CRO, CHINESE GOVTS ESTABLISH SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION COMMISSION

BEIJING, Oct 6 (Hina) - The governments of Croatia and China signed an agreement on the establishment of a Croatian-Chinese commission for scientific and technological cooperation in Beijing on Monday. According to Croatian Science Minister Ivica Kostovic, heading a Science and Technology Ministry delegation visiting China since yesterday, Croatia signed a similar agreement only with the United States and Slovenia. Today's agreement, signed on the basis of a scientific and technological cooperation agreement the Chinese and Croatian governments signed in 1994, will enable the joint Croatian-Chinese commission to choose research projects of mutual interest which will be financed by the signatories. Kostovic's talks with his host Song Jian, the president of the Chinese State Commission for Science and Technology, focused on science-technology cooperation priority areas. In choosing projects, special attention will be given to the profitability of scientific research and its application in economy, the two parties stressed. Croatia's Kostovic invited Jian to visit Croatia. Also present at the talks was Croatian Ambassador to China Branimir Strenja. (hina) ha 061952 MET oct 97