The programmes are designed to enable those shipyards - Kraljevica, 3. Maj, Brodosplit, Brodotrogir and Uljanik - to be profitable after a transitional period with state aid such as subsidies given in the European Union for this industrial sector.
Describing the programmes as comprehensive, Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec said that the Commission would need 30 to 40 days to analyse the document, and after that consultations and negotiations would ensue.
All this could take up to six months and in the meantime the government would ensure state guarantees so as to help the shipyards.
Last September, the Croatian Competition Agency greenlighted state support of 4.2 billion kuna and so far about two billion kuna have been used.
Polancec said the most important issues to be solved by the restructuring programmes were the stock capital in light of the fact that those shipyards's debts are higher than their original stock capital, dilemmas about the ownership of coastal land where those shipyards are situated and the boundary-lines of those areas.
The stock capital of the five shipyards is 1.6 billion kuna with undistributed profits coming to 3.5 billion kuna. The figures were compiled according to the situation concluded on 30 September last year. The losses were estimated at nine billion kuna plus short-term and long-term loans totalling some 8.5 billion kuna.
Some basic measures in the restructuring are privatising nonbasic activities, reducing the number of employees, enhancing productivity and ensuring the building of state-of-the-art ships.
The shipbuilding industry in Croatia employs more than 11,000 people and has more than 5,000 sub-contractors.
Its export is likely to go over 7.3 billion dollars from 2007 to 2012 according to the number of commissioned ships. Croatian shipyards make up 1.3 percent of the global market and commissions.