DELEGATION OF CROATIAN GOVERNMENT VISITS MACEDONIA

SKOPJE, Jan 14 (Hina) - Macedonia's premier Branko Crvenkovski and science minister Aslan Selmani, on Tuesday received a Croatian delegation, led by a vice premier and science minister Ivica Kostovic, that is on a one-day visit to Skopje. At the talks Croatia's Kostovic suggested that cooperation between the two countries should be furthered in order to follow very good bilateral political relations. Kostovic informed Macedonian premier Crvenkovski that the Croatian Government would stick to the current economic policy and strong kuna. He also notified him about the reintegration process of the Croatian Danubian area. Premier Crvenkovski said he believed that possibilities of the cooperation between the two countries were greater than its present level. He backed an initiative for the establishment of free trade zones, and proposed that it should be the next step in the economic cooperation between Macedonia and Croatia. He also advocated banking cooperation. At the talks with Macedonian science minister Selmani, Kostovic expressed readiness of Croatia to grant scholarship to the best Macedonian students. He added there were currently about 100 Macedonian students at Zagreb University. Minister Selmani spoke of his ministry which includes 14 institutes. Kostovic proposes that instructorship of the Croatian language be opened in Skopje, as there is the instructorship and the department of the Macedonian language at Philosophy Faculty in Zagreb. (hina) mm mš 141742 MET jan 97