DUBROVNIK CONFERENCE ON TRANSITION ECONOMIES CLOSES

DUBROVNIK, June 27 (Hina) - A third international conference on economic and financial changes in transition countries closed in Dubrovnik on Friday with a report by assistant director of the Bank for International Settlements Andre Icardo. The three-day conference, organised by the National Bank of Croatia, gathered about sixty participants who presented papers on problems relating to the balance of payments, foreign exchange policy and competition in transition countries. Besides representatives of seven countries in transition, the conference also involved representatives of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Also attending were Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Borislav Skegro and Finance Minister Bozo Prka. Among those who presented papers were Israeli central bank governor Jacob Frenkel and IMF representative Mario Blejer. Frenkel, whose report drew particular attention, said that Israel's experience in the last two decades had shown that the inflow of foreign capital did not only encourage faster development of a country but that it also brought a lot of accompanying and not so easily surmountable effects on its balance of payments, foreign exchange rate and monetary policy as well as on the domestic and foreign competitiveness of the economy. National Bank of Croatia governor Marko Skreb said that the conference, like two previous ones, was important because it brought to Dubrovnik top economic experts and representatives of very respectable international financial institutions. "It was very interesting to listen to the experiences of other countries and see that, as far as general trends are concerned, Croatia belongs to the most prosperous transition countries," Skreb said, adding that Croatia was praised for its economic stabilisation programme. (hina) vm 272150 MET jun 97