Members of the Croatian Parliament on Friday endorsed a government report on the effects of the implementation of the Islands Act, but opposition MPs warned that it should have also contained specific figures to show whether the projects had managed to stop the depopulation of the Croatian Adriatic Islands.
"The report lists all the investments, but not their effects, namely it does not say how many people have returned to the islands thanks to those projects," said Gordan Maras of the strongest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Miljenko Doric of the People's Party (HNS) criticised the government for saying in the report that EUR 1.9 billion had been invested in the islands, although HRK 720 million was loans from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development that will have to be repaid.
"The amount of actual aid to the islands is the difference in interest rates given by the HBOR and commercial banks," Doric said.
Doric also quoted island people as warning that party affiliation was playing an important role in selecting investment projects on the islands, to which the Minister of the Sea, Bozidar Kalmeta, responded that investments were also being made in areas where the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was not in power.
Arsen Bauk of the SDP said the report should have specified per-capita investments because it was not clear how much money was invested in which island so that it could be compared with investments in other areas of the country.
Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) said that fiscal decentralisation would be of the greatest assistance to the islands because in that case the islanders would be able to decide for themselves which projects should be given priority.
In conclusion, Kalmeta announced that the construction of basic infrastructure on the islands was at a final stage and that it would be followed by a new cycle of investment in programmes promoting economic development. (Hina)