The President of the Republic of Croatia, Stjepan Mesić, stated after visiting the Autumn International Zagreb Fair that analysts will explain to whom his critical remarks from the opening of the 83rd Autumn International Zagreb Fair were specifically directed.
When asked to whom his words at the opening of the Fair were specifically addressed, when he criticized the growth of foreign indebtedness, slow economic growth, and lagging behind other transitional countries, President Mesić said that it makes no sense to boast if we cannot cover our imports with exports. He reminded that we only cover half of our imports with exports and assessed that this is unsustainable in the long run. "I sent a message, and now it is up to the analysts and those responsible for creating party programs to express their views," said Mesić. He reiterated the example of Slovenia, which, as he stated, is now 100 percent more developed than Croatia (according to the GDP per capita criterion), while when it was together with Croatia in the same state, it was 20 percent more developed.
"This means we must do something. I tried to illustrate this by saying that we are indebting ourselves by 9 million euros every day, and that is not possible in the long run. Therefore, we would have to sell our assets, what generations before us have acquired, but what happens when that is sold? Therefore, we need to invest in production and have regulations that will exempt reinvestment from any levies. Then there will be opportunities to create new jobs," said Mesić. The President stated that he was impressed by what he saw at the Fair as well as the plans for its modernization, which, as he said, will allow it to evolve from a general economic exhibition into a collection of more specialized exhibitions, which is a trend in modern fairs. (H)
