Croatia moves to privatize shipyards

Croatia's government decided on Saturday to move forward with privatisation of its ailing shipyards, part of reforms required by the European Union, which the country hopes to join by 2011. An international call for tenders will be launched for five struggling shipyards, while the decision on the only solvent one -- Uljanik in the northern Adriatic town of Rijeka -- will be made by the end of the month, Vice Prime Minister Damir Polancec said.
"We are selling a complete state-owned stake at an initial price of one kuna (0.13 euros, 0.19 dollars)" for four of the shipyards, Polancec said.
The fifth one -- Brodosplit BSO in the central coastal of Split -- will be offered for 18.16 million kunas (2.4 million euros, 3.4 million dollars).
The restructuring of the shipyards was sought by Brussels as part of EU membership talks with Zagreb.
A deal over the issue reached with the European Commission last month could pave the way for the opening of EU talks on competition policy, one of the toughest of 35 policy subjects that have to be completed before membership.
However, Croatia's EU talks have been blocked since last December by neighbouring Slovenia over a long-standing border row between the two former Yugoslav republics.
Croatia's large state-owned shipyards employ around 11,500 people while shipbuilding accounts for around 15 percent of Croatia's exports.
Experts say they all need radical overhauls, warning they are technologically inferior to global rivals and suffer from low productivity, overstaffing and outdated management.