Bozinovic and Dovgopoly on closer cooperation between Defence Ministry and UN
Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic and Director of the United Nations Procurement Directorate Dmitri Dovgopoly discussed today, on Tuesday, 27 September 2011, the possibilities of involvement of Croatian companies in supplying the United Nations (UN). It was agreed today that soon a framework for direct cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and the United Nations will be created, which could also serve as an incentive for Croatian entrepreneurs, and open opportunities, in particular in specific cases, to facilitate placement of Croatian products for the UN.
Minister Bozinovic stressed that Croatia has a tradition of arms and military equipment production, but for the UN purposes we could offer products from other areas – for example, food industry. Minister Bozinovic thanked the UN for their quick response to participate in the professional presentation for Croatian companies, which was agreed only two months ago at a meeting of Minister Bozinovic and the UN Assistant Secretary General in New York.
Dovgopoly said that he visited several manufacturers in Croatia – Kroko, Doking and Sestan-Busch and what he saw were products of high quality. He was convinced that with the professional people that Croatian economy has, Croatia had a chance to get back among the major suppliers for the UN.
During yesterday’s lecture “How to do business with United Nations”, representatives from 70 companies have received information on how they can compete with their products on the UN bids and had the opportunity to get the answers from the first hand to all questions of interest to them.
As noted yesterday, the UN in 2010 spent 14.5 billion dollars on equipping and supply. Only for the costs of peacekeeping missions in 2010 it was allocated more than $ 7.5 billion, of which for the purchase of equipment $ 3.1 billion. It was pointed out that there is a chance not only for dedicated defence industry, but also for the entire economy.
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