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Zagreb - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković met with government and opposition officials in Ottawa who informed him of Canada's interest in boosting economic cooperation with Croatia, particularly in the tourism, shipbuilding and IT sectors.
Jandroković, who was on an official visit to Canada, spoke with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, and the leader of the Conservative Party in the Opposition, Andrew Scheer. Jandroković also met with the parliamentary delegation to NATO and a Canadian-Croatian inter-parliamentary friendship group.
Minister Bains thanked Croatia for ratifying the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union which, as he said, provided excellent opportunities for exporters, entrepreneurs and innovators. The officials agreed that CETA, which temporarily entered into force late September, has set conditions that entrepreneurs from both sides should utilise and increase mutual trade.
Jandroković asked for support for Croatia's aspirations to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Bains replied that Canada was completely open in that regard. The Speaker and Goldsmith-Jones discussed potential development particularly in tourism, infrastructure projects, shipbuilding, exports of Croatian food products and in the IT sector.
There was more talk about expanding economic cooperation at a meeting with the Croatian-Canadian friendship group which is led by an official of Croatian origin and former mayor of Hamilton, MP Bob Bratina.
Opposition leader Scheer assessed relations between Croatia and Canada as excellent and underscored that the introduction of new airline connections between the two countries would boost cooperation in tourism. The two also underscored the significance of the active 250,000 strong Croatian community in Canada. (Hina/Press Office)