Govt transforms claims into stake in national airline carrier

 

The government on Thursday adopted a decision to transform HRK 80 million of its claims into a stake in the capital stock in Croatia Airlines (CA), as a second of three installments to inject fresh capital into the national airline carrier within the company's restructuring programme.

As a result, CA's equity will increased by HRK 79.87 million, representing state claims, to HRK 1.9 billion and Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transportation and Infrastructure Sinisa Hajdas Doncic explained that this was necessary to ensure the airline's survival.

Increasing CA's equity by inputing the state's rights based on claims is in line with restructuring plans which were recently approved by the Croatian Competition Agency.

The government also approved the relevant ministry to conclude a contract with CA and the Trade Air company to conduct domestic air transport and Minister Hajdas Doncic said that the contract were necessary to preserve domestic air transport on routes that were of interest for Croatia.

The government issued a 25 year concession to the Rijeka Port in the Skrljevo and Kukuljanovo municipalities for an area of 337,600 thousand square metres to setup the Rijeka Port - Skrljevo Free Trade Zone.

Enterprise Minister Gordan Maras explained that this should expand the port's capacities and the revenue from the concession, which is estimated at around one million kuna a year, would be shared by half by the Town of Bakar where the said property is located.

The government further adopted a notice of the intention to issue 63,300 square metres of land for a 30-year concession in the Municipality of Tisno on the central Adriatic coast earmarked for the construction of a port for nautical tourism and a tender is to be prepared and advertised by the transport ministry.

The government approved the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding between the European Union and Croatia concerning conditions for Croatia's participation in the Union's programmes for 2013 which obliges Croatia to pay in HRK 111.46 million in order to be eligible to participate in the programmes. Of that amount, HRK 73 million is to be paid from the state budget and the remainder would be covered by EU grants.


(Hina)