CROATIA'S EXPERIENCE WITH REFUGEES AND HUNGER - MATESA

ROME, Nov 16 (Hina) - Following are some highlights from Croatian Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa's speech at a FAP (Food and Agriculture Organisation) session in Rome on Saturday. "Croatia has wide experience with refugees and the problem of hunger; even now, every tenth citizen is a refugee," Matesa said, adding that Croatia currently provided a living for 420,000 refugees. "The largest part of Croatia's most fertile area is still occupied and its reintegration into the Croatian economic and legal system is progressing too slowly," he said. "Croatia has had wide experience in agriculture and the Croatian Government attaches great importance to the development of this sector. In cooperation with international organisations such as FAO and some others, Croatia has elaborated a strategy for the development of agriculture. In this respect, great attention is paid to the development of family farms," Matesa said. Concerning food production worldwide, Matesa stressed the need to incorporate environmental concerns into agriculture development plans. Croatia supported the Rome Declaration on Food and the Plan of Action adopted at this session, whose implementation is expected to reduce the number of starving people by 400 million till 2015. (hina) as 161948 MET nov 96