Introduction

Abstract

No later than 1999, an IMF-sponsored publication was still providing an example of pink glass assessment of privatisation in transition countries when it stated that, at the pace of privatisation seen since 1989, it will be almost complete for most of these countries in another decade, and twenty years for such a large task will be judged to have been very quick indeed (Havrylyshyn and McGettigan, 1999). Then the authors concluded that the most important lesson after a decade of transition in the former centrally planned economies to market-oriented systems is that private sector development can surely be rated a success. Optimism and hope stay in the background of these statements, although it is remark-able that an institution, which ten years ago advocated overnight privatisation, now considers that twenty years is a rather short time for such a process. It is also new that the same article admits some prominent failures in the recent privatisation story and stresses that the general market environment is much more important than the method of privatisation. In other words, the time has come for a renewed evaluation of privatisation in transition countries, and one aim of this book is to bring a significant building block to it.