|
|
Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news and information from publics.bg
News
World news
21.01.2014 15:24
© Guillermo Cárcamo@flickr.com
Honduras' Congress on Monday approved a breakup of the country's state-controlled electricity producer, allowing private interests to invest in the semi-shuttered industry in an effort to stem the company's losses and revitalize the ailing sector.
ENEE, as the company is known, currently generates electricity and also buys from independent producers. But the state-subsidized firm has faced losses of roughly USD 200 million a year, preventing it from investing in new projects, Reuters reported.
"This legislation allows the participation of private actors in all of the electricity market to drive investment in the sector and respond to the demand for electricity that is key to the development of this country," Emil Hawit, ENEE's director, told reporters.
Under the terms of the legislation, backed by 95 of the country's 128 lawmakers, ENEE will be broken into three separate companies - for generation, transmission and distribution - which will be open to private investors.
It was not immediately clear how much would be opened up, but the government would maintain a minority stake. The breakup must occur by July 1, 2015, at the latest, under the legislation.
Preliminary figures showed Honduras ended 2013 with a fiscal deficit of nearly 8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), and many analysts had expected the government to partly privatize the loss-making ENEE to help close that gap.
All world news
Interview 
Full text
Events 
