FBiH Government: No privatization of telecom operators

FBiH Prime Minister Fadil Novalić informed the Federal Government at today's 138th session in Sarajevo about the activities related to the deep analysis of telecom operators, aiming to assess the business potential of these companies, and to provide the Government, as their majority owner, with quality information for decision-making.

The timeline for conducting the deep analysis envisages that the report will be submitted to the FBiH Government by the end of September 2018.

The project task stipulates that the report should propose recommendations for improving business operations, which may include various options - from restructuring, improving productivity, improving corporate governance, etc.

Today, at the Government session, the Privatization Agency's Plan and Work Program for 2018 was also adopted, which does not envisage the privatization of telecoms in 2018. Information that appeared in the media regarding the deep analysis as the exclusive instrument for selling telecoms is, therefore, purely speculative, it was stated at the Federal Government session.

In order for any company to be privatized, legal and formal prerequisites must exist, and the first and most basic is that such privatization is foreseen in the Privatization Plan, which is definitely not the case for telecoms.