The government will partly finance a voluntary retirement plan at OTE, Greece’s dominant fixed-line service provider, Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis said yesterday.

“The state owns almost 50 percent of OTE and this high stake obliges it to help in OTE’s restructuring,” Alogoskoufis told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Transport and Communications Minister Michalis Liapis and OTE Chairman and CEO Panayis Vourloumis.

Alogoskoufis added that OTE’s restructuring should serve as a model for other public enterprises.

Vourloumis aims to entice 6,000 OTE employees to take early retirement. He has said the plan, expected to cost about 1.6 billion euros, will bring about annual savings of 250 million euros.