Croatian exporters will profit from Croatia's European Union membership only if they are well prepared, heard a business conference, which was held in Zagreb on Monday by the "Croatian Exporters" association.
The association's president, Darinko Bago , proposed drawing up an analysis of the good and bad sides of the Croatian export-oriented sector so that good things could be further developed and bad ones corrected.
Croatian President Ivo Josipovic's economic advisor Boris Cota cautioned that Croatia's EU entry need not produce positive results on the country's foreign trade, explaining that EU countries which had not been competitive in terms of exports had not seen a rise in foreign trade upon their EU entry.
The "Croatian Exporters" association's vice president, Ante Babic, believes that the new authorities would have to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance. He criticised platforms of the political parties running in the next parliamentary elections, adding that they instil no hope. He said that the only hope lay with the country's future EU membership.
Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Domagoj Milosevic agreed that Croatia's entry into the EU would create great opportunities, but he said that Croatia did not need the IMF as the country had macroeconomic stability.
He said that a half of the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) platform focused on the economy.
