OREANDA-NEWS Croatian Economy Minister Martina Dalic took part in a meeting of the Croatian-Russian commission for economic and scientific cooperation in Moscow on Tuesday, the Economy Ministry reported on its website on Wednesday.

Dalic, who co-chairs the commission, said that there was an excellent basis and enough room to further promote economic relations and that the commission's meeting was a step in that direction.

The meeting focused on bilateral trade and cooperation in the areas of energy, tourism, and science and technology. The two sides also discussed concrete interests in various areas, including pharmaceutical products, which account for about 50% of Croatia's exports, the shipbuilding industry and the IT sector, the ministry said.

With regard to cooperation in the energy sector, special emphasis was placed on the issue of Slavonski Brod, a town in eastern Croatia bordering on Bosnia and Herzegovina and its northern town of Brod, where a Russian-owned oil refinery has been causing air pollution which also affects Slavonski Brod.

Support was voiced for the signing of a protocol on cooperation between the Croatian Environmental Protection and Energy Ministry and the Republika Srpska Ministry of Industries, Energy and Mining on a project to convert the existing Slobodnica-Brod pipeline into a gas pipeline to be used exclusively for supplying natural gas to the Brod Oil Refinery, the ministry said.