VOJKOVIC:NUMBER OF STATE-OWNED FIRMS FALLS BY 30 PERCENT

ZAGREB, May 25 (Hina) - The number of state-owned companies has dropped by 30 percent for one year. Thus, in May last year, the number of such firms came to 1,850 and it fell to 1,297 earlier this May, said the Croatian Privatisation Fund's head, Hrvoje Vojkovic, at a news conference on Friday. Vojkovic said that of 337 companies the shares of which were offered at public auction, shares of 243 had been sold. This secured 64.6 million kuna. He added that three models of privatisation - public auction, the tender for offers and the allocation of shares free of charges - produced the revenue of 180 million kuna in the first five months this year. As regards the remaining 1,297 companies the shares of which are in the state-owned portfolio, some 1,000 of them should be privatised by the end of 2001, Vojkovic said. Asked about the government's decision to help rehabilitate "Vjesnik" publishing house and daily, Vojkovic said the Fund had not been included in making such a decision nor was it consulted, and the government followed conclusions it had made last year about the policy for restructuring dailies "Vjesnik" and "Slobodna Dalmacija." (hina) ms