CRO ECONOMY MINISTER RECEIVES JAPANESE BUSINESS PEOPLE

ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - Croatian Economy Minister Davor Stern on Monday received a Japanese business delegation headed by president of the Japanese-Croatian Economy Forum Kenzo Harada, vice president Keiji Oda and the director of the Japanese Association for promoting marketing with eastern and central European countries Hiroshi Watanabe. Present at the talks were also representatives of a number of Japanese companies, among which are Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Toyota. #L# Harada said that the purpose of the visit of the Japanese delegation was the reconstruction and development of stronger economic ties between the two countries. Stern said that Croatia was a country in transition and described Croatia's economic prospects as very good. He added that 50 percent of Croatian businesses were privatized. Japan was interested in investing in Croatia, Harada said, adding that the process was slow because of insufficient information about the situation in Croatia, and because of the fact that the post-war situation in Croatia was still felt. Stern described the exchange of goods between Croatia and Japan so far as significantly lower than realistic assessments, stressing that one of the reasons for this situation was the lack of business promotion and concentration on tourist promotion. (hina) lm 081422 MET jul 96