SEMINAR ON LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT BEGINS IN SPLIT

SPLIT, July 14 (Hina) - A three-day seminar on local self-government, gathering mayors of Croatian and German towns, began in Split on Monday. Addressing the gathering, a Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Ljerka Mintas-Hodak, said that the local self-government in Croatia was on the good base, and announced a law on cities for autumn. "Our local self-government is marked by a great number of towns and municipalities where the self-government has begun functioning and stirred great interest among residents in its further strengthening," Mintas-Hodak said and added that the government considered some amendments to the law on financing local self-government units in order to facilitate a bigger influx of financial means from the state budget for those units. The president of the Croatian towns and municipalities' federation, Nikola Obuljen, informed the Split seminar of the activities of the federation in which 275 Croatian cities, towns and municipalities are included. Participants of the seminar, organised by the federation and a German foundation "Konrad Adenauer", were greeted by Gregor Ryssel on behalf of the German foundation. (hina) mš 141235 MET jul 97