PRIVATISATION vs RE-PRIVATISATION

Abstract

Privatization, that is, the transfer of ownership rights from the public to the private sector, is one of the crucial elements of market-oriented
reforms in transition countries. In support of private sector investment in the economy, the Assembly of Kosovo have had adopted a set of
laws, among which the 99 year lease of assets of “socially-owned enterprises” (SOEs). The Privatisation Agency of Kosovo (PAK) as the
successor of the Kosovo Trust Agency is responsible for the privatisation and liquidation of SOEs. One of the challenges that PAK is
facing and which inherited from the predecessor Agency is the unresolved status of “Gjakova Enterprises”. These enterprises are
pretending to be JSCs, arguing to have been transformed/privatised during the nineties with then applicable and non-discriminatory laws.
This way, these companies, known as “Gjakova companies”, since 1999 continuously are rejecting the jurisdiction of the Agency as given
by UNMIK Regulation 2002/12 respectively, by PAK Law No. 03/L-067. Gjakova, once one of the most industrially developed towns in
Kosovo, today the poorest one due to non-operating of SOEs. One of the reasons is said to be unresolved status of SOEs. On the other
hand, the Agency failed to privatise most of them due to tremendous resistance of these companies. Thus, the aim of the paper is to
assess whether the PAK goal to sell them has to do with privatisation or re-privatisation of certain “Gjakova JSCs”. In order to bring a
comprehensible view of the topic, a brief chronology of events and legislation at the time when transformation occurred will be presented,
a research will be conducted, transformation will be reviewed in case by case studies for three Gjakova enterprises.