ZAGREB, Jan 10 (Hina) - Representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) led by the parties' presidents, Ivica Racan and Zlatko Tomcic, on Friday discussed the further course of privatisation in
Croatia and state property management.
ZAGREB, Jan 10 (Hina) - Representatives of the Social Democratic
Party (SDP) and Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) led by the parties'
presidents, Ivica Racan and Zlatko Tomcic, on Friday discussed the
further course of privatisation in Croatia and state property
management. #L#
SDP chief Racan reported that a decision on privatising the Suncani
Hvar hotel company would be made at one of the next two government
sessions.
"We are aware that this is a delicate situation, which is why we will
carefully weigh the 'plusses and minuses' for each decision, and
then make a final decision. We want to talk to all participants in
the privatisation of Suncani Hvar and hear out their arguments,"
Racan told reporters after the meeting.
He said the meeting also focused on ways to enable a quicker
development of the country, and wider inter-party relations.
The meeting proved that there are no significant differences in the
two parties' stances towards the concept of privatisation, but "it
is necessary to find a way to break the resistance in the
privatisation process", and find a solution for more efficient
state property management.
Racan said that the concrete example of this was the privatisation
of Suncani Hvar.
Had there been no various forms of resistance to the company's
restructuring, a public tender would have been issued to privatise
not the entire hotel company, but several smaller company units,
which would have been privatised individually.
Racan announced a meeting for Monday of the participants in the
process of privatisation of the Suncani Hvar company before the
government makes a decision on a suggestion by the Croatian
Privatisation Fund on the sale of the company.
He said that at today's meeting, the SDP and HSS had not assumed the
role of the five-party ruling coalition. Today's conclusions will
be discussed at a meeting of coalition party leaders on Monday, he
added.
At this meeting, Racan said, the party leaders should define joint
stances regarding privatisation and further steps, including those
in connection to Suncani Hvar. The officials will also tackle
issues pertaining to the labour legislature and other issues.
HSS president Zlatko Tomcic described the meeting as successful and
very necessary.
"Today we discussed how to place the privatisation process and
state property to a higher level in the function of developing the
Croatian economy. We have agreed that there are still unused
capacities (...) and that we should try to use this for the purpose
of raising the Gross Domestic Product and developing
entreprenneurship," said Tomcic.
He said his party had acquainted the SDP with a project of
reorganisation of the current Croatian Privatisation Fund into a
fund for managing state property, which would be presented to other
parties of the coalition.
The new fund's task would be to manage stock and ownership shares of
the state from the portfolio of the Croatian Privatisation Fund,
and manage all state property which local self-government units and
state administration units had not been using, Tomcic said.
This is a very complex job, since the registers on the state
property are in disorder, he said.
The representatives of the two parties also reached an agreement
that a special agency for debts to the state be established within a
month in line with the Law on Bankruptcy, the HSS president said.
He added that the realisation of the two above projects could
facilitate the possibility of foreign and domestic businessmen
entering Croatia's economy in a more transparent manner.
(hina) lml ms