PM: Government resolved to privatize Telekom

PM: Government resolved to privatize Telekom

LONDON -- Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said that the Serbian government is resolved to privatize the public telecommunications company Telekom Serbia.

As for the public company Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS), the government is "ready to sell a minority package of shares."

"We are currently looking for an investment partner for Telekom, and are then going to announce a public and transparent tender, and resolve the issue of Telekom," Vučić told the blog of the London School of Economics.

The prime minister said that he does not think that the EPS must be sold, and that it is quite certain that the state will not sell out the majority package of shares, but is looking for an investor interested in the minority package, as a strategic partner.

Asked whether it will be possible for off-shore companies, registered in places where its owners are not easy to check, to take part in the bidding procedure, Vučić said that this depends on the conditions of the tender, but that he thinks that the privatization council, together with the Telekom Srbija management, will set up the most suitable conditions.

"This tender will be transparent and open for anyone who will be able to offer the best deal," Vučić said, underlining that he guarantees for transparency of privatization tenders.

Vučić said that economic measures are the single most important condition for Serbia's EU entry, and that as a country and people "we are not asking for mercy, but want to contribute to the European economy in the most serious way."

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