HINA - Third Brown Forum to be held in Petrcane 8 - 9 April

Third Brown Forum to be held in Petrcane 8-9 April

2 April 2013

(c) 2013 HINA-CROATIAN NEWS AGENCY

ZAGREB, April 2 (Hina) The 2013 Brown Forum - Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital - Deepening Ties Between U.S. Firms and Entrepreneurs in the Southeast Region is the main theme of the third Brown Forum to be held on 8-9 April in Petrcane near the coastal city of Zadar, a press conference was told in the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on Tuesday.

Around 150 investors, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Southeast Europe and the U.S. are expected to gather and discuss how financial and administrative support for entrepreneurship can contribute to economic growth in the region, building the next generation of entrepreneurs, and how to attract investment in order to transform ideas from the drawing board into reality.

Enterprise Minister Gordan Maras said that the forum was an opportunity for the government to inform potential investors and entrepreneurs of strategic objectives and financial and organisational and other measures to stimulate development and growth of innovative and rapidly growing small and medium businesses.

The forum will also be an opportunity for companies to connect with potential investors and to step out onto new markets.

U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Kenneth Merten said that the embassy was participating in several projects with the Croatian government and nongovernmental organisations to help businesses and in 2012 had donated US$150,000.

The Brown Forum is organised by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Trade, Economy Ministry, U.S. Embassy in Zagreb the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Employers' Association.

The Brown Forum is organised each year in honour of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown who was killed in an airplane crash near Dubrovnik in 1996 while heading a U.S. trade mission to Croatia.