The Croatian government on Thursday endorsed a draft strategy regulating financial assistance which Croatia can get from the World Bank in the 2005-2008 period.
The Finance Ministry is expected to draw up similar strategies on cooperation with three other international financial institutions: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, and the Council of Europe Development Bank.
Croatian officials hold that it is very important to prepare strategies after the country became an official candidate for membership in the European Union, which also gives Croatia access to the Union's pre-accession funds.
The strategy on World Bank assistance includes programmes for three possible scenarios which will depend on whether Croatian growth is slow, sustainable, or fast.
Under the strategy, the four-year loan portfolio may come to about one billion US dollars in case of sustainable growth, 1.5 billion for fast growth, and only 300 million is the remaining variant.
The ministry assesses that Croatia is currently in a situation that it can project the sustainable growth and count on $250 million of the Bank's loan every year in the said period, namely about one billion as the total sum.
The Instruments of the assistance would be adjustment and investment loans, as well as analytical and consultant services.
The government is likely to be offered the first PAL (Programmatic Adjustment Loan) loan after the adoption of the said strategy.
The assistance strategy is to be discussed by the World Bank executive directors' board on 21 December.