VSŽ, the iron and steel mill located in Košice, wants to privatize a Hungarian steel mill in Ozda, VSŽ officials confirmed. The firm will submit its application for the privatization tender in January, and a decision is expected later that month. "VSŽ is a very successful company that has expressed its interest in taking part in privatization going on in my country," Hungarian Ambassador to Slovakia Jeno Boros said on a visit to the iron and steel works on December 6. "We would like to welcome our northern neighbor into this process."
VSŽ's initiative stems from an early November meeting between Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar and Hungarian Premier Gyula Horn in the west Slovak town of Piešťany, in which Mečiar expressed that Slovak companies were interested in taking part in Hungary's privatization, which is 70 percent complete.