Leading Croatian economist who had strong ties with Ireland
ANTE CICIN-ŠAIN who has died aged 73, was one of Croatia’s leading economists. He served as his country’s ambassador to Britain and Ireland and developed strong ties with this country. For a time in retirement, he was Ireland’s honorary consul in Croatia.
He was a professor of international economic relations at the University of Zagreb, and his expertise in international finance and international trade was of value to the government of Croatia after independence in 1990. He was the first governor of the National Bank of Croatia, the first Croatian ambassador to the EU, and then Croatian ambassador to the UK and Ireland.
Unusually among Croatian economists of his generation, he received his main economics education in the West. He took a master’s degree and a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, and hence was more open to mainstream western economic thought than many of his colleagues. While at Heidelberg he worked with the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva, publishing a number of articles on monetary issues.
On his return to Croatia in 1965 he proceeded to become a senior member of the Institute of Economics in Zagreb, chief economic adviser to the central bank, and a professor in the faculty of economics of the university. Among other positions, he was an adviser to the UN for West Africa.
He was the first governor of the National Bank of Croatia during an especially testing time. The bank had no gold or foreign exchange reserves but Cicin-Šain brought about monetary independence from the former Yugoslav Federation, and successfully introduced the new Croatian dinar (later to be replaced by the kuna).
Subsequently, he served as Croatia’s first ambassador to the EU in which post he helped fashion his country’s relationship with the EU at a time when Croatia was at war. He broke the ice with the various European bodies, much helped by his perfect English, French, German and Italian.
His natural extrovert personality, his combination of knowledge and intelligence, as well as his personal integrity, helped greatly in this task.
His next post was that of Croatian ambassador to the UK and Ireland, where again he built up the embassy from small beginnings, and started to create a new relationship with a British establishment numbering Margaret Thatcher, Michael Foot and Sir Fitzroy Maclean, among his friends.
He forged strong links with Ireland. After retirement, he became Ireland’s honorary consul for life in Croatia. The Irish Croatian Business Association honoured him by inaugurating an annual series of lectures in his name. He gave the first of these in Dublin in 2006. The second was given by EU commissioner Charles McCreevy in Zagreb in 2007.
He remained active in retirement. He founded Copernicus, a venture capital fund, and was chairman of the board of a newly founded Mediterranean biology institute, among other positions.
He was recently appointed a member of a government committee to advise on Croatia’s response to the current financial crisis and was in constant demand as a lecturer and adviser.
He is survived by his wife Vesna, a son and two daughters.
Ante Cicin-Šain: born 1935; died December 30th, 2008