Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)

ATTACK ON THE OMFB - The Siemens lobby

ATTACK ON THE OMFB

adviser to Rome before taking the top job at the company after returning from Italy in around 1973-74.

“On 3 October 1972, finance minister Lajos Faluvégi

andPaulDax,amember

of Siemens AGs board of directors, agreed that Siemens would participate in a Hungarian joint venture as the first of the big western corporations to do so. Only a few weeks after their meeting, Hungary authorised the establishment of joint ventures with foreign participation, thereby allowing the influx of foreign direct capital,”464

according to a book on Siemens’ operations in Hungary. All this suggests that Siemens massive expansion into Hungary played an essential role in bringing about the decree allowing the establishment of joint ventures. It was in the very best interests of the foreign trade lobby to start establishing firms in the West. In the annual reports of the Hungarian Foreign Trade Bank, István Salusinszky,

one of the strongmen of the interest group and president of the bank, consistently argued in favour of the necessity to allow joint ventures. These documents aptly show how they slowly but steadily achieved this aim.465

In reality, the 1972 Decree did not facilitate the influx of foreign direct capital, but its outflow. In simple terms and as we have mentioned earlier, western investors were only allowed to set foot in Hungary on very limited terms until 1977. In 1972, the establishment of firms with Hungarian shareholdings was authorised in the capitalist world. This was one of the reasons why it was difficult to strike the aforementioned deal: joint ventures were only enabled in Hungary in 1974.

464 Sebők

2017

p. 142

465 Borvendég

2017

p.

52-54

466 Kövér

[2001],

p. 29

The Budapest-based Siemens Computer Centre and Coordination Office, Sicontact, was the first Hungarian joint venture established after the war and was set up by Siemens AG and Intercooperation Rt. While the MKB listed Sicontact as a company it founded,466

the bank was not officially included as an owner on the Hungarian side. For the West German partner, it would presumably have been less reassuring to have a socialist state-run bank as a co-owner, and so a company limited by shares was designated as the main 167