Weekly Review of Slovene Economy from September 6 to 13

Ljubljana, 13 September - A two-day summit of heads of governments of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) member states started in Slovenia's seaside resort of Portorož. The summit started with a plenary and an address by Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek. Later premiers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia reviewed cooperation and trade in 1996. They were joined in the second part of the plenary by representatives of guest countries - premiers of Croatia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Latvian foreign minister. In the afternoon, the member states' premiers signed a joint declaration of the 4th CEFTA summit, which defines guidelines for CEFTA's activities until its next summit in the Czech Republic. The declaration praises CEFTA's contribution to the development of trade between its member states. A number of bilateral meetings also took place between premiers and foreign trade ministers, who also sit in the CEFTA joint committee. It was also agreed at the summit that Bulgaria may start negotiations on full membership in CEFTA, while the premiers passed the communique from the recent meeting of CEFTA agricultural ministers in Maribor, Slovenia, according to which Slovenia is to free trade with agricultural products until 1 January 2000. On the second day of the summit, Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek held bilateral meetings with guest countries' premiers.