Five companies are interested in Kraljevica, Vrdoljak told reporters when asked if the Viktor Lenac shipyard was buying Kraljevica, which has filed for bankruptcy.
"Those who create the most jobs, those with the biggest investment and the best business plan, they will enter Kraljevica."
Vrdoljak said he would take to Brussels on Monday the contract initialled on the purchase of Brodotrogir to see what the European Union thought about it.
"I'm an optimist about the completion of the privatisation of the Croatian shipyards. I believe we will solve two or three issues in late February or in March, so that only the 3. Maj shipyard will remain, to be dealt with by May."
At the request of the press, the minister commented on the visit to Croatia by the head of Russian energy giant Gazprom and the fact that he was not received by Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic. Vrdoljak said it had been agreed at the government that he would be the host and that after being received by President Ivo Josipovic, the Gazprom chief would be received by First Deputy PM Vesna Pusic.
"Nothing we agreed on was or will be brought into question," he said.
Vrdoljak said the first step after the agreements reached with Gazprom would be to consider its entry into the Sisak oil refinery and to call a tender for the construction of new gas-based thermal power plants.
Gazprom is also waiting for a tender for a concession on oil and gas research and exploitation fields in Croatia to be called in the summer, he added.