CROATIAN ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION MARKS 120TH ANNIVERSARY

ZAGREB, Nov 23 (Hina) - The Croatian Engineers Association (HIS) on Monday marked its 120th anniversary at a special convention held at Zagreb's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The official commemoration of the anniversary will be closed with a concert at the "Vatroslav Lisinski" concert hall and an engineers' ball. The event is being held under the auspices of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. HIS president Jure Radic recalled the history of one of the oldest and largest associations in Croatia. The HIS was founded in 1878 under the name of "Klub Inzinirah i Arhitektah", and has grown into the present day association consisting of 27 specialised associations with about 20,000 members, said Radic. The HIS's basic tasks include providing advice for executive authorities in drawing up and implementing regulations and norms as well as taking part in large national projects, conducting public competitions and participating in education and publishing activities. Other tasks of the HIS include the creation of specialised trade titles and guild protection. In his address to the convention, Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa said that the presence of Croatian experts in all international companies was evidence of the high quality of the Croatian education system. Present at the celebration were representatives of engineers associations from Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary and Slovenia. (hina) mm ab/rml