Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1984-02-18 / 4. szám
ABOUT THIS ISSUE From hair-restoring lotion to a balm for burns The winter session of Parliament is the natural when first giving an account of the time passed since the publication of the previous number of “The Hungarian Scene”. The wide-ranging outspoken speeches of members and the comprehensiveness of the answers given by the ministers was characteristic of the atmosphere of Hungarian public life today. The subjects debated were so important that readers interested in the Hungarian situation will no doubt expect to be kept informed. I have earlier mentioned one of the points on the agenda: the amendment of the Electoral Act. This time Parliament went, a step further: it debated a change of the constitution which will make the appointment of a Constitutional Court obligatory. The Court will be charged with the task of supervising the constitutionality of legislation and of the application of law as well as the operation and orders of the administration. There is I am sure no need for me to emphasise the important role of a guardian of the constitution, and guarantor of legality, since — as Representative Kálmán Szabó pointed out during the debate — the times, when the constitut’on and the other laws of the land were infringed day after day three decades ago are still very much remembered. Parliament also debated the 1984 budget, which demands new efforts from the country in the present, difficult world economic conditions. It is absolutely necessary to increase the efficiency of labour in order to maintain the external and domestic balance of the economy, and a standard of living achieved with years of work. The government intends to realize this by way of furthering the economic reform. But improvements in management will have to be realized under the present complicated and difficult conditions parallel with the democratization of society, as István Hetényi, the Minister of Finance, pointed out. (Details in No. 3. p 8.) A number of articles were published in No. 3., which did not contain an English supplement, one of which for various reasons I wanted to include in this issue in English: the report by Sándor Lintner gives account of teaching the Hungarian language in the United States, and this naturally, deserves attention. But the report offers something more: recounting how a young Hungarian teacher was able to get over a tragic test with the help of Hungarians in America and at home. The article by Dr. Sándor Holdas, the director of the Budapest Zoological Gardens tells how Hungarians living in far-away parts supply rare insects and animals to the Zoo, and it is such a nice piece of writing, that I think I will also try to obtain one or two wallabies in the course of my coming trip to Australia in April. The previous number remember ed three anniversaries: Ferenc Móra the warm-hearted, imaginative stcry teller of the era between the two world wars died fifty years ago. Death took the pen out of his hand in an age that was becoming progressively inhuman, while he stood and fought for the ideals of humanism, under the aegis of which he lived, and worked, till his last moment. The centenary of the birth of Andor Gábor, the noted humorist, and Béla Czóbel, the painter was also remembered on the Hungarian pages of the journal. The third part of a series on Sándor Körösi Csorna is in the Hungarian part of this issue (pp. 8—9.). A summary will be published of the lifework of the Hungarian explorer of Asia and scholar of Tibetan in a forthcoming English supplement. The timeliness of economic questions is the reason why a number of the articles in the Hungarian pages of the paper deal with such subjects. There is a report of a successful business coup by the Rába Works of Győr. which submitted the successful bid for a job advertised by the World Bank against heavy competition (pp. 16—17.). Another artiole deals with a new phenomenon of tiie Hungarian economic life: the latest economic-financial regulations make it possible now for enterprises and cooperatives to raise funds from wider or narrower sections of the public by issuing bonds, shares, and other securities. A number of such floatings have been made already. An interesting and characteristic new transaction is described in this issue: the mechanism the Cooperative Farm of Nagyréde used to raise funds for developing its winery (p 10.). An article is published in the English supplement about a no less important new phenomenon in the Hungarian economic life: financial and administrative measures to promote the realization and successful marketing of new products and processes in order to better utilize the intellectual talents and give an impetus to the spirit of enterprise. * Letters keep coming from readers in every part of the world, offering sound advice, criticism, and suggestions. We will answer them in one of our next issues. Szigethalom is a small town. One usually does not get into traffic jams in places like that. Yet traffic jams were quite the order of the day in the summer of 1982 there. What then was the magnet that attracted people? The answer is simple: vanity! The news that Mrs. Jenő Nedeczky, in the town produced a new magic face cream, that smoothes out wrinkles spread through the country like wild-fire. Her name already had a ring about it since she was the inventor of the Patientia hair-restoring lotion. Mrs. Nedeczky submitted the application for her first patent in 1976. After four years of controversy she sold it for 3.5 million forints. Production began in 1980, and the manufacturers made good profits. Besides considerable sales in Hungary, the foreign trading enterprise Konsumex exported $ U.S. 100.000 worth of the stuff the first year, and a million dollars worth the next. She did not have to wait so long for the production of the wrinklesmoothing cream. Hardly six months passed, before it was already massproduced. Unfortunately the old lady died in the meantime. The difference in the time between the invention and production of Mrs. Nedeczky's two remedies is characteristic. In the seventies one needed much more patience while things generally go faster today, even if not at the desired pace yet. The explanation of this favourable change is in the increased attention paid to making innovations and inventions profitable to the individual as well as to the enterprises in Hungary. It was recognised that the country cannot afford to neglect brainwork. Several institutions now regard it as their task to stimulate a growth in the rate of innovations, increasing their efficiency as well. The National Committee for Technical Development has a separate fund for the introduction of products, technologies and innovations that are important for the economy: a Finance Company for Technical Development was established with a nominal capital of 600 million forints in the summer of 1983. The new company approved nearly 200 million forints worth of loans mainly • for products which can be readily and profitably made and marketed, with particular regard to their exportability. An interesting example is the case of the rubber extractor utilizing worn-out tyres patented by the Taurus Rubber Works. The Finance Company approved a loan of 18 million forint for realization, to be used for building a plant in Nyíregyháza which will be open to foreign experts for inspection. The new machine reclaims still usable rubber from old tyres by a pressure process. The export chances of the invention are enhanced by the fact that the process uses only onequarter as much fuel as its competitors. As Dr. Gyula Szekér, the President of the National Committee for Technical Development said: “Technological growth is the job of the enterprises first and foremost. Since they cannot pass on this responsibility to others they must have resources enabling them to carry h out. It is beyond doubt, therefore, that strengthening the entrepreneurial attitudes and profit interestedness on the part of enterprises is an essential condition for accelerating technical development. Technical development is economic activity embodied in the process of innovation, therefore we do more and more to handle it on an enterprise basis." This way of thinking is supported by the fact that 1,160 of the 1608 patents registered from Hungary abroad were worked out by enterprise R and D teams, 350 of them by central research and development institutes, 94 by institutes of higher education, and 4 by other institutions. Attention is also given to secure a chance for the mass production of the inventions of men and women without an enterprise background. The Innovation Fund of the Central 28
