"We must and can increase overall trade between the two countries. A legal framework for improving economic cooperation has been defined," Mesic told a Croatian-Chilean business forum at the Chilean Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
The Croatian president said that the two countries had huge potential for enhancing cooperation in the manufacturing and shipbuilding industries and in the use of Croatian sea ports and free trade zones.
Trade between Chile and Croatia totals a modest 4 million US dollars, with Croatian exports accounting for only a quarter of the sum.
Mesic said that Croatian exporters should focus more on the Chilean market as well as on other markets in South America.
He concluded by saying that the two countries had identical goals, notably to carry out social and economic reforms through political reforms to the benefit of their people.
The head of the Croatian Chamber of the Economy, Nadan Vidosevic, said that there was room for Chile and Croatia to promote economic cooperation, and that so far the main problem had been a great distance between the two countries and the fact that there was no shipping line to connect them.
"I hope we will soon encourage the Chileans to use the ports of Ploce, Zadar and Rijeka as their gateways to Southeast Europe," he said.
Vidosevic recalled successful cooperation between the countries in the shipbuilding sector in the late 1990s, when Croatian companies built ships for the Chilean fleet, and expressed hope that such cooperation would continue.