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Carolina (English) No 058
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STUDENTS' E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC
School of Social Sciences of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
Czech Republic
e-mail address: carolina@n.fsv.cuni.cs
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C A R O L I N A No 58, Friday, January 15, 1993.
From the Events of the Last Week (Jan. 6 to 13)
International Negotiations Between CR And SR
The Thursday, January 7, negotiations between the Czech and the
Slovak delegations in Prague became the first official meeting of the
representatives of the two newly created republics.
The delegations agreed on the need to coordinate the legislative
activities of the Parliament of CR and the National Council of SR, so
that they conform to the international criteria, and thus facilitate the
entry of both republics into international organizations.
According to the Speaker of the Parliament of CR Milan Uhde, the
appointment of ambassadors was not on the agenda, but the Chairman of
the National Council of SR Ivan Gasparovic stated in this respect that
the names are known rather well. The press mentioned Ivan Mjartan as
a hot candidate for the post of the Slovak Ambassador to CR; he actually
will be appointed (see the following news item). Unnamed sources
released into media the name Miroslav Macek, the vice-chairman of the
former Federal Government and a member of the Civic Democratic Party.
The consideration of Macek as a candidate for the function of the Czech
Ambassador to Slovakia resulted in the return of the much-discussed
topic of the honesty of his entrepreneurial activities. We wrote on them
in Carolina at the end of summer.
Ivan Mjartan To Be The First Slovak Ambassador To Czech Republic
He is thirty-five, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of
Chemical Engineering, and according to the Cabinet, he fulfills all the
requirements for the function which, as both Premiers, V. Klaus and V.
Meciar stated, is given extraordinary significance in both republics.
The statement of the Czech premier that this post is comparable to the
ministerial seat, is well-known.
Lidove noviny (The People's News) remind us that Ivan Mjartan had
worked for 10 years as a radio reporter, and as a journalist he covered
significant political negotiations, such as the Bush - Gorbachev summit.
He had been a member of the Communist Party of Slovakia for several
years. He was accused by some governmental functionaries that before
last year's elections, in his capacity as the head of the Radiojournal
of the Slovak Radio, he manipulated public opinion in favor of HZDS
(Movement for Democratic Slovakia - Mr. Meciar's party). He did accept
his nomination for election but, as a worker at a state institution, he
had to give up running for elections. He was recalled from the radio,
and then he became a Federal Assembly deputy for HZDS and a state
secretary of the Ministry of Culture, responsible for communication
media.
Ivan Mjartan is married for the second time. Last year, he divorced
his first wife who is Russian.
His appointment, together with 17 other ambassadorial appointments,
was decided upon on Tuesday, January 12, by the Slovak government. The
Czech government was not notified until Tuesday evening, and up until
the close of this issue, it has not issued its approval.
Price increases mostly excessive
Food prices jumped up of about 10-20% instead of the estimated
5-6% following the New Year introduction of value-added tax. The Czech
minister if finances Ivan Kocarnik points to three reasons: vendors
calculate the tax incorrectly, in addition to the value- added tax they
include incorrectly the sales tax, and that the prices were raised by
both producers and vendors.
For the time being the price control was not recommended by the
council of economic ministers of the Czech government at its Tuesday
meeting. In case that the food prices continue to rise and the rumours
about price-gauging by food cartels are found valid, the government will
be obliged to discuss the whole matter again. The economic ministers
proposed to the government to increase the so-called "living minimum" by
13.5% starting March 1, 1993.
Rents are not going to be raised this year
The Czech government discussed at its meeting on January 6 the
principles of housing policy and decided not to raise rents, for the
level of social hardship for this year has been already taxing enough.
The deficit of the Czech government reached 1 billion
According to the Czech minister of finances Ivan Kocarnik the
overall budget deficit of the former federation was tentatively put to
16.67 billions crowns. The budget deficit of the Czech republic is 1.02
billions, of the federal government 6.36 billions (it will be split
between the republics in 2:1 ratio), and of the Slovak republic 9.29
billions crowns (the figure includes 4 billion financing of Gabcikovo
water works).
According to the public poll V. Havel should be Czech President
His name dominated in 45 per cent of the answers of the December
survey of the Institute for the Research of Public Opinion. Although
Havel's popularity has been slightly decreesing since July when he was
supported by 60 per cent votes he still remains the most serious
candidate for the post.
When asked who should be Czech President 3 per cent of the
respondents gave the name of the Chairman of Republican Party Miroslav
Sladek. The same number of people would vote for Czech premier Vaclav
Klaus.
1 per cent of the population in November and 2 per cent in December
prefered the last federal premier and the current Czech Minister of
Transport Jan Strasky. According to the Tuesday's information of the
Czech Press Agency he said that he is ready to think about the
contingent possibility of running for presidency.
