Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2005 (17. évfolyam, 2-50. szám)

2005-01-07 / 2. szám

Constitutional Court Takes Anti-Drug Stance Hungary’s Constitutional Court made anti-drug legislation stricter when it invalidated some paragraphs of the Penal Code. The Constitutional Court invalidated some paragraphs of the Penal Code that were introduced by the Péter Medgyessy-led coalition gov­ernment in 2002. The Court’s move reinstated the Penal Code’s previ­ous tough stance against drug use, leaving no way for education, but for punishment. “The government’s policy on drugs has not changed and it doesn’t want to return to the unacceptable policy of the conservative [Fidesz­­led] government that used only punishment,” said Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in reaction to the Court’s decision. While the Constitutional Court did not accept all five motions forwarded by Fidesz, it invalidated several paragraphs passed by the Socialist-Free Democrat majority in 2002, and called attention to sev­eral issues, on which the government will have to submit amendments that observe international treaties. The most important change the Court insists on is leaving no way out of punishment in some distinct cases. For example, if drug use is committed in a group, the Court would not accept that punishment can be avoided by taking part in curative and educational treatment. The Court also invalidated a paragraph that treated individual drug making and consumption as minor offense. While the Court suggested distinction be made between light and hard drugs, it did not suggest making any difference in punishment on the basis of drug types. (HVG) Government Winds Up Privatization In 2004 and 2005 Hungary’s State Privatization and Asset Manage­ment Rt. (ÁPV) will collect HUF 700 billion in revenues for the state. Following that, the privatization agency will cease operation. By the end of November, the central budget has received HUF 100 billion out of the planned HUF 400 billion revenues the ÁPV is expected to generate from asset sales and dividends this year. The planned HUF 400 billion revenue makes 2004 the second most lucra­tive year in Hungarian privatizations, following 1995 when the state collected HUF 481 billion, helped mostly by the sale of energy com­panies. In 2004, the ÁPV’s incomes from dividends of fully or partly state-owned companies account for HUF 43 billion, twice the amount collected from this source in 2003. Extraordinary dividends were paid by the strongest state-owned companies, including national gambling company Szerencsejáték Rt., electricity wholesaler Hungarian Elec­tricity Works Rt. (MVM), airport operator Budapest Airport Rt. and postal company Magyar Posta Rt. Revenues from dividends help finance the central budget deficit, according to the new EU-conform methodology the Finance Ministry now applies. However, sales of state assets are one-off revenues and cannot be used to reduce budget deficit, according to EU rules. Privatization revenues in 2004 were mostly generated by two large deals. The ÁPV collected HUF 160 billion earlier this year from sell­ing bonds that will be converted into shares of Richter Gedeon Rt., Hungary’s largest drugmaker, in 2009. Selling a 10.4% stake in oil and gas company MOL Rt. fetched slightly more than HUF 77 billion for the Hungarian state in 2004. ÁPV Chairman Tamás Mészáros named the sale of steelmaker Dunaferr Danube Steel Works Rt. one of the success stories of 2004. While the buyer Swiss-Ukrainian consortium paid only HUF 444 mil­lion for the company, it assumed the steelmaker’s HUF 60 billion debt and pledged to carry out investments to the tune of HUF 100 billion. However, the ÁPV was not able to sell troubled national airline Malév Rt. due to lack of appropriate bids. The agency is now working to ease conditions to make the airline more attractive to contenders. In the next tender bidders can be more flexible in assuming the company’s debt and it will not be compulsory to keep the airline’s national flag carrier status. Besides Malév, the ÁPV is expected to sell stakes in MOL, state broadcasting company Antenna Hungária Rt., Budapest Airport and Land Credit and Mortgage Bank Rt., which is listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange, in order to each its HUF 300 billion target in 2005. As for the future of ÁPV, one proposal suggests the agency should assume all state asset management functions, taking on current responsibilities of the State Treasury Bureau. Another plan proposes the opposite, namely closing ÁPV and handing over its remaining tasks to the Treasury. (HVG) Január 7,2005 ÍD Hungarians Contribute to Salute to Vienna Concert in Washington Washington, January 3 (MTI)- Hungarian artists contributed to the Salute to Vienna, a New Year’s concert organised at Washington’s Kennedy Center Sunday night. The programme showcased the best of waltzes, marches, polkas and operetta arias com­posed by Johann Strauss Jr. and Sr., Ferenc Lehar and Imre Kalman and performed by the Strauss Symphony of America orchestra under the baton of András Deák, with contribution by Hungarian soprano Olga Szila­gyi and six dancers of Hungary’s National Ballet. Before the programme, an audience of some 2,600 observed a minute of silence, in honour of victims of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. The event was addressed by ambassadors András Simonyi of Hungary and Eva Nowotny of Austria. Inspired by the world-famous New Year’s concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic, Salute to Vienna was initiated by Canadian producer of Hungarian origin Attila Glatz and his Austrian wife, Marion, ten years ago. This season features concerts in 29 North American cities from December 29 to January 4. Malév Plans to Save on Younger