BUCHAREST -- Romania will publish a list of 3,000 enterprises next month to go private under a mass privatization scheme, an official has said.


"The National Privatization Agency, the State Ownership Fund and the Private Ownership Fund will draft the list by next week and it will be published early in August," NPA President Iacob Zelenco said.


Most of the 3,000 companies are in trade, tourism, services and food industries and all of them were selected on profitability criteria, Zelenco said.


"Shares in the 3,000 companies can be bought for ownership vouchers and privatization coupons," he said.


Pre-share vouchers, which can be sold for cash or swapped for shares in units going private, were distributed to more than 15.5 million Romanians in 1992.


In a new pre-privatization step announced this month, Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu plans to give Romanians "nominal privatization coupons" in addition to the previous vouchers.


He says the new coupons, with an estimated value of 1.5 million lei ($900) each, are necessary because the earlier vouchers had been traded uncontrolled on the black market.