"12 public companies subject of talks with IMF"

"12 public companies subject of talks with IMF"

BELGRADE -- Finance Minister Dušan Vujović has said that Serbia is discussing with the IMF a program that for the first time includes 12 public companies.

"All criteria will be set that will have to be adhered to, one of them being salary cuts," he said of the companies in question.

"Some of these are Telekom, Serbian Railways, EMS, EPS, Post of Serbia, Roads of Serbia, Srbijavode," Vujović said in a live broadcast on Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS).

He noted that there are various solutions for each and every of these companies, and that Serbia has to consider the world's best experiences.

"For some, the solution will be a privatization or partial privatization, and Telekom is a candidate for that. For others, it will just be the issue of a legal or management reorganization. For some, the solution is a concession," he explained.

Vujović said that estimates are that Telekom needs a strategic partner or to be sold, while the Electric Power Industry (EPS) should not be privatized in parts, but rather attract foreign investors that would engage in the recapitalization.

Official talks between a delegation of Serbia, led by National Bank (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković and Vujović, and of the IMF, led by Zuzana Murgasova, started at the NBS on Tuesday.

The topics include ways of reaching a sustainable level of public debt, monetary policy, financial sector, structural reforms, labor market reforms, employment in the public sector, restructuring of government companies and Serbia's macroeconomic future, according to a release from the NBS.

The IMF delegation will stay in Belgrade until November 20.