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14.11.2016 10:18

Germany Mulls Privatisation Plan for Its Autobahns

According to Spiegel, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble cited the partial privatizations of the national telecommunications company Telekom and the German post office in the 1990s as successful examples for this sort of reform

AUTHOR: publics.bg

© Euro Slice, flickr.com

According to a report in the news magazine Der Spiegel, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, of the conservative CDU, has proposed giving private investors up to a 49.9-percent share in a company that will be responsible for construction and maintenance of the Autobahn.

In October, federal and local representatives agreed that the national government should form a company to take over responsibility for Germany's highway system, which up until now has rested with Germany's 16 federal states. In a top-secret piece of draft legislation obtained by Spiegel, Schäuble has put forward a change to the German constitution to allow the possibility creating a public-private Autobahn partnership.

According to Spiegel, Schäuble cited the partial privatizations of the national telecommunications company Telekom and the German post office in the 1990s as successful examples for this sort of reform. He also argued that it would save money and provide banks and insurance companies with a much needed investment opportunity at a time of miniscule interest rates, Deutsche Welle wrote.