Weekly Review of the Slovene Economy from 21 to 27 April

Ljubljana, 29 April - The government decided on 26 April to supply additional assets which are to be handed over to authorised investment companies in an attempt to fill the privatisation gap. In line with the decision, various state assets are to be given to the authorised investment companies in order to cover some SIT 35.4 billion (EUR 164 million) of the privatisation gap. Following the handover, the privatisation gap is to be reduced from SIT 84.4 billion (EUR 392 million) to SIT 49 billion (EUR 227 million), explained State Secretary at the Economics Ministry Edo Pirkmajer. He added that the Economics Ministry had proposed that an additional SIT 8 billion (EUR 37.5 million) should be given to the authorised investment companies in the first package. The additional amount would have come from the privatisation of hydro-electric power plants, however, the government decided to withhold such privatisation of the hydro-electric plants. Pirkmajer added that next package aimed at filling the privatisation gap, valued at some SIT 20 to 25 billion, should be prepared by June.

The Supreme Court on 26 April ruled in favour of the dismissed former director of Slovenia's electricity distributor, ELES, Vitoslav Tuerk, by ruling that the Slovene government's decision to dismisses him is null and void, STA was told by the former Economics Minister, Joze Zagozen. Tuerk was appointed to the post last September by the Andrej Bajuk-led government. The new Slovene government led by Janez Drnovsek dismissed him in January of this year. The government has 15 days to appeal the decision.