HVAR MAYOR DISSATISFIED WITH DECISION ON SALE OF HOTEL COMPANY

HVAR, Jan 23 (Hina) - The government's decision to sell the "Suncani Hvar" hotel company to the best bidder, Slovenia's Terme Catez, has caused consternation among the residents of Hvar, the mayor of the central Dalmatian island, Zoran Domancic, said shortly after the government announced its decision on Thursday. #L# "We deeply regret the fact that the government did not accept solid arguments provided by the bodies of local self-government, Suncani Hvar employees and myself as the mayor", Domancic said. The mayor believes that the final decision could have been different had there been enough good faith on the government's part. "We are not against privatisation, quite the contrary. The government did not accept our proposal that bodies of local self- government be the owner of 25% of Suncani Hvar shares and that privatisation be carried out gradually. The government refused the proposals and it probably had good reasons for doing so, but we were not told what they were," Domancic said. The government today decided to sell 62.3% of the Hvar hotel company for 74.5 million kuna to Slovenia's Terme Catez hotel company. (hina) rml sb