OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 58, 21 March 1996

NO LEAP FORWARD IN HUNGARIAN, SLOVAK FOREIGN RELATIONS. Although
Bratislava is reportedly preparing the ratification of the Slovak-
Hungarian treaty, it is simultaneously taking measures that arouse
concern among ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia, Hungarian Foreign Minister
Laszlo Kovacs said. He was holding a meeting with his Slovak counterpart
Juraj Schenk on 20 March, CTK reported. Kovacs called attention to the
Slovak language law, passed last year, and the new administrative
division of Slovakia--now being discussed--which will further restrict
minority rights of the 600,000 ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia. Kovacs
told journalists that Schenk had called his concerns groundless and
assured him that the Slovak-Hungarian basic treaty would be ratified
soon. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Chrystyna Lapychak


Thursday, 21 March 1996 Volume 1, Issue 313

REGIONAL NEWS
_____________

> ------------------------------------------------
POLICE RELEASE 40 TURKS SMUGGLED THROUGH ROMANIA
> ------------------------------------------------
Forty Turkish citizens expelled from Hungary after being found
hidden in a truck have been released in Romania, Romanian police
said on Wednesday.  The group, one of the biggest found in the
growing trade of people being smuggled across Romania and
Hungary, were questioned and released, police said. Turkish
citizens do not need visas to enter Romania or travel there.
Hungarian authorities said earlier the men were found hidden
amongst sacks of pasta in the truck at the border crossing of
Gyula-Varsand early on Monday morning.  Romanian and Hungarian
authorities gave slightly varying details of the incident.  The
driver, also Turkish, was released although prosecutors have
been asked to investigate the case.  Hungary said it suspected
the Turks were en route to Germany, the Netherlands or Britain
in search of work. The driver was expelled from Hungary for
three years and the migrants for two years.  Romanian police
spokesman Colonel Haralambie Neda said the stowaways were hidden
in a British-registered truck in neighbouring Bulgaria by a
Turkish citizen.  But it was the largest capture of human
stowaways on Hungary's borders. Last year Hungarian police
discovered the bodies of 18 Sri Lankans locked in an abandoned
trailer near the border with Austria. It too had come from
Bulgaria via Romania.  Thousands of illegal imigrants from Asia,
Africa and the Middle East bound for Western countries have
entered Romania over the past six years after communism
collapsed opening the borders of the Balkan country.


> -----------------------------------------
VASARHELYI HANDS OVER HUNGARIAN PULITZERS
> -----------------------------------------
Historian and former dissident Miklos Vasarhelyi handed over on
Wednesday the 6th annual Hungarian Pulitzer prizes for
journalistic excellence at a ceremony held in the turn of
century splendour of the Hotel Gellert.  The winners are:
factual reports: Katalin Bossanyi (Nepszabadsag); political
analysis: Denes Baracs (MTI); illustration: Janos Fabry (Magyar
Nemzet); lifetime achievement: Erno Gal (philosopher) and Janos
Szilagyi (Hungarian Radio); collective prizes: periodicals
Szabad Fold and Korunk; radio and television: Istvan Szabo (film
director) and Istvan Wisinger (TV producer).  The Hungarian
Pulitzer prize was founded by expatriate Pal Fabry, who returned
to Hungary from the United States in 1989.  The Pulitzer family,
gave its accord to the use of their name in memory of Joseph
Pulitzer, of Hungarian extraction.  Vasarhelyi (79) was press
secretary of the Hungarian revolutionary government in 1956, and
was sentenced to five years in prison after the revolution
failed. He remained a dissident after his release and was a
founder of the current government coalition partner, the Free
Democrat party.


> --------------------------------------------
HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT EGYPT NEXT WEEK
> --------------------------------------------
Hungarian President Arpad Goncz will make an official visit to
Egypt from March 25 to 27 for talks with Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian officials said on Wednesday.  It will be
the first visit to Egypt by a Hungarian president for at least
40 years and possibly in history, they said.  The Egyptian
ambassador to Hungary, Mukhtar el-Hamzawi, told reporters that
Egypt hoped to redress the imbalance of trade, which is about
$27 million a year in Hungary's favour.  In Cairo, Goncz will
reopen a renovated agricultural museum built by Hungarians 50
years ago. Egypt and Hungary will also sign three cooperation
agreements during the visit.


