ministers and their associates held talks which presented other forms of cooperation. It was agreed that Croatia would enable Slovakian students to be educated in Croatian maritime schools and university faculties and the two ministers would instigate a meeting with their Polish and Hungarian colleagues for an intensive use of transport corridors from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic. They also reached agreement on intensifying combined transports, using the Danube River as a transport route and cooperation between rail and air carriers. (Hina) mbr /jfk 072003 MET sep 98