Magyar Hírek, 1987 (40. évfolyam, 1-23. szám)
1987-10-02 / 19. szám
The Hungarian Chamber of Commerce — in The building of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce The Chambers of Commerce and Industry were established in Hungary in 1850 by an Imperial Letters Patent. They enjoyed autonomy and took part in the government decision taking processes as well as in legislation. They also acted as public authorities in several fields, assisted business people with their training facilities and service activities, and took an active part in the control of unfair business practices. All bodies representing business interests were abolished in 1947 and 1948. The Hungarian Chamber of Commerce was reestablished in 1948, primarily for foreign trading purposes and under the control of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The Chamber essentially became a state administrative body. Three decades had to pass before the Chamber, together with the other organizations, could turn into real bodies of interest-representation. The advantages of their existence and survival of the hard time is clear now. There are hard times again but the nature of the hardships differ. Pressed by the economic difficulties of the countries, and answering the demands of the day Hungary is reforming the economic mechanism and introducing democratic methods into economic control. The government no longer intends to, and is not capable of, straightening out everything on its own. The principle and practice of the almighty state is being replaced by the idea and practice of a state of limited power, and of a self-limiting state. Many government duties have been |>assed down to enterprises, local councils and interest representation bodies. It is also a Chamber of Industry With the reorganization, the Chamber of now represents also industrial interests. It now also has interest coordinating and mediating duties, representing the interests of its members besides international trade development anti information. Executives of the Chamber have regularly attended meetings of the State Planning Committee and the Economic Committee, occasionally even meetings of the Council of Ministers, since 1984, expounding the views of member enterprises to these government bodies. Almost one thousand enterprise executive do voluntary work within nearly seventy organizations. The result is that the position the Chamber takes up mirrors the opinion of various groups of enterprises. The Chamber is now able to intervene forcefully against undesirable enterprise attitudes. It elaborated a code of ethics, which members accepted. It also set up a committee of ethics to increase moral pressure on enterprises that forget standards. The Chamber has an arbitration court which helps in deciding legal disputes between Hungarian enterprises. The ad hoc arbitration courts, however, have an unjustifiedly narrow scope. Their position, role and authority has not been settled yet. International Contacts The Chamber maintains contacts with more than a hundred countries. It uses these for the promotion of international trade and to find buyers for products of its members. The Chamber takes an active part in the work of UNIDO, ITC (International Trade Centre) and ILO (International Labour Organization). Its publicationsin foreign languages offer information to the business community about Hungarian economic policy and about opportunities for foreign participation in the Hungarian economy. At the time of writing Chamber membership is only open to fully Hungarian-owned enterprises. Joint enterprises, however, cannot by-pass the Chamber. The foreign firm saves much time and effort by seeking the advice of this body. The Chamber runs a Joint Venture Club as well. Executives of joint enterprises can discuss their daily problems there with the representatives of the competent authorities. Opening the gates of the Hungarian economy to foreign capital faced those showing an interest with many difficulties a few years ago. The Hungarian Chamber of Commerce set up its Counselling Enterprise for Enterpreneurs in 1984. The principal task of this organization is to offer full information to would-be investors in respect of the future technical and economic background of joint enterprises and the mode of their establishment. Coordinating negotiations Secret negotiations are also conducted in the Chamber. Before winding-up procedings can be started against an enterprise, coordinating-negotiations must be conducted between the insolvent debtor and the creditors. These are organized by the Chamber. The aim is to reach an agreement that would restore solvency. Such negotiations are surrounded by a great deal of secrecy. The parties do not wish to risk the good renown of the insolvent enterprise, since it could be a false alarm and the liquidity problem may be only temporary. Perhaps the enterprise cannot meet its obligations because its own debtors did not pay on time. Thus the chamber coordinates between enterprise and government, between domestic and foreign firms, and between enterprises in the country. Its work has great importance for economic policy since reconciliation is not limited to “bearers of interest”, but also extends to objectives, aspects, and particular policies. A partner of the trades union? The Chamber should really confront the trades unions, representing opposed interests. That would be difficult. The trades unions (and the enterprise work force) are also interested in the growth of enterprise autonomy, in the strengthening of the legal security of enterprises, in the reduction of their taxation burden, and in earnings keeping up with rising prices. How could they oppose each other, when the Chamber represents almost the same interests and demands to the superior authorities, as the trades unions? The individual trades unions and the National Council of Trades Union are happy to look on the Chamber as a partner but not as a partner with “opposed interests”, authorized to a new age make agreements at a national level. Neither of them has money or power. What could they negotiate about? What both are missing is scope of movement. New stresses have entered the Hungarian economy where the two bodies could find themselves in opposition to each other. The enterprises are cutting their staff to be able to increase wages. They are selling factories to obtain money to invest elsewhere. They are reducing activities to increase average profits. The interest of enterprise executives — which the Chamber also championed on a number of occasions — time and again comes up against the shortterm interests of the workforce. The government expressed the desirability for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to be the eounterpole of the trades unions in difficult matters. It would be pleased, for instance, if it could pass down the issue of earnings regulation to the interest representation level. Since very sort of incomes regulation was found faulty after only one or two years, they would dearly like to introduce earnings regulations based on interest-reconciliation. What is needed is one side, which is trying to economise with wages, and another, which would like to snip a bit off the return on capital, off enterprise profits, in favour of the workforce. The fact that the enterprise tries to economise labour costs, not keeping down average wages, but the size of the labour force, complicates the issue. We are afraid of unemployment as if it were a prairie fire. But where there is a shortage of labour the enterprises’ short and longterm interest is to hang on to its workforce at the cost of relatively high earnings. If some section of the Chamber represents the interests of the enterprises, they cannot call for the deceleration of the rate of growth of earnings. The experts today say, that they should negotiate minimum wage increases. The danger in Hungary, however, is not that wages do not grow, but that they grow in ways that are difficult to regulate, and allegedly too fast. The government would therefore like to get everybody to accept a wage cieling with the government itself fixing the national maximum in advance. It could, for instance, stipulate five per cent and let the Chamber and the trades unions do with that whatever they want to. Theirs is the responsibility and the headache. The Hungarian Chamber of Commerce will play its part in all things, in which the government, the HSW1’ and the trades unions are involved. It has become a part of the political machinery and the system of institutions. It is responsible for the fortunes of the country. It appears that is able to meet this responsibility, proving worthy of the confidence placed in it. It has an enthusiastic executive and staff, indeed, even some authority andpower. Its name; could also be more aut horatative and longer than it is at present. It could be Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. OTTÓ P1R1TYI 31
