Croatian yards to be privatized

Six government-owned shipyards will be sold in Croatia before 2009. The yards in question are Brodosplit in Split, Brodotrogir in Trogir, Kraljevica in Kraljevica, Maj in Rijeka, Uljanik in Pula and Viktor Lenac in Martinscica, near Rijeka. A draft of a tender for the yards was drawn up by the ministry of economy and the privatisation fund.

The trade unions have expressed their concern that privatisation might lead to job losses among the 10,000 employees at the shipyards throughout Croatia. Opposition leader Ljubo Jurcic from the Social Democratic Party warned that privatising the yards could endanger up to 42,000 jobs tied to the industry.