Business: Croatian shops are expected to extend summer work hours

22/08/2008

Retailers are expected to stay open till midnight in Croatia. Also in business news this week: Turkey's administrative court suspends the privatisation of several highways and bridges, and vehicle sales in Romania rose by 2.3%.

Shops in Croatia may stay open later during the summer. [File]

The Croatian government plans to implement the extension of retail stores' business hours until midnight during the tourist season, government spokesman Zlatko Mehun said on Monday (August 18th). Zagreb announced the planned change after prolonged debates between business and labour and heated parliamentary discussions. However, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, reacting to resistance by trade unions, proposed further dialogue with business and labour leaders on whether to extend store hours.

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Turkey's top administrative court, the Council of State, suspended the privatisation of several highways and bridges on Tuesday (August 19th). The government was preparing to sell nine highways and two bridges by the end of the year to boost privatisation revenues. The court decision delays the privatisation until 2009.

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The Bulgarian agency overseeing competition on Monday (August 18th) cleared the sale of 70% of Maritime Navigation -- the state-owned merchant marine operator -- to Germany's KG Maritime Shipping. The deal is worth 225m euros, and the buyer promised to invest an additional 400m euros over the next ten years and keep the number of employees from falling below 2,360 during that period. Personnel currently numbers 2,851.

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Romania's vehicle sales rose up by 2.3% year on year, reaching 210,750 units from January to July, the Romanian Association of Carmakers and Importers announced on Tuesday (August 19th). In value terms, sales reached 2.2 billion euros and the figure rises to 2.6 billion euros if one includes automotive parts.

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Total governmental and private investment in Serbia's Kragujevac-based Zastava carmaker will reach 1.1 billion euros, Nebojsa Zdravkovic, a member of the governmental team that negotiated the sale of Zastava to Fiat, said on Monday (August 18th). He added that the Serbian government would provide 300m euros of the sum. The two sides agreed on almost all details of the project and will sign the final contract in September.

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The Republika Srpska (RS) government decided to allocate about 102m euros for the development of eastern RS by 2010. In all, 29 municipalities will benefit from financing of agriculture and housing and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Italy's Moncada plans to build a hydropower plant in Albania, the Panorama daily reported on Thursday (August 21st). According to the newspaper, Moncada will build the plant in the Karaburun region of the Kurveles Mountains.

(Various sources – 15/08/08-22/08/08)