CROATIA AND MALAYSIA WANT TO STRENGTHEN ECONOMIC COOPERATION

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Hina) - Prime Ministers Zlatko Matesa of Croatia and Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia met in Kuala Lumpur on Monday and expressed a desire for strengthening the economic cooperation between the two countries. "We're obviously making progress," Mahathir told Croatian reporters after the talks, adding that both sides wanted "to speed up the development of mutual relations." "Since my last visit to Zagreb (in 1996), trade between our countries has increased substantially as well as the cooperation in other economic areas," Mahathir said. Matesa, who arrived on Sunday for a three-day official visit, said that he had informed his host about Croatian political priorities, particularly the peaceful reintegration of the UN-administered Danube region of eastern Croatia and the full implementation of the Dayton and Washington agreements. Matesa said that there was "evident progress" in bilateral projects between Croatian and Malaysian companies. He mentioned the possibility of the Croatian company Koncar building a transformer manufacturing plant in Malaysia, which he said would be a major Croatian investment in Southeast Asia. The two prime ministers agreed that there were open and hitherto poorly used possibilities of cooperation in the shipbuilding industry, energy and construction. Mahathir said that they had also discussed a joint presentation of their economies on the markets of third countries, particularly in Bosnia- Herzegovina. Later on, Matesa was received by King Tuanku Jaafar. (hina) vm mm 031030 MET mar 97