Eugen Dijmarescu head of the Economic Policy Department (DPE) has presented to the IMF and WB officials, in Washington, the extent to which the National Oil Company (SNP) Petrom and the two electricity distribution units have been privatised.

Dijmarescu explained the risks that State-owned institutions were exposed to: "We had a frank discussion, illustrating that the current economic situation in Europe and North America points to a lower interest in the privatisation or acquisition of companies by corporations or concerns in EU or US, and in certain cases, such as Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), institutions with state capital might bid for some of them," declared Eugen Dijmarescu.

Out of the five letters of intent, which were filed for the two Electrica subsidiaries Banat and Dobrogea, Enel is 68% controlled by the Italian State and the Public Power Corporation is 84% owned by the Hellenic State.

"It may be possible to reconsider the privatisation agenda for these companies, if international financial institutions or the European Commission said that we couldn't sell the stocks to state-shared capital entities. However, we have to take into consideration the fact that deadlines set out in the PSAL II Program, agreed with the WB may not be observed, due to the lack of other offers. I understood that, for well-grounded reasons, such as in the BCR case, the financial institutions are flexible," said Dijmarescu.

(NewsBase 21.iii.03)