SISAK IRONWORKS REHABILITATED AND READY TO BE PRIVATISED

SISAK, April 11 (Hina) - On 31 March the government completed the rehabilitation of a Croatian leading ironworks in Sisak (some 50 kilometres south-east of Zagreb). The Ivica Racan Cabinet also wrote off the Sisak ironworks' debts worth 160 million kuna (approximately 20 million US dollars), the economy minister, Goranko Fizulic, said in Sisak on Wednesday after his talks with the plant's management and unions' representatives. The next step is to privatise the company and reduce its operating costs, Fizulic said. The government and the economy ministry will try to help the ironworks to obtain power products in line with five new acts which are in the procedure for the adoption. The new laws will make it possible for great consumers of power such as the Sisak ironworks and similar plants to purchase power products at a considerably lower price. In this way, the Sisak ironworks will be able to save up to 30 million kuna ($3.5 million) annually, Fizulic explained. The ironworks' director-general Marijan Belanovic said the plant was now ready to be privatised and that several foreign partners would like to invest in the plant. (hina) ms