"Austria is one of the biggest foreign investors in Croatia and we must see to it that our trade continues growing, particularly Croatia's exports to Austria," Minister Popijac said in his address to nearly 100 representatives of Austrian businesses and financial institutions.
Speaking of traditionally good Croatian-Austrian relations, he thanked Austria for its support to Croatia in its European Union membership talks.
"There are several areas in which we can enhance our cooperation. Those are energy, tourism and the environment. Those are also areas of the biggest interest to Austrian investors," Popijac said.
Participants in the meeting said that Austria was one of Croatia's most important trading partners.
Austria is the top foreign investor when it comes to direct foreign investments in Croatia, however the trade between the two countries has declined by some 26 percent during the present crisis, the meeting heard.
Expressing hope that the government's economic recovery plan would reverse the negative trends, Minister Popijac said he expected good seasonal effects to lead to the improvement of economic activity in the third and fourth quarters of 2010.
The chamber's president Markus Mair said that the chamber would try to help increase Croatia's exports to Austria and investments in Croatia.