PRESIDENT TUDJMAN'S ADDRESS AT ZAGREB AUTUMN TRADE FAIR

ZAGREB, Sept 16 (Hina) - In his welcoming remarks at the opening of the Autumn International Trade Fair in Zagreb on Monday, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman spoke of the importance of this business event, last year's military victories, the peaceful reintegration of Serb-held eastern Croatia and the normalization of relations with Yugoslavia. "With the normalization agreement we have achieved the most complex goal: the borders of the Croatian state are recognized even by those who did not stop at anything to prevent it from gaining independence and preserving its territorial integrity," Tudjman said. The President said that Croatia had finished all political, diplomatic and military battles in the establishment of a sovereign state and had created conditions for focusing its potential on economic and cultural development. Tudjman went on to say that more exhibitors were participating in this year's trade fair than in 1990. He added that the Zagreb Trade Fair had won back its reputation as one of the biggest economic events in Europe and the world. In the last six years, Croatia had managed to achieve "an economic miracle, along with political and war miracles," he said, adding that the Croatian economy had shown "surprising vitality" during the most difficult years of war. According to Tudjman's estimate, Croatia has fully completed the process of transition from the Communist system to an open market economy. "As part of the new financial system, we have created capital and money markets and our companies are already present on the international market. "Last year, we achieved favourable agreements with foreign creditors from the Paris and London clubs (...) whereby Croatia definitively terminated financial links with the former Yugoslav state and opened possibilities for new and reasonable borrowing under favourable conditions," the President said. For the last three years Croatia had had one of the lowest rates of inflation, a stable national currency moving towards external convertibility, and growing production and living standards. "Today Croatia meets most of the Maastricht criteria which still have not been fulfilled by some European Union members," he said. Tudjman laid particular emphasis on investment in the reconstruction of war-ravaged areas and care for about 400,000 refugees and displaced people. "Since last year, more than 8,000 family houses and apartments have been rebuilt, on which more than one billion kuna has been spent. About 80,000 displaced people and refugees have so far returned to the liberated area and a total of 120,000 will have returned by the end of the year," he said. The President described the current economic situation and prospects for further economic growth as very favourable. Industrial production has shown continual growth of seven per cent in the last 11 months. Signs of recovery are evident in the shipbuilding and electrical equipment industries and in other industrial branches. Tudjman stressed that it was very important that tourists had returned to the entire Croatian Adriatic coast, from Savudrija to Prevlaka, and that Croatia was again an international tourist destination. With foreign exchange reserves of about USD 4.4 billion, Croatia had gained full confidence of international financial and business circles, the President said. At the end of his address, Tudjman drew attention to issues which should be resolved more efficiently in the future, including problems that remained from the socialist system and consequences of aggression. He emphasized the importance of the accelerated construction of neglected infrastructure, the return of displaced people and economic reconstruction in the liberated areas, the completion of privatization and denationalization, a balanced development of all regions, the settlement and reconstruction of depopulated areas and islands, the intensification of the return of Croatian emigrants from all over the world. The President stressed the need to strengthen economic relations with the Bosnian Federation and to join European and world integration processes, taking into account the interests of Croatia as a Central European and Mediterranean country. "Stable and economically prosperous, Croatia already is and will be a constructive and irreplaceable factor in the new international order in this part of the world," he concluded. (hina) mm vm as 161556 MET sep 96