Alstom Hrvatska, which constructs, produces and services equipment for energy units, was presented with the Zlatna Kuna award for business excellence in 2010 on Monday evening.

Zlatna Kuna was also awarded to the best small and medium-sized businesses, the best bank and the best insurance company.

The best small-size company is the producer of high technology equipment for railway transport safety Altpro from Zagreb and the best small.size company is the Zagreb-based software company IN2.

Erste & Steiermarkische is the best bank and Allianz Zagreb is the best insurance company. Nebojsa Boskovovic received the Zlatna Kuna award for the best innovation and Petar Cavo was awarded Zlatna Kuna for the best prototype.

The life time achievement award wer to Jaksa Barbic.

Present at the award ceremony was Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor who said that strengthening the economy was one of the government’s main objectives. She said there were some good indicators that things were moving in a positive direction, such as export growth, which in January amounted to 5.4 percent on the year.

Another objective is to wrap up the EU entry talks in 2011. Entering the bloc is a new chance for the economy, Kosor said, stressing that EUR 3.5 billion from the EU budget is earmarked for Croatia for the first two years of membership.

Kosor said that another government achievement was the approval of the restructuring plan for the Brodosplit shipyard, expressing hope the EU would also greenlight plans for the reconstruction of other Croatian shipyards.

Speaking about what the government had done for the economy over the past several months, Kosor mentioned the freezing of budgetary expenses, the adoption of the fiscal responsibility law, the introduction of order in public companies, reduction of taxes, new loans launched in cooperation with the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development and commercial banks and the cancellation of the so-called crisis tax.

Kosor said that in the coming period, the government would promote investment climate, stressing that peace and stability were necessary to realise that objective.

HGK President Nadan Vidosevic said Croatia, thanks to its unique geographical position, can represent the European and global area of communication. He called for a consensus on the most important national issues.