CRO PRIME MINISTER VISITS DUBROVNIK AREA

DUBROVNIK, March 26 (Hina) - President of the Croatian Parliament Zlatko Matesa on Tuesday visited the Dubrovnik County. Accompanied by the Privatization Minister, Ivan Penic, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Matej Jankovic, the director of the Croatian Privatization Fund, Milan Kovac, the head of the Office for National Security, Luka Bebic, and the Dubrovnik County prefect, Jure Buric, Matesa visited the Opuzen municipality where he held talks on overcoming the crisis in the "Neretva" agricultural estate. #L# The company used to employ 750 workers, but due to problems and bad business policies that were inherited from the period of communist regime, most of the workers have been on strike since last April, and have not been given salaries since last June. The company's debts amount to 100 million kunas. Matesa described his visit to Opuzen and the talks as very useful, especially because of the future of agricultural produce in the valley of Neretva. "We agreed on possible solutions which will be discussed by the government within the next month. The principle of the resolutions is that one unified policy should be established which would regulate issues of land used for agriculture, the way it will be exploited and leased," Matesa said. At the talks, an establishment of an expert group of Agriculture Ministries was suggested, which would set the criteria for allocate land to the "Neretva" company. After Opuzen, Matesa visited the Dubrovnik coast and Slano, a town in the Dubrovnik area which suffered the most during the agression against Croatia. "I think that this part of the Dubrovnik area is being reconstructed in a relativelly acceptable way," Matesa said. (hina) lm 261955 MET mar 96