August 7 (SeeNews) - Chinese investors have expressed interest in the privatisation of Serbian mining company Resavica, its director said.
"Chinese investors have held talks with the government, they have come to us and visited our locations," Marko Vukovic said in a video file published by public broadcaster RTS on Tuesday.
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Resavica is in talks with the Serbian government and a Czech bank for a 10 million euro ($11.2 million) commodity loan to improve the safety of its employees, Vukovic added.
In 2015, Resavica started talks with Czech Export Bank for a loan to be invested in equipment, which will serve to open the Cirikovac and Stavalj coal deposits.
"Stavalj is the largest deposit of Resavica. We are in talks with the Czechs and expect to open it this year," Vukovic noted.
Resavica signed an agreement with Slovenian partners five days ago to receive two machines for room-and-pillar mining and both will be operating by 2020, he added.
In November 2016, the International Monetary Fund recommended to Serbia to take decisive action to end the drain on public resources by large utility companies and other state-owned enterprises, calling for clear plans for the resolution or restructuring of a number of companies, including Resavica.
($ = 0.892666 euro)