Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1989. július-december (43. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1989-10-05 / 37. szám
Thursday, Oct. 5. 1989. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ 11. In June, an Israeli delegation conducted business negotiations and held a series of lectures in the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce in order to further Hungarian-Israeli trade relations. The head of the delegation, Dan Gillerman, president of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, said at a press conference: in the past two years a considerable upswing could be experienced in trade between the two countries. Last year Hungarian exports were up to 20 million dollars, and goods exceeding in value ten million dollars were imported in Hungary from Israel. The Israeli businessmen participating in the delegation see opportunities for trebling the present turnover within 2-3 years. For this purpose they intend the establishment of joint ventures and industrial cooperation. It was also mentioned that economic cooperation between the two countries was hindered by the lack of information. The purpose of the present negotiations was exactly to inform the companies of the two countries what demand they could reckon with on each other's market, and which areas were open for industrial cooperation. It serves the interest of raising the standard of the Hungarian tourist trade that in the 1989/90 school year bilingual secondary education for tourism started at Szombathely, a town in the west of Hungary. THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM HEARS ABOUT THE HUNGARIAN ECONOMY At this year's World Economic Forum in Geneva, the organizers devoted one of the main events to Hungary's economy attesting to a growing interest in the subject. Representatives of well-known companies from 8 countries, attended this session whose main topic was the condition of the Hungarian economy. Hungarian Deputy-premier, Peter Medgyessy reviewed the objectives of the economic reform and the present status of the economy. He spoke about various measures, including so-called package action-plans of his Government. His announcement that Hungary was building a market economy, implementing a comprehensive reform of corporate ownership, and was preparing for the convertibility of the forint (in a 3-4 year perspective), evoked keen interest. These measures will render untimately the -economic and the political reforms irreversible. The representatives of the foreign firms at the Forum expressed their views that a new phase is unfolding in the relationship between the Hungarian economy and foreign economies as well as among the various organizations. The emphasis is now on practical steps. Thus, it is desirable that the Hungarian economy become more receptive and more responsive, including the creation of unequivocal terms and a better infrastructure. It is also imperative that the persons involved in and the rules of the disposal over state property should be clearly defined at last. Firms and institutions are needed to help in the establishment of joint ventures and to assist in finding cooperating partners. New Emblem In 1987 the Hungarian Advertising Company, MAHIR, on commission from the Information Office of the Council of Ministers, invited a competition for the design of the country's emblem, to represent Hungary at events abroad. In the first round 24 artists submitted 98 bids. A committee selected 8 designs which were later narrowed down to three. A comprehensive opinion poll opted for the work of Karoly Schmal.No Longer Full — Not Yet Efficient International Conference on Employment "Many countries would be happy to have an employment rate like the one which now causes you problems" was one of the views voiced by a foreign expert at the conference organized recently on the connections, between economic policy, employment policy, and unemployment. True, the employment rate in Hungary is at present higher than what is internationally accepted as being the full employment level. However, the guarantee of full employment was a fundamental basic principle in the countries that set the aim of building socialism. We believed and professed that those who work well in a socialist economy will be successful. However, we had to realize that the market economy is more complex than this, and we began to mention the need of full and efficient employment together in the past years. And now we have to acknowledge that unemployment - at least temporarily - is an unavoidable concomitant of streamlining the economy. We are now in the extremely uncomfortable situation when employment is no longer full, but not yet efficient. We are now facing the dual task of creating a market-oriented economy with radical reform, and also overcoming the threatening monster of unemployment. Our socialist society cannot renounce the goal of full employment, however, the safeguarding of this will increasingly seem like an illusion in the near future. If we look at the data only, then the current situation is" still far from alarming. The number of active earners in Hungary which has a population of 10.6 million, is 4.8 million. At the end of March, the employment offices had only some 15.000 people registered as unemployed. (71 96 of these are unskilled, 17 % skilled workers, 12 % professionals.) 81 % of those registered found jobs within one month. A total of 2.886 people received uneployment aid. On the other hand there are 72.000 vacancies in the country. However, this seemingly favorable balance conceals very major contradictions. For instance, territorial differences are considerable, and although there is an abundance of vacancies in certain parts of the country, those seeking employment are concentrated in other counties, in 2 or 3 so-called crisis zones. The transfer of manpower is almost impossible, in view of the housing difficulties. The other major contradiction derives from the quality of the manpower: unskilled workers, or persons with lower qualifications oration-convertible skills, have increasing difficulties in finding jobs. Economic restructuring demands a change in the professional structure as well. However, the several hundreds of thousands of Hungarian employees are not yet capable of adapting and a characteristic of even the best specialists iá that they are not able to respond actively and consciously prepare for the changes, and most of those seeking work do nor perceive the real danger that unless they accept retraining their situation will become more and more hopeless. It is also a fact that the enforcement of individual interest has hardly any chance, and the practice of collective interest enforcement is only now emerging. This is the situation today, when the existing manpower market tensions are not caused by restructuring, but unfortunately, by stagnation, the restrictive economic policy and the phasing out of the crisis branches* ISRAELI TRADE DELEGATION IN HUNGARY
