In attendance were Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship Minister Branko Vukelic, Serbian Ambassador Radivoj Cveticanin, and the deputy chief of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Todd Becker.
SNV president Milorad Pupovac said that with the establishment of the Development Centre, representatives of the Serb minority would no longer focus on politics as the primary means to exercise human rights, but turn towards development because those rights had no future without it in refugee return areas.
The Centre will encourage development projects and mediate between local self-government units in return areas and state bodies, international funds and agencies, as well as coordinate investment initiatives.
Minister Vukelic said the equality standards of national minorities in Croatia were often higher than in the most developed European countries, and that the exercise of their rights showed that national minorities in Croatia were not a danger but a wealth.
Vukelic said the everyone should take care of living standards and equal development conditions in all parts of Croatia, adding this was important for the exercise of the right to work. He also said that the Development Centre's projects would be closely considered.
Ambassador Cveticanin said his priority would be economic cooperation between Croatia and Serbia.
Becker said a meeting like the one held today would have been impossible three or four years ago. He recalled Vojnic was jointly governed by the Croatian Democratic Union and the Independent Democratic Serb Party, and that with joint development projects ethnic rights would cease being an issue.