GOVERNMENT FORMALLY GRANTS PRIVATISATION OF CROATIA INSURANCE CO.

ZAGREB, Jan 17 (Hina) - At Thursday's session the government formally granted the beginning of the privatisation of the Croatia Insurance company. The government made the decision to grant preliminary bid documents in the privatisation process, based on which bids for interest will be issued for the sale of 51% of the company's shares. The tender will be issued within a week in Zagreb's daily Vjesnik and the international issue of the Financial Times. Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac claimed that there was already great interest for the Croatia Insurance company, that the company had achieved big progress in the past year, and that the new management and supervisory committee had strategically strengthened its position on the Croatian market. Vice-Premier Slavko Linic dismissed claims that the government was selling Croatian property through privatisation. Croatia Insurance will always be a domestic company, we will only see whether it has a good owner, he said. The government today withdrew its request to the Constitutional Court to assess whether 13 provisions of the Istria County Statute were in line with the Constitution. The county's Assembly had amended all disputed items and harmonised them with the Constitution. Croatia granted the Croatian Olympic Committee for million kuna from the budgetary reserves to cover a part of the costs of preparations and participation of 11 Croatian athletes at the Winter Olympic Games from February 8 to 24 in Salt Lake City. (hina) lml sb