There was the first constitutional session of the Joint Board for the implementation and encouraging of economic cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and Republic of Croatia held in Zagreb, based on the Economic Cooperation Agreement of the two countries, signed on June 24, 2009, in Zagreb, which entered into force on the day of accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union on July 1, 2013.

As a co-president of the Joint Board, the delegation was led by Mr Stevan Nikčević, State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia and Ms Nataša Mikuš Žigman, State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts of the Republic of Croatia. At this session, where there was a discussion on the previous cooperation in various fields, it was acknowledged that the two countries are committed to further development of the economic ties and strengthening of the cooperation in the fields of both interests, in particular in: trade, industry, energy, transportation, agriculture, tourism, and inter-chamber and development cooperation.

In the session one of the topics was the economic developments in both countries, with a special focus on the bilateral economic cooperation. It was stated that the continuous increase of trade, which in 2017 for the first time was over one billion euros, which ranks the Republic of Croatian as number 10 when it comes to the foreign trade partners of the Republic of Serbia. At the same time, the Republic of Serbia takes 7th position on the list of foreign trade partners of the Republic of Croatia.

At the end of the session the co-presidents of the Joint Board Mr Stevan Nikčević and Ms Nataša Mikuš Žigman, signed the Protocol from the first constitutional session of the Joint Board for the implementation and encouraging the economic cooperation between Republic of Serbia and Republic of Croatia.