Kosor said that the purpose of the conference was to create conditions for Croatia and the region of Southeast Europe to become attractive to major investors.

"I want this conference to help the countries in the region in their joint efforts to make this part of Europe more attractive to foreign investors," Kosor said, recalling that the conference was organised in tribute to US Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, who was heading a US trade mission in the region 15 years ago when their plane crashed near Dubrovnik killing all people aboard.

Kosor said that her government had decided to create the annual Ron Brown Award to honour personal contribution to the promotion of economic cooperation between Croatia and the United States, adding that its first recipients were the Pliva pharmaceutical company and the Sisak-based CMC steel mill because of their outstanding export results in the US.

The prime minister spoke of the most important achievements her government had made for the economic recovery, citing the fight against corruption as a way of achieving legal security as a precondition for fresh investment and the economic upturn. She said that things were improving and that Croatian exports had risen by more than 18 per cent in 2010, with exports to the US increasing by as much as 31 per cent.

Kosor recalled that her government had adopted the Economic Recovery Programme and the action plan aimed at removing administrative obstacles to investment, stressing that the government had presented 30 major investment projects and that most of those envisaged for the first quarter had already been launched.

She expressed confidence that business people attending the forum would find their interest in some of those projects, wishing them a successful conclusion of many business deals.

President Ivo Josipovic said he saw the conference as an important step forward and recognition of positive trends in Croatia and the region at both the political and the economic level.

Remembering Ron Brown as an early advocate of regional policy, Josipovic said he was confident that the late US secretary of commerce would have been very pleased to see how many people were attending the conference.

Josipovic said it was very good that most countries in the region were ready to do business together, aware that the Southeast European market offered opportunity to all countries, regardless of their specific problems.

"Regardless of the problems and the complex past, Croatia wants to build a region of friendship and cooperation which will one day be fully integrated into the European Union," Josipovic said. "Just as we have turned a new page on the political level, I think the time has come for such a page to be turned on the economic level as well," he added.

The conference was also addressed by US Ambassador James Foley, who said that the purpose of the forum was to define a policy and principles that would help the Southeast Europe region to become competitive on the European market. He said he was confident that the conference would accomplish that goal.

Foley recalled that the US trade mission led by Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown had arrived in Croatia in 1996 with the same aim, adding that the Brown Forum was an ideal opportunity to make Brown's wishes and intentions a reality.

The US administration will be pleased to help realise the idea of this region becoming a destination for international investment and trade, Foley said, wishing all the participants a success in making as many deals as possible.