The Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Gordan Jandrokovic, and the Austrian Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister for European and International Relations, Michael Spindelegger, in Vienna on Wednesday held a working meeting with a group of Austrian businessmen, investors in Croatia, the Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister said in a statement.
The talks, held after the opening of the conference "Croatia - 20 Years of Independence - Potentials of Croatia's Contribution to the European Union", focused on possibilities for further promotion of bilateral economic cooperation, notably in the context of Croatia's future EU membership.
Jandrokovic thanked his colleague Spindelegger for organising this meeting with representatives of the Austrian business community and underlined that this visit was another confirmation of long and strong relations between the two countries.
Jandrokovic also underlined that this visit was taking place in a crucial and symbolic moment for Croatia, at the time when Croatia was marking the 20th anniversary of its independence and after the successful completion of its entry talks with the EU, the statement said,
Jandrokovic expressed conviction Croatia would join the EU on 1 July 2013 as the 28 member, once again thanking Austria for and Minister Spindelegger for their continuous help to Croatia's EU accession process.
He also said that the Austrians were the biggest investor in Croatia with EUR 6.5 million between 1993 and 2000 which is 25 percent of the total foreign investments.
