The conference, to be held in Zagreb's Westin Hotel, will focus on strengthening the investment potential and climate in Croatia as a way of accomplishing one of the government's main projects - removing obstacles to investment, Kosor said at a news conference.

The forum is organised by the government, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), and the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) with the support of the International Investment Bank and media coverage from The Financial Times and Bloomberg.

Kosor said the government had done a lot to encourage investment so far, adding that investments amounting to 20 billion kuna were currently at different stages of implementation, and that some problems, which had not been dealt with for years, were now solved, such as the arrival of the Swedish retail chain Ikea in Croatia.

Kosor's deputy in charge of investment, Domagoj Ivan Milosevic, said the conference would include panel discussions on stepping up economic growth through investments, on investments by the Croat expatriate community, and on where the government expected greenfield investments - in the energy sector, infrastructure, tourism, and high technology.

Apart from intensifying cooperation with our partners, we will take special care to develop the best possible relations with the world's fastest growing economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China, and the countries of the Persian Gulf and Turkey, Milosevic said, adding that the forum would reflect this attitude.

Speaking of the reasons why in recent years Croatia had dropped to the last position in the region in terms of attracting direct investments, Milosevic said the incumbent government had not been forced to privatise the national wealth like the governments of some other countries which he said were ahead of Croatia in terms of foreign investment because of that. According to direct investment per capita, Croatia is still ahead of some countries which did not have a war on their territory and are members of the EU, such as Slovenia, Slovakia or Poland, said Milosevic.

Asked about problems with red tape investors were encountering, government and HGK officials said that in the last two-three years a dramatic change for the better had happened because the economic crisis had forced local leaders to start dealing more with the problem of unemployment and compete with one another.