BAVARIAN PREMIER WELCOMES CRO GOVT MEASURES FOR PROMOTION OF

ZAGREB, July 31 (Hina) - I am impressed by measures for attracting foreign investments taken by the Croatian Government, and those measures should enable Croatia to compete at the European market, Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber said Monday after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan. I am impressed by the course and intensity of all those measures taken by the Croatian Government which help the solving of problems regarding the investments from Bavaria, Germany of Europe in Croatia, Stoiber stressed. The Bavarian Prime Minister is on a one-day visit to Croatia, during which he held talks with Croatian President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan. Racan said he expected the measures to influence the improvement of cooperation between Croatian and Bavarian companies and financial institutions. The Croatian Prime Minister announced the meeting of experts of the two Governments in Munich this autumn in order to agree concrete cooperation. When a German reporter asked about the legal security of foreign investments in Croatia, Racan admitted there were problems in the speed of solving property-rights relations, but added the Croatian Government was working on it. The two Prime Ministers also tackled a possibility of the participation of Bavarian companies and financial institutions in the privatisation of the Croatian industrial and tourist sector. When asked when was Croatia to join NATO and the European Union, Racan stressed Croatia was very soon to join NATO, several years after which it was to join the European Union as well. The Croatian Prime Minister said the joining of countries such as Croatia was a gain not only for the country that joined the European Union, but for the European Union itself. "We could be a good example of how to adopt European Union standards and maintain our identity", Racan concluded. (hina) it