PM Plenkovic underlines OECD's importance for Croatia

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who on Thursday started his visit to Davos, where the World Economic Forum is taking place, by holding several bilateral meetings, underlined the importance of his planned meeting with the secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which Croatia wants to join in the next enlargement round and thus attract more investors.

Plenkovic is expected to meet a number of officials during the annual event in the Swiss ski resort, including Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

"I will meet this evening with OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria. The OECD is an organisation that brings together the world's most developed countries and has a specific procedure for the admission of new members. Croatia wants to be in the next round of enlargement, which is very selective and that is the key message I want to give today," Plenkovic told reporters.

He stressed that this would enhance Croatia's legitimacy, "notably with regard to foreign investors, which at a meeting such as this one is one of the more important messages."

Once a year, the global political and business elites gather in Davos.

Plenkovic met with Swiss President Doris Leuthard to discuss the ratification by Switzerland of Protocol III to the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons between the EU and Switzerland that extends that agreement to Croatian nationals and Switzerland's financial support to Croatia for projects that reduce inequality. During the meeting, he expressed satisfaction with the fact that more than 200,000 Swiss nationals had visited Croatia in 2016.

Plenkovic also met with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, with whom he discussed ways to advance bilateral relations, saying that a number of Croatian companies were active on the Georgian market such as Koncar, Dalekovod and Ericsson Nikola Tesla.

He said Euro-Atlantic integration and visa revocation were key for Georgia now and that "Croatia's experience in a post-conflict situation, given the occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, can be of use to our Georgian partners."

Tonight Plenkovic was also to meet with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini.

Announcing tomorrow's panel in which he will participate together with Serbian PM Vucic, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Plenkovic said they would "talk about the neighbourhood policy, the further policy of EU enlargement, and facing the existing challenges."

"Croatia's message is that, first and foremost, we need stability in our neighbourhood because that will enable growth and prosperity for our country," he said.

Both he and Vucic said Davos would be an opportunity for talks although, according to announcements, theirs will not be a bilateral meeting.

On Friday, Plenkovic will attend the "Go East: Strenghtening Europe's Neighbours" panel and meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss nonprofit foundation based in Geneva.

This year's forum, which is taking place on January 17-20, brought together nearly 300 political leaders from 70 countries, 1,000 senior executives from big companies as well as other experts. Some of the topics on the agenda are the issue of populism, geopolitical topics, global security, sustainable growth, social inclusion, and digital labour.

 

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