The minister said that in cooperation with tourism, fisheries could become the backbone of the economic development of Croatia's coastal area.
He added that conferences like this one could be very conducive to dialogue between fishermen and competent state institutions.
Cobankovic also said the government was helping with the building of the fishing fleet through three ministries and that in the coming period it would do its utmost to use money from European Union pre-accession funds for this purpose.
A fishing equipment fair was also opened in Kali today.