President calls on US business people to "invest more in Croatia"

17th September 2009

ZAGREB, Sept 14 (Hina) - The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Croatia is working well on the promotion of Croatian-American economic ties, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said at a working lunch with AmCham officials on Monday, calling on US business people to invest more in Croatia. "Your Chamber promotes economic cooperation between our two countries and that is very important because the US economy influences global economic developments," Mesic said.

Apart from classic trade, Croatia is interested in foreign direct investment,
particularly those from the USA. That would give "new impetus to our cooperation
with US business people... the potential for such investments is the biggest in
the power, ecology and infrastructure sectors," Mesic said in his address to
AmCham members.

The President said that he expected US entrepreneurs to invest more in
Croatia and to cooperate more with partners in Croatia. "I actually expect you to see profit in such investments, but I also expect from you concrete proposals on how we can make faster progress in removing administrative obstacles which unfortunately still exist." Mesic expressed concern about announcements by prominent US economists about the danger of so-called double-dip recession, because it could mean that visible signs of economic recovery could not be maintained in the long run and that the global economy could sink into a crisis again.

Such developments could also postpone economic recovery in Croatia, the
President said, adding that despite such unfavourable conditions, he would like
to see much greater involvement of the US economy in Croatia. "I believe that Croatia's economic policy should contain more efficient mechanisms to stimulate new investments in production so that new jobs are opened and production increased, notably export-oriented production," Mesic said, underlining the importance of introducing fiscal incentives and abolishing crisis tax. The business sector in the country could develop mush faster if more favourable conditions are created, the main obstacles to doing business being "inefficient administration, frequent changes of laws and regulations, and widespread corruption," Mesic said.

Asked by the press if he believed the government was doing its best to help the country overcome the recession, Mesic said the government was taking some of the measures that were being implemented by other countries, but that it was also taking measures that were different from those implemented by other countries. Asked to comment on Sunday's statement by Slovene Prime Minister Borut Pahor that Slovenia could be satisfied with the agreement with Croatia because Croatia had undertaken in writing to continue talks on the border dispute on the basis of the second proposal by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, which also determines contact with the high seas, Mesic said that Slovenia's right to access the high seas was never an issue.

"Slovenia's right to access the high seas was never an issue. We always
claimed that it was an international right, meaning that every country that has
a coast has the right to access the high seas. That is one thing, territorial
contact with the high seas is a different matter," Mesic told reporters.

Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb http://www.bbc.co.uk/news