Montenegro Plans Major State Sell-offs in 2015

Montenegro's Council for Privatisation, chaired by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, on Monday unveiled an ambitious privatisation plan for 2015, aiming to attract more foreign investment.

The government plans to sell 100 per cent of the national air carrier Montenegro Airlines, the tobacco plant in the capital, Podgorica, and two hotel companies in the towns of Ulcinj and Budva, which own several hotels on the Adriatic coast.

According to the plan, the government will also try to find buyers for the two military companies that make and sell weapons, Poliex and the Montenegro Defence Industry, as well as the National Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy.

The ministers propose a public-private partnership with the aim of finding the future soultion for the commercial use of the island of Lastavica in Boka bay, which contains the Mamula fort, which dates from Austro-Hungarian times.

After four unsuccessful tenders in 2014, the government is determined also to get rid of deeply troubled shipyard in the town of Bijela, which no foreign or domestic investors showed much interest in so far.

The Privatization Council said attempts to sell the company's shares was a waste of time.

"It is proposed that through programmed bankruptcy, a sale of the company's assets should be allowed, also enabling conversion of the shipyards into a new capacity for the repair of megayachts, for which some respectable investors expressed interest," the cabinet said.