KIEV, Oct. 19 - Ukraine plans to start selling state-owned coal mines next year in an effort to improve coal mining industry’s efficiency and to reduce subsidies on the sector, a government official said Tuesday.

“There are plans of selling coal mines in 2011,” the official from the Coal Mining Ministry said. “The coal mines are usually more effective in private hands.”

The government is spending annually more than 8 billion hryvnias to support state-owned coal mines, but the effort to privatize the sector will reduce the spending, the official said.