Croatian President Ivo Josipovic on Wednesday called on the government not to postpone reforms in the election year, noting that it was high time to start carrying them out.
Josipovic made the statement at a meeting with business people, organised by the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), whose representatives presented a document called "A Platform for a New Croatian Deal".
Josipovic called on the Opposition to encourage and seek reforms, and on all actors on the political scene to try to reach a consensus on solving the main problems. It would not be good, he said, if selfish interests were put before the interests of society as a whole.
The president said that reforms were necessary in the public administration, tax system, territorial organisation, pension system, and labour legislation.
Commenting on the failure to publish the exact number of unemployed people, Josipovic said that data on unemployment must be publicly available, describing the failure to publish those data as unacceptable. Without data on unemployment, one cannot conduct economic policy, he said, adding that those data influence the political climate but that a policy that was oriented towards prosperity had to be based on the truth.
Asked to assess the government's programme for economic recovery, Josipovic said that it had been described as good by experts, but that so far its results had not been as one would want them to be.
At the meeting, which brought together more than 300 business people, Josipovic said that his office received daily dozens of messages from business people complaining about obstacles they were faced with in implementing their projects, most of which referred to red tape.
Josipovic said that he was also showered by messages from members of the public who complained about having problem making ends meet because they had lost their job.
A remedy for this is facilitating business and encouraging entrepreneurship, he said, identifying as the main problem the mutual distrust among the social partners and calling for demonstrating tolerance and good will.
He also advised political parties to improve their dialogue.
Presenting "A Platform for A New Croatian Deal", HUP president Damir Kustrak called on Josipovic to be one of its promoters.
In the document HUP states that Croatia is faced with the lack of ideas in the government and the opposition, and that party goals are being put before national interests. Political parties are belittling one another, and that kind of communication has spread to other social structures as well, HUP says.
