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http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/apr02/hed4895.shtml Associated Press, April 17, 2002 U.N. presents draft law on privatization to Kosovo's government By GARENTINA KRAJA PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - A top U.N. official on Wednesday presented the local government with a draft law expected to begin the process of privatization in this war-shattered province. The draft law, intended to improve the province�s economy by introducing market reforms, envisages the creation of a so-called Kosovo Trust Agency which would administer the sell-off of state enterprises to private investors. The top U.N. official in Kosovo, Michael Steiner, called the regulation "the first step" on Kosovo�s path to economic reform. Handing the document to Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo�s prime minister, Steiner said, however, that the law "will not produce wonders." Steiner said it is meant to attract investment which should help the economy in the middle and long term. Rexhepi praised the draft law as "an impulse" for economic development and the rebuilding of Kosovo. Authorities here hope that privatization will help tackle the 65 percent unemployment rate of the province�s 2 million inhabitants and revive an economy dependent mostly on foreign aid. The regulation grants the trust agency the authority to administer hundreds of enterprises in the province. Most of them were formerly the property of socialist Yugoslavia. The draft law is to be taken up next by the province�s government, which should then hand it over to the parliament for enactment. It was not immediately clear whether the assembly, which was elected in November, would enact the draft law unchanged. Kosovo is legally part of Yugoslavia, but has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when a NATO air war ended former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic�s crackdown on the province�s ethnic Albanians. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
