AUSTRIAN FIRM PLANS TO INVEST 50 MILLION US$ IN CROATIA

ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman today received delegations from INA, AVANTI and CRODEX companies, led by Franjo Greguric, Hannes Nouza and Ivan Cermak, the President's Office said today. The guests told President Tudjman that AVANTI ZAGREB Ltd. was recently set up by the Croatian public company INA, the Zagreb- based CRODEX and the Austrian company AVANTI. As the main reason for setting up that company was the need for increasing the presence of INA's products abroad. Nouza told President Tudjman about his firm's activities and the objectives it was planning to realise in Croatia. AVANTI Co. has an extensive sales net in Austria, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany, which it could use to place INA's products. On the other hand, AVANTI does not have its own refinery and is therefore interested in using the services of the Rijeka Refinery, which is owned by INA. In the next three to five years, AVANTI is planning to invest 50 million US dollars into Croatia. The first ten millions would be paid in even before the tourist season. All the profit would be invested back into Croatia, Nouza said. President Tudjman welcomed the opening of a new company as indicating Croatia's openness to other free markets. He stressed that it was in Croatia's interest for domestic companies, both public and private, to enter in joint ventures with foreign firms, which promoted private entrepreneurship and competition, the statement said. (hina) mm as 031738 MET mar 95