The government intends to reduce the state budget deficit to 2.8 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and the inflation rate to three per cent, cut the government's share in the foreign debt, and ensure a GDP growth rate of five percent through an active economic policy.
Sanader said that GDP growth was directly associated with Croatia's progress towards the EU and NATO because "all investors see membership in those associations as an anchor of security and a guarantee that the capital they are investing in Croatia is safe."
The government further plans to reduce the registered unemployment rate from 12 per cent in 2006 to 11.8 per cent and increase investment in science and new technologies.
Sanader said he believed that this year Croatia might open up to 20 of the 35 negotiating chapters with the European union and provisionally close some of them.
The prime minister said that efforts would be intensified to attract funds from EU pre-accession funds, particularly those for subsidies to agriculture, expressing hope that the food export-import ratio might exceed 70 per cent. He also announced intensified efforts in environmental protection.
Sanader announced a fierce fight against bribery and corruption, saying that today the government would provide an additional 1.8 million kuna (approximately 245,000 euros) to the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK).
He said that judicial reform would continue, noting that there were too many courts in the country and that their number would have to be reduced.
The government will use the funds it receives from the announced sale of a 20 per cent stake in the telecommunications company HT for the repayment of the third and fourth instalment of the debt to pensioners. Sanader said that 42,000 beneficiaries of family and limited pensions would be included in the debt repayment plan.
Sanader said that a joint session of the Croatian and the Slovene government might take place in Slovenia within next few months, but pointed out that it was too early to say which topics would be discussed then.
The prime minister dismissed as untrue an article in The Economist saying that his government was threatening media freedoms in Croatia. Sanader said that Croatia was respecting media freedoms and that he did not know on the basis of what data the British magazine had formed such a negative opinion.