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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

New model of privatisation in Kosovo necessary

Belgrade, 10 May 2006

Head of the Economic Team for Kosovo-Metohija and southern Serbia Nenad Popovic announced today that the Serbian side will soon propose to the UNMIK a privatisation model, made after world standards, which could satisfy both Serbian and ethnic Albanian sides and attract great foreign investment.

Nenad Popovic

Author: Tanjug

Popovic told the Tanjug news agency that investors consider Kosovo-Metohija a place with the highest economic risk in the world because an unlawful process of privatisation of companies is in place there. Property, and not capital, is being privatised, while owners and creditors, who should be the first to take part in that process, are pushed aside, Popovic said.

He voiced hope that, in cooperation with UNMIK and the ethnic Albanian side, such an unlawful model will be corrected by bringing a new decree that will allow for all sides to be satisfied and future court processes to be avoided.

All companies, physical persons and organs of the Republic of Serbia who had property in Kosovo-Metohija will file complaints to courts in the Kosovo and later on to international courts against all cases of privatisation carried out so far in the Serbian southern province, Popovic stressed.

According to Popovic, now is not the right moment for an open and transparent privatisation in Kosovo-Metohija because safe movement of people is not guaranteed, not only for Serbs but also all other non-ethnic Albanians.

Privatisation of the Grand Hotel in Pristina is a typical example, he said. A Macedonian company gave a down payment of around €600,000, won the tender and still came out the loser in the matter.

Because of serious threats and the inability of Macedonian representatives to come to Kosovo in the first place, the company gave up the purchase and of course, did not recover the down payment, explained Popovic.

He also added that the Serbian side talked on the upcoming privatisation of the Trepca mine with World Bank representatives. We completely agreed on the issue, he said. The moment is not right for the privatisation of Trepca, because first we should wait for Kosovo status to be resolved and then carry out the privatisation process after the model that has been applied in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Serbia, stressed Popovic.