Out of nearly 500 public enterprises with over 200,000 employees, a total of 198 ended 2012 with a loss that makes up four fifths of all losses in the Serbian economy.
According to the latest analysis of the Agency for Business Registers, the public enterprises which recorded a loss in 2012 accounted for 87 percent of the total losses in the Serbian economy worth RSD 63 billion.
The losses of public enterprises in 2012 increased seven times relative to 2011 and experts warn that a sudden increase of government guarantees for public enterprises has been recorded over the past few years.
The value of guarantees issued to public enterprises totalled over EUR 1,7 billion in late 2011.
Public enterprises and other companies funded by the government have been the biggest source of losses in the local economy for years now, stated Dragoljub Rajic of the Union of Employers of Serbia which represents small and mid-size companies.
In a statement for Tanjug, Rajic stated that despite the monopoly position of public enterprises, 45 percent of their market value has been 'eaten away' over the past ten years due to inexpert management and amassed losses.
Professor Ljubodrag Savic of the Belgrade Faculty of Economics does not believe in the Union's assessments and thinks they are exaggerated.
Savic agreed that good and integral reform of public enterprises is needed immediately.
It also has to taken into account that public enterprises are most often the victims of economic and social policy which wants to protect citizens' living standards by low and non-market prices of electricity or gas and this directly forces public enterprises to losses, Savic told Tanjug.
The government should adopt a series of measures for overcoming the current economic crisis by the end of the week, and one of the most important decisions should also affect the status of public enterprises and the employees' position in the companies.
Source: tanjug.rs
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