CHIRAC SEES FASTER PRIVATISATION
France's right-wing government now
expects to raise about 40 billion francs this year from its
privatisation program, 10 billion more than it targetted, Prime
Minister Jacques Chirac said.
    The success of the program, launched late last year, meant
the government would be able to go beyond the 30 billion franc
figure it estimated in its 1987 budget, he said in a television
interview.
    About 75 pct of the additional revenue would be used to cut
state debt and 25 pct to provide additional funds for public
sector investment, he said.
    Chirac said Finance Minister Edouard Balladur proposed to
make two billion francs of supplementary funding available for
a five biillion franc accelerated motorway building program.
    The remaining three billion francs for this would come from
a motorway loan now in the domestic market.
    Balladur also proposed to make some extra cash available to
the French national railways, SNCF, for the construction of
high-speed rail track, and to boost research in the aerospace
industry, he added.
    An estimated 15,000 jobs would be generated by speeding up
motorway construction, Chirac said.
    Reaffirming his long term strategy of cutting the state
sector deficit and easing taxes, Chirac repeated government
pledges to cut the corporate tax rate to 42 pct from 45 pct in
the 1988 budget.
    Personal income tax would also be reduced but details had
still to be worked out, he added.
    The government aimed to make France the leading economic
power in Western Europe within five years, he told his
television interviewer.
 Reuter
