Privatization rolls on

  • 2000-01-13
By Rokas M. Tracevskis

VILNIUS - The Lithuanian left opposition has demanded a stop to
privatization of the country's strategic industries for several
months. However, the ruling center-right forces decisively rejected
such calls and said that privatization will go full speed ahead.

On Jan. 3 Ceslovas Jursenas, leader of Democratic Labor Party (LDDP),
delivered his party's statement which urges the ruling Conservative
and Christian Democratic parties to declare a moratorium on
privatization until the parliamentary elections of the coming fall.

Jursenas said the authorities are ready for a "feverish"sell-off of
the last remaining valuable national property assets. The LDDP
statement says that the main objective of the sell-off is "to use the
amassed funds for patching up the holes in the budget and to coax
voters before parliamentary elections".

LDDP expressed their distrust of current authorities.

"The authorities which have lost people's confidence in them have
neither moral nor political right to adopt decisions which have no
popular support. We must pause, take stock of what has been done so
far and decide what our next step should be,"the LDDP statement reads.

Povilas Gylys, LDDP MP and former foreign minister of Labor
government back in 1992 - 1996, pointed out to social polls the low
popularity ratings of ruling Conservatives and Christian Democrats.
At the same time, he said that LDDP is in favor of privatization, but
this party has no trust in the work of current authorities. Gylys
said that already a portion of the private sector in the Lithuanian
economy is on the average level of the EU's countries and there is no
need to be ahead of the EU.

"We can speak of further privatization but only after the current
ruling parties leave. Authorities, having no trust of people, cannot
privatize,"Gylys said speaking of the famous privatization of
Lithuanian oil complex by American Williams company.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, leader of another left opposition party, Social
Democrats, expressed support for LDDP initiative.

No way, the show must go on, was an answer of Adamkus to the lefts' ideas.

"The president thinks that privatization must be continued,"said
Violeta Gaizauskaite, Adamkus' spokeswoman, "Privatization must be
transparent and public."

Conservative MP Stasys Malkevicius said that left opposition
statements about the moratorium on privatization is much ado about
nothing.

"It is just a sign of coming elections. Privatization will go on.
Private economy is much more effective than state owned
industries,"Malkevicius called LDDP initiative a cheap pre-election
populist trick.

He said that the lefts are afraid that they will not have what it
takes to sell in case they come to power after parliamentary
elections. Malkevicius said that privatization of remaining state
property is the main priority of Conservative Prime Minister Andrius
Kubilius.

Stasys Vaitkevicius, the Lithuanian state property fund director
general, said that the moratorium would have negative international
publicity for Lithuania.

"It is impossible to imagine something worse than a moratorium on
privatization. We need investments. Unemployment levels have already
reached 10 percent. We need to sell everything that is possible to
sell,"said Eduardas Vilkas, chairman of the Privatization Commission.

He said that the privatization of the oil complex by Williams was an
exception because of politicians interference in this process. The
rest of privatization was and will be transparent and public, said
Vilkas.

This year the government plans to sell its state telephone company
Lietuvos Telekomas shares, Zemes Ukio Bank, Lithuanian Shipping
Company, Lithuanian Airlines, Lithuanian Energy, oil production and
exploration company Geonafta and hundreds of smaller state-owned
enterprises.

Vilkas said that Lithuania plans to get 1.5 billion litas ($375
million) for privatization of these items in 2000. About 1 billion
litas is expected from sale of 35 state-owned shares of Lietuvos
Telekomas, the biggest privatization of 2000, said Vilkas. The
remaining shares are already owned by Amber Teleholding AS, a
Swedish and Finnish consortium.

Vaitkevicius is much more skeptical about the price of Lithuanian Airlines.

"To think that we can make good money on the Lithuanian Airlines is
an absolute utopia. The financial situation in the company is not
good,"Vaitkevicius said.

So, privatization will go on full speed. Privatization of the biggest
state-owned bank, Taupomasis, is being considered, said its
spokesmen. The government has also indicated that a decision on the
privatization of gas company Lietuvos Dujos will be announced soon.

The most popular political party in opinion polls, Liberal Union, has
declared a disassociation from the LDDP initiative to delay
privatization.