The Privatization Process in Russia in 1995 General dynamics of the privatization process

The principal thrust of privatization in 1995 was the sharp decline of its quantitative indicators (see Table 1). Fewer than 4,000 enterprises submitted privatization applications and approximately 6,000 were privatized (or 5 percent of the total number of privatized enterprises). The breakdown of privatized enterprises by branch was as follows: trade (33 percent); industry (20 percent); construction (11.5); and public catering (7.4 percent). As a whole, among the enterprises privatized in 1995, 90 percent were small enterprises having workforces of fewer than 200 persons and on the average fixed capital valued at 15.4 million rubles (in 1991 prices); 55 percent of them were small-scale privatization projects. By January 1996, approximately 36,000 enterprises were in various stages of the incorporation process and there were over 27,000 registered joint-stock companies that were created on the basis of state (municipal) enterprises (as compared with 24,000 on January 1, 1995).