If the Ministry for State Property realises just ten percent of all the potential in unused state-owned property scattered around the country over the next three to four years, it might add billions to budget revenues, the Minister for State Property, Goran Maric, said in Parliament on Thursday, presenting a bill on the management of state assets.

The presented bill aims to protect and activate unused state-owned assets, and its implementation will have a positive impact on raising employment levels and GDP growth, Maric added.

Dormant state-owned property, according to MP Branko Bacic, currently includes no less than 330 abandoned army barracks, 3,470 plots of land of various sizes, 3,860 business and office spaces, 80 campsites, in addition to thousands of apartments and garages.

The potential of putting state-owned campsites to use is particularly promising, Maric told MPs. He said the 100-square-metre Uvala Slana campsite in the coastal town of Selce had been rented out for four summer months, bringing in 2.2 million kuna (€300,000) into the budget.

“If that price was applied to all the state-owned campsites in Croatia, the revenue would total 330 million kuna (€44.7 million), far more than 23 million (€3 million) as it is today,” he said, adding that the price of rent for Uvala Slana was arranged by the Ministry for State Property.

The bill was endorsed by MPs from both the ruling coalition and the opposition parties. Several opposition MPs also called for some of the unused state properties to be handed to local governments.

(€1 = 7.38 kuna)

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