Two ministers comment on public sector investment projects

Ten public sector investment projects, the implementation of which is beginning in this year's first quarter, are worth some HRK 5.5 billion and the their financing or a model of how to finance each of those projects has been defined, Finance Minister Martina Dalic and the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of investments, Domagoj Ivan Milosevic, told a news briefing in Zagreb on Friday.
 

Milosevic said that the investment projects which would be soon launched would engage eight companies -- the HEP power company, the Janaf oil pipeline operator, the HZ railway company, the seaports of Rijeka, Sibenik and Dubrovnik, the Hrvatske Vode water management company, and the Zagreb Airport.

He believes that the implementation of those projects could create jobs for 3-4 thousand workers.

Milosevic estimates that the value of the announced private sector investments can be put at more than EUR 10 billion.

Minister Dalic said that her ministry would enhance a system for improving financing stimulation for enterprisers in cooperation with the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR), and also announced changes in bail-out measures for enterprisers which the government introduced last year.

She said the finance ministry would work on raising the budget revenues through a rise in revenues from privatisation and through a more vigorous capital market resulting from a planned increase in the offer of high-quality shares on the stock exchange, alongside the stepped-up participation by Croatian nationals in Croatian companies' ownership structure.

Dalic said that it was too early to reveal today which companies might be involved and when those plans would be carried out.

Those are sensitive things market-wise which should be elaborated in detail, the new finance minister said, expressing hope that a part of those plans could be carried out this year.

She recalled that the state budget would need slightly less than HRK 28 billion this year to cover the budget deficit and to re-finance due debts this year. A half of this amount is to be used to cover the budget gap and another half for re-financing liabilities, according to the minister.