A BRIEF LOOK AT CROATIAN PRESS ON THURSDAY

ZAGREB, Jan 4 (Hina) - Today's issue of the Zagreb-based daily of Vjesnik covers the visit of U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, under headline "IFOR on schedule". The paper carries an interview with Ivan Penic, minister of privatization, who discusses the new privatization bill to be tabled at the Croatian Sabor (parliament) January session. The paper's economic analyst Ivo Jakovljevic focuses his comment piece on the problem of continuing depression in southern part of the country, the Dalmatian coast. The privatization on the capital market is the topic of another piece, saying it was "difficult to foretell what will be happening on the capital markets, after too many announcements to citizens, to those who were afflicted by war as well as to the investors -- too many for a too little HFP (Croatian Privatization Fund) -- while the situation was not all clear with the state-owned companies either." Another Zagreb-based daily of Vecernji List devotes its front page to the national budget draft for 1996. Recalling the finance minister's say that the budget would total 35.5 billion kunas (around $6.68 billion) out of which 1.6 billion ($300 million) would be assigned for reconstruction, the paper says that "in spite of the announcement that the budget would rise by 10 percent, the tax burden should not rise if the GNP output also rises by the same percentage." The paper carries a comment piece on the internal controversy in the Croatia's main opposition Social Liberal Party, as two senior officials, Mladen Vilfan and Bozo Kovacevic, dubbed as "elitists" on one side, and current party president Drazen Budisa on the other, continued criticizing each other in media. (Hina) bk 041206 MET jan 96