INTERVIEW-Serbia Democrats would spur privatisation efforts

By Simon Shuster

KIEV, May 18 (Reuters) - Serbia will speed privatisation in the next three years to fund infrastructure spending if the Democratic Party manages to form the country's next government, former deputy prime minister Bozidar Djelic said on Sunday.

"In energy, we will have tenders for two (power) plants, each one with 700 (megawatts), plus one that is 400 (megawatts) in hydro," said Djelic, whose Democratic Party narrowly beat ultranationalists in elections earlier this month.

Democrats are in talks to form a coalition government after the inconclusive general election that gave Djelic's party 39 percent of the vote, but left it well short of an absolute majority in the 250-seat parliament.

Djelic, mapping out the economic agenda a Democrat-led government would pursue, said sales of stakes in state-owned firms had made investors of half the Serbian population.

He said there would be a push for privatisations in key industries, including agriculture, telecoms, real estate, shipping and energy.

"We have created a pressure group of 4 million people, which is half the population of Serbia, which will lead us into opening the equity of those companies over the next three years," Djelic told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

"The first one on the block will be most likely in the first quarter of 2009 -- the telecoms service. So it's going to be the first big IPO."

"We will also have a tender for a cargo center in Belgrade," he said.