EXBS: CROATIA/SLOVAKIA/SLOVENIA ADVISOR MONTHLY REPORTING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ZAGREB 001361 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR NP/ECC PVANSON, ACHURCH AND JMCCLELLAN; DEPT FOR EUR/ACE DMARTIN; CBP/INA FOR PWARKER; USDOE/NNSA FOR TPERRY; DOC FOR PETERSEN-BEARD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETTC MNUC PARM PREL KSTC KNNP HR LO SI SUBJECT: EXBS: CROATIA/SLOVAKIA/SLOVENIA ADVISOR MONTHLY REPORTING CABLE - OCTOBER 2006 ¶1. SITE ASSESSMENTS AND MEETINGS Croatia -------------- 05 October, Met with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA),Head of Department for International Cooperation and staff, at their request, to provide advice over a range of export control topics to include procedures for conducting licensing end user verifications in foreign countries and applying practical approaches for verification of information provided in export license applications. -------------- 06 October, Met with Ministry of Interior (MoI) General Police Directorate, Deputy Head (DH) of Border Police (BP) Directorate and Head of Maritime and Airport Border Police Department to update status of the mustang suit and tough book donation acquisition and to schedule a Border Assessment of the Danube River Border in the Slavonija Region of Croatia. -------------- 12 - 13 October, conducted a Threat Assessment of the Eastern Danube River border of Croatia accompanied by the BP DH. The assessment findings and recommendations are currently in draft to be completed and disseminated under separate cover circa mid Nov. Essentially, the assessment revealed the BP currently has insufficient resources and equipment to patrol the border with measurable effectiveness. -------------- 18 October, met with the Ministry of Finance (MOF),Customs Directorate, Assistant Director Generals (ADGs) for International Cooperation and European Integration, Anti-Smuggling, Finance, Staffing and Legal Affairs, and Department Heads of the training academy and International Cooperation. The agenda included authorizing recent grant donations and scheduling and setting agenda topics for a working meeting in November. The agreed agenda included legislative revisions authorizing Customs Criminal Investigative authority to include Export Controls Enforcement and formulating design of the Customs Academy academic and curricula structure. -------------- 20 October, met with Ministry of Economy (MOE),Head of Trade Policies (Licensing) and Senior Counselor to discuss status of Export Control legislation revisions and agenda for the upcoming Industry - Government Forum. MoE reaffirmed their request for EXBS assistance in the revision process to ensure it could be complete as soon as possible. Slovenia -------------- 09 October, met with Ministry of Economy (MOE),Undersecretary for Foreign Economic Relations (Licensing) who advised the Tracker Site Survey and Questionnaire is nearing completion, currently awaiting a response from one Ministry. It was anticipated the process would be complete by November. Slovakia -------------- 30 October, conducted an introductory courtesy call meeting with the new Ministry of Economy (MOE),Head of the Department of Sensitive Goods (Licensing) and provided a briefing on EXBS past and current program assistance, including the recent Tracker upgrade. The Department Head reaffirmed a commitment to adhere to all legal licensing protocol with no change in the effectiveness or efficiency of that office. The Tracker Network upgrade should be connected and security certified by mid Jan. ¶2. TRAINING CONDUCTED DURING REPORTING PERIOD Croatia -------------- 02 - 05 October, the Commodity Identification Training scheduled for this time period had to be postponed until 2007 due to problems coordinating the receipt of prospective attendees against the time constraints imposed to satisfy the Leahy Vetting procedural requirements. -------------- 27 October, The Rapiscan Company and its Croatian subsidiaries conducted a products promotion presentation at Embassy Zagreb hosted by the U.S. Commercial Service. Attendance was diversified including representation from GOC Ministries and the private security and ZAGREB 00001361 002 OF 002 industry sector. Slovenia -------------- 02 - 05 October, the third deployment of the U.S. Commerce sponsored Internal Control Program (ICP) was conducted with the excellent assistance of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce. The event was well attended and the Slovenian Ministries responsible for presenting segments of the program demonstrated significant improvement toward generating interest in their scheduled presentations. BRADTKE