LEADERS OF CRO-BH ECONOMIC COMMITTEE SIGN PROTOCOL ON FIRST SESSIO

SESSIO $ N ZAGREB, July 3 (Hina) - Leaders of the Mixed Croatian-Bosnian Economic Committee, Croatian Finance Minister, Bozo Prka, and Bosnian Minister of Foreign Trade and International Communications, Neven Tomic, on Wednesday signed a Protocol on the First Committee session in Zagreb. The session was based on the Agreement on Economic Cooperation Between the Governments of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was signed on 24 March 1995, Prka said. He told reporters that today's talks focused on reciprocal economic relations and exchange, which in 1995 marked a 14 per cent rise higher than in the year before. Prka said that the economic relations between the two countries were on the rise and this validated the signing of the Agreement, which introduced a transitional form of customs union, stabilized the level of customs policy and improved economic relations. Prka and Tomic also discussed further progress in the coordination of trade and customs policy, the functioning of the banking system, the reciprocal improvement of money transfers and the improvement of relations in several industries, such as metallurgy, construction, shipbuilding, machine building, chemical, mining and wood/timber industries. Prka and Tomic concluded that the economic cooperation and the scale of economic exchange were about USD 400 million, but that there was a considerable imbalance in the reciprocal exchange at the expense of Bosnia-Herzegovina, since Croatia's total import to Bosnia-Herzegovina was about USD 380 million. The reasons for this were the aggression on the country and economic depression, Prka said, but added that there were several fields where that imbalance could be diminished, such as Bosnia's exports in the fields of power supply and mining. Croatia was particularly interested in the import of electric power, aluminum, coal, chemical products, salt and products from the Zenica steel-plant, Prka said. He added that sub-committees which should analyze further possibilities for the strengthening of economic relations between the two countries had been formed and determined, and should meet by 15 July. Tomic said the talks were open and stressed that they pointed out all the advantages and disadvantages in the application of the Agreement on economic cooperation, and added that measures for the removal of the disadvantages had been proposed. Relevant ministries should cooperate as better as possible in the future, Tomic said, and make proposals to the Committee on Eventual Corrections to the Agreement in order to improve cooperation. He pointed out that particular stress was laid on the coordination of legislation and the passing of regulations, particularly in customs and protective policy. This and other agreements provided preconditions for Bosnia- Herzegovina, now in a process of reconstruction, to make comparative advantages, together with Croatia, particularly in a joint appearance on third markets and a quicker repairing and development of economy, Tomic concluded. (hina) ha 032132 MET jul 96