PRESIDENT TUDJMAN RECEIVES CROATIAN EMIGRANT SIMUNOVIC

ZAGREB, April 4 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman today received a Croatian emigrant, Ivan Simunovic, owner of the Simunovic Fisheries Ltd. The meeting was attended by Croatian President's chief-of- staff Hrvoje Sarinic, the trade adviser to President Tudjman, Duro Njavro, the general manager of the firms "Bracanka" and "Zeus Faber Nerezisce Ltd.", Tonci Senjkovic, and the manager of "Zeus Faber Nerezisce Ltd.", Ivo Markusovic, a statement from the Presidential Office said. Simunovic talked to the President about his emigration from the island of Brac to New Zealand, where he became a successful businessman. He also spoke of his business which he started on his return to Croatia and where he invested several million kunas he had earned mainly in fishing and scampi production. Ivan Simunovic entered the fishing business with an 11- fishing-vessel fleet at the Adriatic sea and employed more than 250 workers. He was planning to have 400 to 500 employees in the next two years. The talks emphasized Croatia's orientation towards the Adriatic sea, that had been neglected before the establishment of the sovereign Croatia. An average Croat consumes 8 kilos of fish per year, while the annual consumption in Spain, for example, is tenfold, according to the statement from the Presidential Office. Simunovic stressed that he was interested in the progress of the island of Brac and that he wanted to apply his New Zealand experience on the Adriatic sea. The Adriatic sea was a fertile area for fish spawning and breeding, said Simunovic adding that a better control of the sea wealth was indispensable. President Tudjman called on Simunovic as well as on all the other Croatian emigrants to New Zealand to return with their families to their homeland and continue living and working in Croatia, said the statement from the Presidential Office. (hina) jn rm mms 041746 MET apr 95