OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 134, 12 July 1995

ROMANIA REJECTS HUNGARIAN CRITICISM. The Romanian Foreign Ministry on 10
July rejected Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs's criticism of
Romania's new education law (see OMRI Daily Digest, 11 July 1995), Radio
Bucharest reported. The ministry said Kovacs's statement was an attempt
to put pressure" on Bucharest. It noted that the law meets European
standards and even "goes beyond what is required." Above all, the
ministry argued, the law is far more responsive to the needs of national
minorities than is the case in Hungary, where "the Romanian and other
national minorities . . . continue to face the danger of assimilation."
-- Michael Shafir, OMRI, Inc.

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave

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Wednesday, 12 July 1995
Volume 2, Issue 134


BUSINESS NEWS
-------------

**HUNGARY'S LARGEST BANK SET FOR DOMESTIC FLOAT**
  The domestic public offering of Hungary's OTP Bank will begin
  on Monday.  Andras Simor, head of the Hungarian arm of
  Creditinstalt, lead manager of the sale, told reporters
  yesterday that 1.4 million shares will be on offer, half of
  which will be reserved for local institutional investors.  The
  launch precedes a flotation on local and foreign stock
  exchanges which, Simor said, could now take place as early as
  the first week of August.  Domestic subscriptions will close
  no later than next Friday.



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  Reuters.  For information on Reuters news and information 
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Tuesday, 11 July 1995
Volume 2, Issue 133

REGIONAL NEWS
-------------

**ROMANIAN-HUNGARIAN OFFICIALS BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD**
  The foreign ministers of Romania and Hungary will meet next week
  to try and reach agreement on a basic treaty between the two
  countries.  Teodor Mesecanu and his Hungarian counterpart
  Laszlo Kovacs will be following up talks at expert level which
  have been going on between the two countries since the start
  of the year.  The sticking point continues to be exactly what
  rights for minorities should be enshrined in the accord, which
  is a precondition to both countries' further intergration into
  Europe's security and trade structures.


BUSINESS NEWS
-------------

**HUNGARY LOOKING TO IMPROVE POSITION IN CHINESE MARKETS**
  Hungarian leaders called on Chinese president Jiang Zemin to
  lower his country's trade surplus with Hungary in talks
  yesterday.  Jiang met for two hours with Hungarian President
  Arpad Goncz on the second day of a three day visit to Hungary.
  The Hungarian government is trying to find as many ways as
  possible to lower Hungary's trade deficit which is a major
  cause of the nation's foreign debt of nearly $32 billion.
  According to Hungarian figures, the trade deficit with China
  jumped from  $18 million in 1993 to $87 million in 1994,
  which is just a fraction of the total trade deficit of $3.9
  billion.  Still, Hungarian officials said they don't want the
  deficit with China to grow and they hope trade won't have to
  be cut to balance the flow of goods.  Chinese Foreign Ministry
  Spokesman Chen Jian said drastic measures aren't needed to
  solve the problem.

  "One of the important reasons behind the trade surplus is the
  fact that both China and Hungary are in the process of
  structural economic reforms, so this is only a temporary
  phenomenon.  As far as China is concerned, China is ready to
  expand its imports from Hungary and to resolve the problem of
  the trade imbalance on the precondition that both the import
  and export of both our countries expand."

  Chen said the Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic
  Cooperation is meeting with Hungarian officials to explore
  more possibilities for trade.  He said Chinese businesses are
  keen to buy goods from Hungary as long as the price is right.
  --David Fink


BUSINESS FEATURE
----------------

**HUNGARIAN GUSHER SHOULD PUMP UP OIL TENDER**
  By Tom Hoover

  Although the Hungarian government is withholding the monetary
  details of the privatization of its national oil company, Mol,
  the announcement last week that a new oil field has been
  discovered should make the tender a bit more lucrative.  The
  yet untapped deposit is just southwest of Hungary's Lake
  Balaton near the tiny village of Szokedencs and preliminary
  testing suggests heavy crude.

  "The field is six or seven kilometers," said Ivan Fisch,
  assistant to the vice-president at Mol.  "By Hungarian
  standards that's a large field."

  It's not yet known how much oil will be pumped out of the
  Szokedencs site, but Fisch said a precise estimate will be
  made in about three months.  Under Hungarian law the
  government has the right to explore for natural resources and
  land owners are obliged to allow it.  Szokedencs lies in an
  area dense with Hungarian oil production fields and, according
  to Mol, was a logical location to search.  Mol has exploration
  rights to about 18 percent of Hungary's 93,000 square
  kilometers of territory and the area of Szokedencs falls into
  that 18 percent.  Mol produced all of Hungary's 1.6 million
  tons of domestic crude last year, a drop of 100,000 tons over
  1993. But the country still gets most of its oil from Russia
  and imported 5.5 million tons last year.

  "The only alternative we have is the Adria pipeline from
  Croatia,"  Fisch said.  "But the war has closed it for the
  past two years."

  The Adria pipeline was a major supplier to Slovakia and the
  Czech Republic as well, however, a section of it runs through
  the Serb-held region of Krajina in Croatia, effectively
  shutting off the flow.  In the hope of increasing domestic
  production, four international oil companies have been given
  the opportunity to explore in Hungary as direct competitors to
  Mol.  Blue Star, Coastal, Occidental and Mobil were each given
  a 35 year concession last year to explore 9,000 square
  kilometers, but as yet have had no success.  Fisch said Mol
  has a tradition of cooperation with Occidental, but it was not
  named as one of the western companies interested in a minority
  share in Mol, which Privatization Minister Tamas Suchmann said
  will be available late this month.  Austria's OMV, America's
  Mobil, Amoco, Shell and France's Total have voiced interest in
  Mol, Hungary's biggest firm in terms of sales and one of the
  15 biggest companies in Europe.  Suchmann emphasized last
  week, however, that the Hungarian government will keep a 25
  percent share of Mol permanently, maintaining it as the
  "national oil company". Another 20 percent of shares will be
  offered to the Mol staff.  About five percent of Mol is
  already privately held and a float on the Budapest Stock
  Exchange will immediately follow the further privatization.
  The value of Mol also includes its natural gas monopoly.  The
  company produces 50 percent of the natural gas used
  domestically, importing the rest from Russia.



ABOUT CET ON-LINE
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  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 Word Up! Inc., New Media Group.  These
  conditions are subject to change without notice.  For further
  information, contact Cameron M. Hewes at >


* All "Letters to the Editor" and other comments about
  editorial content should be directed to Nancy Marshall at
  >.  Any comments about distribution or
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Alapitvany tamogatja.

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