VASIĆ: Novi Sad Trade Fair to become property of state soon

The Novi Sad Trade Fair may soon be majority owned by the state if the authorized ministries and the Government of Serbia give positive opinion about that - the CEO of the Trade Fair, Goran Vasić, said today (September 8th, 2009).

Vasić said at the press conference that the Directorate for Property had given consent the day before for the state to become the owner of 42% of public capital of the Novi Sad Trade Fair.

- That document has been forwarded to the republic ministries of economy, finance, and trade, and I expect the Government of Serbia to make the decision that the Novi Sad Trade Fair should become a property of the state - said Vasić.

According to his words, that would be a "very good decision of the state" because the Novi Sad Trade Fair would be transformed according to the model of German trade fairs.

In mid-March 2009, the Ministry of Economy of Serbia accepted the initiative of the Executive Council of Vojvodina that the Novi Sad Trade Fair be excluded from the privatization process due to exceptional regional importance and preservation of the reputation of the regional brand of Vojvodina.

Before that, in December 2005, the Ministry of Economy and Privatization launched the initiative for privatization of the Novi Sad Trade Fair, and the decision was made in May 2006 that the public capital of the trade fair should be sold on the tender.

Public capital of the Novi Sad Trade Fair amounts to 42.3% of stocks, juristic persons own 46.1%, while 11.6% of stocks are in the possession of citizens.

The Novi Sad Trade Fair was founded in 1956, and it currently has 146 employees.