Montenegro - Media Review – December 15

VIJESTI

- Finance Minister Igor Luksic said comments on the country’s 2010 budget daft by the International Monetary Fund could be expected in the middle of January when an IMF misssion will visit Montenegro. The draft projects a budget deficit of 135 million euro, or 4.5% of GDP, and contains an option of borrowing from the IMF.

RTCG

- The parliament will start today a debate on Montenegro’s 2010 draft budget, which is projected at 1.4 billion euro, 100 million euro below the latst revised version for 2009. The draft assumes economic growth of 0.5% next year. The government plans to borrow 200 million euro from international financial institutions to cover budget deficit and repay debt.

- The government said it has secured 5.0 million euro for the social programme of the workers of aluminium smelter KAP and adjacent bauxite mines Rudnici Boksita. The money is part of a larger fund the two companies need to secure for their workers.

- Economy Minister Branko Vujuvic said 531 million euro will enter the Montenegrin economy during the construction of hydropower plants on the Moraca river, which will increase households’ incomes and trigger the development of more than 40 business activities connected to the construction. The government has said it will open a prequalification tender for the Moraca hydropower plants by the end of 2010.

- Austria’s Porr will soon invest some 25 million euro in the construction of several tunnels and road stretches in Montenegro, local daily Pobjeda reported.

($=0.6875 euro)