SKEGRO & SKREB HOLD TALKS WITH SLOVENE DELEGATES

( Editorial: --> 6552 ) WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Hina) - Croatian Finance Minister Borislav Skegro and Croatian National Bank Governor (HNB) Marko Skreb, who are currently in Washington for the annual sitting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, on Wednesday spoke to their Slovenian colleagues Mitja Gasparij and Franc Arhari. The two teams "expressed mutual agreement about the need to significantly increase money saving measures in the wake of negative influences caused by the recent financial crisis. This will be reflected in more restrictive budgets in 1999 and 2000", a statement said. Being Mediterranean countries with a healthy financial situation and a stable macro-economy, Croatia and Slovenia are jointly looking for paths to attract foreign investors based on "the principle of individual evaluation of each country. This varies to the nondifferential approach used to date which just deepened the global crisis". Reform experiences were discussed between the two delegations as were tax systems and money politics and open questions regarding bilateral economic and financial relations which have resulted since the establishment of the two separate sovereign states. (Hina) sp jn/rml 071820 MET oct 98