"The list of 3,000 state-run enterprises to go private under the government's mass privatization plan will be published in the next few days and end-June 1995 is the deadline for this drive," a government press official said.
Earlier this month, the government unveiled a mass privatization program under which Romanians will be allowed to swap pre-shares vouchers, doled out in 1992, and new privatization coupons, yet to be distributed, for a 60 percent stake in 3,000 state companies.
The agencies managing Romania's privatization program handpicked the 3,000 enterprises, with profitability as a major criterion.
The scheme is subject to approval by parliament when it reconvenes after the summer recess in September. Last week, it came under sharp attack from local economists and opposition politicians who said it would only block economic reforms.
"I couldn't find any positive elements in the new privatization program," Viorel Salagean, editor-in-chief of the business weekly Adevarul Economic wrote.
"Instead of accelerating privatization, the new program will block it completely by creating chaos and uncertainty," Salagean said.
Opposition politician Varujan Vosganian told the business weekly Capital the new plan was a "game of privatization," which smacked of populism and was marked by disdain for market economy.
This was a reference to claims by Prime Minister Nicoale Vacaroiu that the new coupons would repair "social injustice" caused by profiteers who laid their hands on a large number of 1992 pre-share vouchers -- put by the premier and President Ion Iliescu at six million -- which they had bought from the needy. Vacaroiu heads a minority left-wing government.
But the World Bank welcomed the government's mass privatization program, while still acknowledging its intricate nature.
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