Serbian Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric said Monday that all controversial privatizations should be investigated and that he believed the privatization of the Port of Belgrade was a specific case.

Ciric told the Belgrade-based broadcaster RTV B92 he always believed a privatization processes should be completed by concluding whether the privatization had been in line with the law or not.

He said that the privatization processes had been necessary, but that he would not allow an enterprise to be sold on an installment basis to anyone without checking beforehand the origin of the money and the qualifications of the buyer.

Referring to the recommendation of the European Union to inquire into certain privatizations, Ciric said it was indeed problematic that Serbia had come into a situation to have someone else say to it that it was necessary to review the controversial privatizations having taken place over the previous 10 years.

A number of the privatizations were investigated, but it would have been better if had done that before, Ciric said.

He pointed out that Serbia has big businesses, small and medium enterprises and that the first issues to consider should be whether an employer had operated in accordance with the law, whether someone acquired their capital legally, whether they paid taxes, duties, salaries and contributions.