PM calls for international intervention in sale of Telekom Srpske

Bosnian Prime Minister Adnan Terzic has called for foreign intervention in the planned privatisation of Telekom Srpske, according to AFX news. Telekom is the incumbent operator in the predominantly Serbian region of Republika Srpska (RS), situated in the north and east of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Since the end of the civil war in 1995, the RS has been independently governed from the rest of country, which is controlled by the Muslim-Croat Federation. Both federations operate beneath the Council of Ministers, of which Prime Minister Terzic is head.

Earlier this month the RS government initiated a tender to sell 65% of Telekom, with the closing date for bids set for 4 October. However, Terzic objects to the RS selling the operator independently from the rest of the country, and has demanded that the central government be allowed to manage the privatisation of the operator, along with that of Bosnia’s two other public telecoms companies, BH Telekom and HT Mostar, which are expected to be offered for sale before the end of the year. Terzic says that proceeds from the sales of all three operators should be shared between the country as a whole.

‘I am convinced that, no matter how much the privatisation of telecommunications operators is necessary, in these conditions it will not bring expected benefits to all citizens of Bosnia,’ Terzic wrote in a letter to Christian Schwarz-Schilling, the High Representative in Bosnia & Herzegovina, who represents the international community through the United Nations and is also the European Union’s Special Representative in the country. He has since asked Schwarz-Schilling to put pressure on the RS government to hand over responsibility of the sale to the Council of Ministers.