SOSA: Tendering for PKB privatization in August

(Sebastian Sosa) The tendering for the privatization of PKB can be expected to take place next month, the IMF Resident Representative for Serbia, Sebastian Sosa, stated yesterday and added that the new program that Serbia had agreed with the IMF also aimed to resolve the issue of problematic public enterprises which are a source of fiscal risk due to their losses.

He told the press in Belgrade that certain progress had been made in the field of public enterprises in the past period, citing Galenika as an example, and that tendering for RTB Bor and MSK had started.

Asked about the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings in Azotara, he says that the Government of Serbia chose that option following several unsuccessful attempts to find an investor for this company which had been incurring losses for years.

– MSK is not incurring losses, it currently holds the most solid position and the Government of Serbia thought it was a good time for it to be privatized. It's different with Azotara, where debts toward Srbijagas and the Tax Administration are piling up – Sosa says and adds that there are also certain social issues concerning the employees in Azotara.

He said that the Government of Serbia solved the problems of public enterprises either through privatizations or through bankruptcy proceedings, and that the solving of that issue would enable the resources which had been put into companies with losses for years to be redirected toward increasing public investments.

AIK BEOGRAD AD PADINSKA SKELA

Međunarodni monetarni fond-MMF Beograd

IMF Washington D.C.

MSK a.d Kikinda

Galenika a.d. Beograd

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Poreska uprava Srbije

HIP-AZOTARA d.o.o. Pančevo

Poljoprivredna Korporacija Beograd

PKB

IMF

Sebastian Sosa

tendering for privatization of PKB

privatization of PKB

bankruptcy proceedings in Azotara