Beverly Mercer has been appointed ambassador since January of the current year, and the visit to Rijeka is her first official visit outside Zagreb. Ambassador Mercer expressed her hope that cooperation between Australia and Rijeka would continue, as several Australian professors are holding lectures at the University of Rijeka, and the Australian Government had financed a couple of project of non-governmental organisations.

Welcoming the Australian ambassador, the president of the City Council Pešić Bukovac and deputy mayor Matešić presented Rijeka as a city of culture and urban tourism, underlining in particular the Rijeka Gateway project. In addition to the enlargement of the port of Rijeka, the Rijeka Gateway project is also connected with the development of the Rijeka traffic route, namely the wish that Rijeka is included among the top ten most important traffic routs in Europe.

The hosts also invited the Australian ambassador to attend the Rijeka Summer Nights, and next year the Rijeka Carnival.

Further to the representatives of the City of Rijeka and the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the Australia's ambassador has meetings scheduled at the rector's office of the University of Rijeka and at the Port of Rijeka Authority.
(S.R.)