Fleet Budapest, January 3 (MTI)- Hungarian Airlines Malév with­drew its last Boeing 737 Classic on Monday, as part of a replace­ment project aimed at consider­able savings on maintenance and operation, the company’s techni­cal director said on Monday. Viktor Hajos said Malév had started replacing its aircraft in 2003, reducing the fleet’s aver­age age from nine to three years, adding that the operation would result in a 15 per cent drop in maintenance cost saving the company HUF 1.5-2bn (EUR 6- 8m) a year. Cost of operation is also expected to go down by 15 per cent, leaving an annual HUF 7bn (EUR 28m) with Malév, the director said. So far the company has returned 12 Boeing 737 Classic planes on lease from International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) and from another leasing firm. Clas­sics are withdrawn to be replaced by Boeing 737 Next Generation, of which Malév currently leases 18 from IFLC, the first was received in January 2003 and the last to be handed over next March. Advertise your business in the HÍRLAP, widely read by the Hungarian community! Hungary Wins Tokaji Case As of 2007, Italian winemakers will not be allowed to use the Tocai names on their wines, and will have to give way to Hungary’s Tokaji wines. A proposal by Francis Geoffrey Jacobs, chief judge of the Euro­pean Court, favors Hungarian winemakers, who clashed with their Italian counterparts over the use of the Italian Tocai and the Hungarian Tokaji wine types. The Hungarian reasoning said the name of Tokaji wines (meaning “from Tokaj,” a northeast Hungarian town) denotes a region, whereas the Italian Tocai name indicates the type of grape wine is made from. The dispute started after Hungary made an agreement with the EU over wines in 1993. The agreement - observing the long standing tra­dition and world fame of Hungary’s special sweet Tokaji wines - said Italy will have to ban the use of the Tocai name by its winemakers after Hungary joins the Union, or by 2007 the latest. Thus Jacobs’s proposal leaves in place Italian laws that banned the use of Tocai names on Italian wine labels. A Reuters report pointed out that courts are not obliged, but only recommended to follow the chief judge’s proposals. Piero Pittaro, Honorary President of the World Federation of Ital­ian Winemakers, said the proposal is a serious blow for Italian wine­makers. He added that Italy should have placed the name dispute on grounds of geographical regions, as French winemakers did in similar disputes successfully. (HVG) OTP Wins One Deal, Loses Another Hungary’s largest bank, OTP Bank Rt. gained a foothold in Croatia last week, while its attempt to buy a Serbian bank failed. OTP shares fell slightly last Wednesday to Friday on news that the Serbian government on Tuesday chose Greece’s Alpha Bank over OTP in a privatization tender for Jubanka, Serbia’s fifth largest bank. The negative investor sentiment was not helped by news on Wednesday that OTP succeeded in a tender for a 95.6% stake in Nova banka d.d. of Croatia. OTP’s loss in the Jubanka deal was seen more significant than its gain of Nova banka, for which the Hungarian bank offered €236 million, 2.7 times of Nova banka’s own equity. OTP explained its high bid by the potentials the Croatian bank offers, especially due to its 92- branch network concentrating along the Adriatic shore and the Istra peninsula, both prime tourist destinations. The failure at Jubanka was OTP’s third unsuccessful acquisition attempt since the Hungarian bank started regional expansion two years ago. In that period, OTP was successful in buying stakes in four banks, including Nova banka. Besides Jubanka, OTP lost out in a tender for Banka Commerciala Romana, Romania’s largest bank, and later in the race for Savings Bank of Albania. On the other hand, OTP’s successful acquisitions started with gaining majority in Slovakia’s IRB bank, now called OTP Slovensko, and continued with acquiring 100% ownership in Bulgar­ia’s DSK Bank and buying majority in a fairly small Romanian bank, called Banca Commerciala Ro-Bank S.A. However, OTP’s management is content to buy a bank in Serbia. There are three potential acquisition targets, namely Vojvodanska Banka, which is twice the size of Jubanka, and two relatively small banks, Novosadska Bqpka and Continental Banka. In the long run, OTP could look toward Ukraine with an eye for acquisitions, and it is also possible that it will consider buying another bank in Romania, said Kornél Sarkadi-Szabo, analyst at Raiffeisen Bank Rt. (HVG) Green Ideas Save Christmas Trees BUDAPEST - An environmental group in the south Hungarian city Pécs had a simple idea that saved the lives of 250 Christmas trees this year: they sold the trees in pots. While the overwhelming majority of some two million pine trees sold before Christmas in Hungary are chopped down for the holiday, this tiny fraction survived, thanks to their potted roots and the Order of the Knights with the Green Thoughts. The green knights, who marketed their potted trees for the fifth consecutive year, said they had sold many trees to families who do not have gardens but still did not want to kill trees. So, said spokeswoman Krisztina Nemeth, they offered to buy back the Christmas trees after the holidays. Around half of the potted trees sold were returned to the group, which returned half the money. “These trees will go to schools and pre-schools for replanting,” she said. Gardening experts say live potted trees that can be replanted out­doors after the holidays are growing in popularity. DUNA Travel 8530 Holloway Dr. #102 W. Hollywood, CA 90069 SPECIÁLIS ÁR LAX-BUD-LAX $395.­­+TX. Információért hívják ZSUZSÁT TEL: (310) 652-5294 FAX: (310) 652-5287 1-888-532-0168 ENGLISH PAGE AMERIKAI tyíiqyar Ifírlap

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