Siim Kallas: Time to privatize large state infrastructure companies
Former Reform Party and EU politician Siim Kallas said the state should privatize large infrastructure businesses, and use the billions for necessary investments.
“The dividends which would not be reaped would be insignificant compared to the money from the sales and from enlivening the economy,” Kallas told Eesti Ekspress.
He said the companies are driven by political interests and supervisory board members, who should be acting as monitors for taxpayers, become extensions for the company and begin to protect the companies interests in the Parliament, government and other state institutions, and they find journalists and officials who paint a rosy picture of a company, meaning there will no longer be any difficult questions, Kallas said.
“Power stations, ports and airports are all in private hands in all Western nations,” he said, adding that everyone believes they can be trusted on security issues, and that it would be absurd to scare the public with the word “security”, when privatization questions emerge. “Security is guaranteed by laws, rules and actions by concrete institutions,” he added.
Editor: J.M. Laats