USAID TO INVEST US40 MILLION IN CROATIA

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Hina) - The US Agency for International Development (USAID) will in the next financial year set aside some US$40 million for projects in Croatia, USAID deputy head Harriet Babbitt said in Washington on Monday. The statement was given at the official presentation of the new director of the USAID Mission to Croatia, Pamela Baldwin, who took oath. Baldwin will next week replace Charles Aaneson, who held the office in Croatia for five years. The ceremony, held at the USAID headquarters in Washington, was attended by USAID director Brady Anderson, Croatia's Ambassador to the USA, Miomir Zuzul, and officials with several agencies and US government bodies. Development prospects in Croatia are great, Babbitt said, adding though the Croatian government had to face the serious tasks of implementing economic reforms and further developing democracy. Ambassador Zuzul thanked the US government for helping Croatia's development also through the USAID and expressed a wish for that cooperation to continue successfully. The path of democratisation and development of the market economy is difficult, and USAID programmes facilitate it, Zuzul said. The USAID has been operating in Croatia for eight years, and the US$95 million it has invested so far in Croatia was mostly intended for refugee return and projects of democratic development and market economy. USAID's programme of support for east-European democracies (SEED), which also includes Croatia, amounts annually to more than half a million dollars. (hina) mm rml .