The Cyprus parliament has approved a slightly amended privatisation bill, meeting a condition set by international creditors for the disbursement of fresh aid to the island.
"Apart from being an obligation, the privatisation programme is an opportunity to attract investment, to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness…of the economy", Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said after the vote.
The privatisation of the state-owned telecommunications, electricity and ports authorities is expected to raise some €1.4 billion and is seen as a condition for the disbursement of the next €156 million aid tranche of the country's €10 billion bailout package. Inspectors from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank had reiterated that the next tranche payment for Cyprus would be off the agenda of the next meeting of eurozone finance ministers unless the privatisation bill was passed. It is now expected that the payment will be approved.
Mr Georgiades said that the bill represented the best that Cyprus could secure, while a senior troika official told The Wall Street Journal that the bill had been negotiated "line-by-line".
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