BUSINESS NEWS
_____________

> --------------------------------------------
REPORT CRITICAL OF HUNGARY'S TAX REGULATIONS
> --------------------------------------------
A report published Wednesday by the financial services company
KPMG says Hungary's new fiscal regulations discourage foreign
investment and exports.  The report argues that most of the new
laws are restrictive and interfere with the rights of management
to take decisions appropriate to their company's needs.  New
regulations introduced January 1st include an increase in the
highest income tax bracket to 48 percent from 44 percent, and
new procedures which include a tightening of payment deadlines.
The report says the changes in the income tax system unfairly
increase the overall tax burden as the tax brackets were not
adjusted for inflation and the highest 48-per-cent tax bracket
begins at only 900,000 forints a year.  The report is also
critical of the bureaucracy involved in meeting tighter tax
deadlines and concludes that the new laws offer no incentive to
foreign investors and exporters, whose role is crucial to
reducing the country's balance of payments deficit.


> -----------------------------------------------------
COMMITTEE FINDS PROBLEMS WITH BUDAPEST BANK INJECTION
> -----------------------------------------------------
In other Hungarain business news, a Hungarian parliamentary
committee has found irregularities in a controversial 12
billion-forint capital injection by the state into Budapest Bank
(BB) before its recent privatisation.  The 12 billion-forint
injection, carried out in early 1995 was designed to attract
investors to the bank, which was eventually sold to a consortium
of General Electric Capital Corporation and the European Bank
for Development and Reconstruction (EBRD).  Although the
injection met legal requirements in its final form, Lajos Kosa,
chairman of the committee says that during preparation of the
contracts, accounting and documentation rules were infringed.
At the time of the capital injection, BB was headed by Lajos
Bokros who later became finance minister and architect of the
government's economic reform programme until he resigned in
February over disagreements about the 1996 budget. Nevertheless,
Kosa did not believe that these irregularities could affect the
privatisation contracts concluded in December but he predicted
heated debate in parliament over his committee's report.  The
parliamentary debate, the date of which is yet to be fixed, may
focus on the banks' privatisation, the conditions of which were
not examined by the committee but were much criticised by
analysts and opposition politicians.


ABOUT CET ON-LINE
-----------------

* CET On-Line is Copyright (c) 1996 Central Europe Media Ltd.,
all rights reserved.  Not-for-profit redistribution of CET
On-Line in electronic format is allowed only if our copyright
notice, and all other copyright and by-line information
contained in this publication is included. For-profit
distribution of this publication or the information contained
herein is strictly prohibited without the express written
permission of Central Europe Media Ltd. These conditions are
subject to change without notice.

Some portions of the news provided by special agreement with
Reuters.  For information on Reuters news and information
products, contact your local Reuters office.

**Subscription Information** CET On-Line is a free
e-publication.  Subscribe by sending a message with the word
SUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to
>.  For an automated information
response, send a blank message to >.

To unsubscribe at any time, send the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the
body, not the subject line, of a message to
>.

For a copy of the latest issue of CET On-Line, simply send a
blank e-mail message to >.


date=3/20/96
type=correspondent report
number=2-194611
title=U-S Central Europe
byline=Barry Wood
dateline=Prague
content=

voiced at:

Intro:  U-S secretary of state Warren Christopher Wednesday held
extensive conversations in Prague with foreign ministers from
twelve Central and East European nations.  V-o-A's Barry Wood
reports from Prague.

Text:  Officials from the Czech Republic were extremely pleased
with the results of secretary's Christopher's meetings with prime
minister Vaclav Klaus and president Vaclav Havel.  They said
there is a clear similarity of view between the Czechs and
Americans concerning security issues in Europe.

Czech officials were also heartened by Mr. Christopher's
reassertion of the NATO commitment to expand its membership to
include some of the post-communist countries of Central Europe.
Foreign ministry officials say they are convinced that the Czech
Republic will be a NATO member by the year 2000.  They applauded
the confirmation of the commitment to expand despite opposition
from Russia.

There were 12 foreign ministers present for the meetings in
Prague.  They came from the countries most likely to be the first
to join NATO -- Poland, Hungary as well as the Czech Republic.
The three Baltic States were present as were Slovakia, Romania,
Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia and Slovenia.

In his remarks, secretary Christopher called for Slovakia and
Romania to ratify friendship treaties with Hungary.  Good
relations with neighboring states and protection of ethnic
minorities are conditions for NATO membership.  At a subsequent
briefing state department spokesman Nicholas Burns elaborated.

                         // Burns act //

         The Central European states themselves need to deal
         productively and we hope successfully with their
         historical enmities.  And clearly there are many.  And
         he (Christopher) gave some examples where we hope to see
         progress and in the private meetings I think we heard
         some indication that there will be movement on this
         particular issue.

                          // End act //

Mr. Burns said the visiting foreign ministers were supportive of
the American commitment to European security and NATO expansion.
He said there was also universal sentiment in favor of the U-S
commitment to an independent Ukraine and unanimous condemnation
of the Russian Duma's vote last week calling for the Soviet Union
to be reconstituted. (Signed)

neb/bdw/ltj/lwm

20-Mar-96 4:34 pm est (2134 utc)
nnnn

source: Voice of America