Zagreb city authorities have invited Chinese investors to pour money into hospitals, underground parking facilities, commercial and residential complexes at the China-Croatia Business Forum which took place in Zagreb last week.

Ladislav Prezigalo from the city's Department of Economy offered to Chinese investors to take over the University Hospital project in the capital.

"Besides hospital capacities, parts of the complex could be used for different commercial purposes," Prezigalo said.

Prezigalo added that apart from hospitals, potential for investment existed in the construction of a congress centre as well as a river Sava dam that would regulate its flow, lower the possibility of flooding and enable the development of large agricultural areas. He also mentioned the possibility of building sports centres, waste disposal plants and other projects.

The Deputy Mayor of the town of Guangzhou, Chen Mingde, headed the delegation of some 40 businessmen who came to the forum from this port city that sees some 100 billion dollars worth of trade in a year.

Qian Cangyong, the head of the Department for Economy and Trade at the Chinese Embassy in Croatia said that apart from projects in the capital, investors are interested in the shipbuilding industry, airports and seaports, railway reconstruction and telecommunications, amongst others.

Croatian-Chinese trade is back on the upward trend after stalling in 2009 due to the economic crisis. In the first eight months of this year, Croatia exported about 30 million dollars, 21 per cent of which are animal skins. Another twenty percent of Croatia's exports to China are machines for plastic products manufacturing and machine parts, polymers, medicine and wood.

At the same time Croatia imported 915 million Euros worth of goods from China, portal Privredni Vjesnik writes.