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Elections Pave Way for Kosovo Privatisations
Pristina | 26 November 2009 | By Lavdim Hamidi
Elections in Kosovo's Serb-majority municipalities have opened the opportunity for further privatisation of state-owned assets, with most eyes fixed on the future of the Brezovica ski resort. Kosovo's Privatisation Agency has told Balkan Insight that it plans to press ahead with the sale of the important tourist centre next year.
After almost seven years of delays and false starts, Kosovo Privatisation Agency, KPA, looks set to embark on the sale of major state-owned enterprises in Serb settlements.
The process has been stalled until now because Kosovo Serbs have refused to work with the authorities in Prishtina and have boycotted state institutions. But, with the creation of new municipalities and a relatively high turnout of Kosovo Serbs in local elections this month, the KPA now hopes to unblock the privatisation process.
Shkumbin Bicaj, KPA’s deputy manager, told Balkan Insight that 50 state-owned enterprises in Serb areas are scheduled to be privatised, compared to the 500 which have already been sold in other parts of the country. He added that a small number of state-owned enterprises have already been sold in Serb settlements.
“Some shops found in the north of Kosovo, which is mainly inhabited by Serbs, have been privatised, while their buyers have been Serbs and Albanians,” said Bicaj.
The most important enterprises up for privatisation are in the municipality of Strpce, where foreign investors are expected to be interested in the ski centre at Brezovica, which has the potential to become one of the top destinations for snow-seekers in the Balkans.
Bicaj has said that the privatisation of the ski centre, located about 60 kilometers from the Kosovo capital, Pristina, will happen in 2010.
He said the plan included the sale of three major hotels – Narcis, Molika and Breza – and the ski lifts.
The ski centre is scheduled to be privatised after an extensive, international marketing campaign and a conference to gather all major international companies together.
The KPA was planning to start with the sale of assets at Brezovica in December, with the privatisation of some restaurants on the outskirts of the ski centre.
These included Kasollja restaurant and small huts and a café in the town of Strpce. But these have temporarily been put on hold, following a meeting of the KPA’s board this week.
Haxhi Arifi, a member of KPA’s board of directors and chairman of the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo, said it was a good step that privatisation was beginning in Serb areas.
Alban Hashani, senior analyst at the economic think-tank Riinvest Institute, said the threat of privatisation had meant that the current operators, Brezovica INEX, had not maintained the infrastructure, which has impacted on the value of the asset.
He said the former Kosovo Trust Agency, which became the Kosovo Privatisation Agency, has maintained the status quo to keep relative calm among Serbs in Strpce.
But, according to Hashani, not all Serbs have been against privatisation of the ski centre. He said the biggest objectors have been Brezovica INEX, which, he said, has profited from running the ski centre without paying taxes into Kosovo’s budget.
“They have so far not paid any tax to the Kosovo budget, and until recently they have not paid electricity either, and have therefore opposed the privatisation of Brezovica,” Hashani said.
