Countdown until the end of privatisation…

Out of 556 companies, listed for privatisation four years ago, 90 of them still remain on the list. The government is satisfied with the completed procedures, especially since the giants Zelezara, RTB, PKB and Galenika found world-class owners. Sustainable solutions are being sought for the factories of the petrochemical complex.

The 2014 Privatization Act has produced results. Most importantly, once the biggest loss-makers have been successfully privatised. In Zelezara and RTB alone, after the arrival of Chinese owners, more than ten thousand jobs have been preserved. The Ministry of Economy is doing the analyses for the privatisation of the remaining 90 companies, and some solutions are expected by the new year.

„I hope that the tempo will now speed up and that we will start the next year with about eighty companies and that the number of companies will drop to 50, to 40, so we can say that we are going towards the finalisation of the essential privatisation process in the Republic of Serbia“, said Dragan Ugrcic, Assistant Minister of Economy.

For two strategic companies, MSK and Petrohemija, tenders will be announced in the first quarter of next year. Petrohemija is very important because it is one of the biggest exporters in the country.

Petrohemija needs, the same as Zelezara, someone that is stronger and able to manage it, and reintroduce order in it technologically and ecologically. It needs to be someone on the territory of Europe and it needs to meet European criteria. Probably some other things also have to be done to turn Petrohemija into a very efficient company,“ said Ljubodrag Savic, professor of the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.

Izvor: RTS

Foto: youtube