VISIT EUROPE-PRAGUE
WED 19 SEP 90 18:58.
PG.01
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3. Dr Antall said that there was at present a moratorium on frequency allocation, to give the Hungarian authorities sufficient time to examine a large number of very variable proposals that had been put forward (including not only
Furthermore, broadcasting but also cellular telephones).
comprehensive legislation was currently being elaborated on the mass media as a whole. However, the BBC was very highly regarded; and collaboration was already underway between them and Hungarian Television and Radio as part of the re-structuring process. Dr Antall undertook to look into the. BBC Overseas Service's request in a favourable manner.
Privatisation
4.
The Prime Minister asked whether there was anything more that the UK could do to help. British experience had demonstrated the fundamental importance of getting state enterprises into private hands, so as to change managerial attitudes and ensure that all decisions were based on commercial considerations. With that change of attitudes, longstanding loss-makers were able to become profitable and thereby contribute to tax revenues instead of being a drain on the public purse. Under any other arrangements, the difficult decisions were made not by management but by politicians, being unqualified for the job, always got it wrong. Governments were always vulnerable to criticism by their opponents that State assets, when sold, were under-valued. She had often asked why, if that were the case, the Trade Unions, with their large pension funds, did not put in a bid. The truth of the matter was that any company was worth only what someone was prepared to pay for it, and was a function not of what it cost to create in the first place, but what it would take to modernise it, bring in new management and, more often than not, make major new investments.
5. Dr Antall explained that, hitherto, limits had been placed on the privatisation of shops and other small retail units in order to give the present operators an opportunity to become owners and thereby strengthen the "small entpreneurs" stratum of Hungarian society. But, basically, practically everything was open to privatisation: the process would be carried out as quickly as possible, and there was no wish to exclude anyone. The large state-owned enterprises would be broken-up, both to make them more efficient and to increase competition. The State Property Agency had just produced the first list of soon-to-be privatised state-owned enterprises, with a total estimated valuation of US$1 billion, and including some very important Hungarian industries (eg pharmaceuticals). He hoped for significant British participation not only as advisers but also as investors.
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Cont'd