SECI'S PROGRAMME COMMITTEE HOLDS MEETING IN GENEVA

( Editorial: --> 7022 ) GENEVA, April 15 (Hina) - The Programme Committee of the South-east European Cooperation Initiative (SECI) held a meeting on Wednesday in Geneva with representatives of 10 member-countries and Croatia taking part. The meeting discussed progress of preparation for the start of the realisation of six region projects of cooperation. The 10 member-countries taking part include Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and Turkey. Most countries in the region, including Croatia, expressed an interest in the realisation of projects of extending and modernising border crossings and a project for promoting trade and direct foreign investment in small and medium-scale businesses. The meeting widened a project for renewal of the Danube to include environmental protection and renewal of all significant rivers and lakes in the region. Croatia's SECI national coordinator Spomenka Cek invited SECI coordinator Erhard Busek and the UN Economic Commission for Europe general director Yves Berthelot to attend as observers at the Central European Initiative (CEI) ministers' meeting being hosted by Croatia on July 5 in Brijuni. After the meeting Cek told Hina that Croatia was not a member nor a permanent participant in the SECI but within the Initiative took part independently in individual projects it was interested in. "It his hard to determine what economic benefits Croatia can gain from the SECI since, despite the establishment of the initiative for already two years, finance sources still have not been confirmed," Cek said. (Hina) mm mb /lm 152118 MET apr 98