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AFP. 25 September 2002. Economic reform divides Serbian presidential candidates. BELGRADE -- The pace of economic reform in Serbia since the ouster of war-time leader Slobodan Milosevic two years ago is dividing the republic's electorate ahead of Sunday's presidential polls. All agree on the desperate need to rebuild the economy, which was crushed by sanctions and international isolation as the Yugoslav federation collapsed in the bloody independence wars of the 1990s. But the question of how quickly the main Yugoslav republic should embrace the open market has exposed key differences between the two main presidential candidates -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus. Neither wants to share the blame for the broken promises of two years ago, when the end of the Milosevic era raised huge expectations that Serbia would at last regain its position as the economic engine room of the Balkans. Instead the economy has drifted aimlessly, average monthly wages have stagnated at around 150 euros (dollars) a month -- among the lowest in Europe -- and foreign investors have been reluctant to commit. Labus has proposed the kind of shock therapy prescribed by financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), involving rapid privatisation of state-run assets to kick-start the economy with direct foreign investment. But the privatisation ministry, which aims to sell some 7,000 public enterprises over the next five years and, in effect, rebuild Serbia's private sector from scratch, admits that some 400,000 workers will have to be "retrained" in the process. For Kustunica, the social price is too high in a country of some 10 million people that is still reeling from the turmoil of the past decade. "I think we should accommodate them (international financial instututions), but not in the way that the people should start starving," he told AFP in an interview. "I think there is more space to manoeuvre in that respect, bearing in mind how people live. All around us you have graveyards of governments who got excellent marks from the IMF." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu 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 ==^================================================================
