ITALY READY TO INVEST SIX BILLION LIRA IN DANUBE REGION

( Editorial: --> 0955 ) VUKOVAR, March 19 (Hina)- Italy is ready to invest six billion lira in the Croatian Danube River region, primarily for economic revival and the creation of new jobs, head of the Italian Foreign Ministry delegation Sandra Gian Andre said on Thursday in Vukovar. On Thursday the Italian delegation met Vukovar-Srijem County prefect Rudolf Koenig and National Trust Establishment Committee vice-president Ivica Vrkic. Danube region projects which Italy intends to finance concern economic revival and the fostering of small and medium size businesses, agriculture and communal services. The investments are conditioned on respect of national rights of all inhabitants of the region and establishment of coexistence. Vrkic said serious economic difficulties in the region equally affected Croats and Serbs and that unemployment often had political implications. Vrkic agreed that Italian funds in the region should be equally distributed between Croats and Serbs. Because "if money is invested in a small or medium sized company owned by an ethnic Serb, he will not employ Croats and vice versa". "That is how it is in the region. But I believe that once the market economy takes sway employers will be more interested in skills and experience of their employees than in their nationality," Vrkic said. (Hina) jn mr /mb 192128 MET mar 98