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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

NIS should become generator of Serbia’s economic development

Belgrade, 22 July 2005

Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Radomir Naumov spoke to daily Blic today about the privatisation of state oil company NIS, the announced privatisation of power utility EPS, and electricity prices.

Radomir Naumov

The Serbian government’s official website brings excerpts from this interview:

What model of privatisation of NIS is favoured by the Serbian government:

- The Ministry of Energy and Mining has always advocated raising the value of NIS through the modernisation of its parts before taking it private. The main goal is not to achieve a greater commercial value of NIS during a privatisation process but rather to ensure that Serbia’s oil company is competitive with other oil companies in the region. It is of particular importance to us that we see NIS becoming a generator of economic development in Serbia. The ministry is in favour of selling a stake in NIS to a consortium of companies.

How will power utility EPS be privatised:

- It is too early to talk about privatising EPS. Serbia’s largest public-sector enterprise is on the path of reorganisation and the modernization of its production and transmission capacities. These works are still a priority. It is only after a restructuring is completed, after non-core businesses are divested, that EPS can start preparing for eventual privatisation. In what way it will be done remains to be seen, but the stand of the ministry, that the company should not be sold off in parts, was made known long time ago. The process must be carried out in accordance with the government’s energy policy and a strategy for the development of the energy sector, which has been adopted by the parliament. Judging by experiences in the region, it is clear that hasty piecemeal privatisations of energy companies have brought a lot of trouble to the countries that conducted them. We have closely watched the developments in the region and we do not want to make the same mistakes.