- Poland: the Polish government is counting on earning more than 30 billion zlotys by 2006, 4.5 bn for 2003 alone, due to the new privatisation plan that it has just adopted. Sectors in the economy that are to be privatised by the government are the shipyards, steel industries, minion, gas, oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, weapons, energy and textiles, as well as insurance, finance, transport, publishing and health. The value of state owned assets are around 93.8 billion zlotys. Privatisation carried out in 1990 and 2002 earned the state 73.3 billion zlotys. The privatisation affected 5450 state owned companies, 64.5% of the total number. - Czech Republic: according to the Czech information agency CIA, 12 companies have expressed an interest in the privatisation deal for the holding UNIPETROL (turnover 49.33 billion in Czech Crowns in the first nine months of 2003). Six candidates have already been accepted by the board of directors. Interested parties include the consortium PKN ORLEN and AGROFERT, MOL, BORSODCHEM, PENTA GROUP, AGIP, and KAZMUNAIGAZ. The British group SHELL might also be in the running. The Czech government has put 63% of the petrochemical company up for sale for which it may earn between 10 and 15 billion Czech Crowns. - Thailand: THAI AIRWAYS and the Thai Minister for Finance are selling 385 million shares in the airline. The government's share will fall from 93% to 70%.