Minister Gordan Jandroković met with Italy’s Deputy Minister for Economic Development Adolfo Urso

The collocutors expressed satisfaction with the two countries’ good-neighbourly and partnership relations, pointing out that the holding of the Economic Forum is a confirmation of the mutual interest in further strengthening the economic cooperation. Minister Jandroković expressed gratitude for Italy’s support during Croatia’s EU accession negotiations. He also informed Deputy Minister Urso about Croatia’s significant progress in that regard, emphasizing that Croatia is in the final stages of the negotiations and expressing his conviction that the negotiations would be concluded in the first half of 2010.

Minister Jandroković also expressed satisfaction with the growing interest of Italian companies for investing in Croatia and noted the numerous advantages Croatia is offering to the potential investors from Italy. He also welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Croatian Chamber of Economy and the Milan Chamber of Commerce, announced for today.

The meeting also discussed the continuation of the activities agreed upon at the first session of the Coordination Committee of Croatian and Italian Ministers, held July 1st in Rome, and emphasized the need for identifying an Italian partner as soon as possible in order to realize one of the more comprehensive investment projects, as well as the need to expand the cooperation in small- and middle-sized entrepreneurship, especially in agriculture and food industry. The collocutors further pointed out the two countries’ joint interest and cooperation in the north Adriatic, as well as the importance of regional infrastructural projects such as the Adriatic-Ionian highway. They also acknowledged the possibility of cooperation in energy, especially in the field of renewable energy sources, for which there exists great interest among Italian investors.