In accord with the constitution President is elected by Czech
Parliament at a common meeting of both the chambers. The Deputy Chamber
is filled by the members of the Czech National Council, but the
existence of Senate as the second Chamber constituted by (some) deputies
transformed from the former Federal Assembly is still not sure. The
press leads polemics whether President elected only by one chamber is
sufficiently legitimate.
After Tuesday's talk of the chairmen of the coalition parties the
press published information that the Czech premier wants the question of
establishing a provisional Senate be definitely solved as soon as
possible. The concrete date of the presidential election was not
discussed.
The extent of unemployment in the Czech Republic - 2.57 per cent -
belongs to the lowest in Europe
On December 31, 1992 the employment agencies evidated approximately
135 000 applicants for jobs from whom 62 000 were drawing a pension. The
lowest extent of unemployment with less than 1 per cent is in Prague,
and the districts of Cheb, Karlovy Vary and Mlada Boleslav. The highest
rate of unemployment - from five to six per cent - is mostly in Moravian
districts Bruntal, Vsetim, Sumperk, Svitavy and Znojmo.
Stamping of Czechoslovak bank notes
Stamping of Czechoslovak bank notes of higher nominal values (500 -
1000 crowns) is in process. Thus the technical preparation of the
division of the common currency has begun. The Vice Governor of the
Czech National Bank said: "If we manage to prepare sufficient issue of
new bank notes in a short time we won't have to use the stamped ones at
all."
The process of the exchange of old bank notes for new ones will
cost approximately 250-300 000 000 crowns.
The overall expenses on the issue of new paper bills of the Czech
National Bank in values of 10-5000 crowns will reach 900 000 000 crowns.
The Czech Insurance Office announces an increase of the volume of
deposits. This is related not only to the credited yearly interests but
also to the reaction of people who prefer depositing their money in
financial institutions because they believe that this is more convenient
as far as the currency separation is concerned.
Bohemiae Foundation
If you happened to see the British paper Financial Times with its
twelve page report on the Czech republic, then you witnessed the
realization of the first project of Bohemiae Foundation. The foundation
was founded by the former chancellor of the president of CSFR Karel
Schwarzenberger to support the Czech state.
The aim of the foundation according to its founder is to help
facilitate good name and image of the emerging Czech republic. The
foundation intends to present the Czech state as a trustworthy business,
trade, and cultural partner to the rest of the world. The chairman of
the board of directors is Thomas Bata and among its members, for
example, are the minister of foreign affairs of CR Josef Zieleniec and
the minister of industry and trade Vladimir Dlouhy.
University on move
The Prague part of Central European University (CEU) founded in
1991 and sponsored by an American millionaire of Hungarian origin George
Soros is probably ending its activity there and going to move to
Hungary. It follows from the negotiations between G. Soros and the Czech
minister of education, youth and physical education Petr Pitha.
The subsidies of the Czech government for the university will end
after the first term of this year. Mr. Soros is planning neither on
purchasing a building in Prague for the university, nor on paying the
threefold increased rent, and rather contemplates joining the Prague
part of the university to the part in Hungary. Together with the
minister Pitha they agreed on creation of an Institute for graduate
studies that would be adjunct to the Hungarian located CEU.
Sport
Hockey
After a short winter break and the partitioning of the state the
(federal!) hockey league resumed its activity by the games of the 29th
round. Litvinov returned to the top of the standing after winning in
Jihlava 3:1, Ceske Budejovice in the second place played in Poprad to
a tie 5:5. The most interesting match was between the two last teams,
Pardubice and Plzen, who are fighting for a play- off berth reserved for
14 teams out of the league-total of 16. Plzen lost on home ice 0:1 in
overtime.
The hockey federation not only wants to complete this season as
a federal league, it also wanted to send for the last time a common team
of Czech and Slovak republics to the Word championship in Germany. It
was reported some times ago that this had been agreed upon by the
International Hockey Federation (IHF) last fall. The Tuesday papers,
though, reported that the IHF expects a participation of a separate team
from the Czech republic at the World Championship. A definite resolution
can be expected only after our hockey representatives return from the
meeting of the IHF in Zurich where they are supposed to see the relevant
documents of the IHF, as these documents are not available in the Prague
secretariat of the hockey federation. The first secretary of the
Czechoslovak Hockey Federation F. Herman said to the journalist that
according to other agreements he rather expects us to send a common team
to Germany. If the IHF, though, required a participation of a Czech
team, its participation would be as well secured as a participation of
a federal team.
Foreign Exchange
buy sell
FRG 1 DM (mark) 17.36 18.28 kc (czech crowns)
USA 1 USD (dollar) 28.34 29.74 kc
GB 1 GBP (pound) 43.52 46.66 kc
AUT 1 ATS (schilling) 2.47 2.59 kc
FRA 1 FRF (franc) 5.09 5.41 kc
Weather
After a freezing week that covered all dams, ponds, and brooks by
ice and skaters, a big warming arrived. Day temperatures climbed as high
as 10 degrees Centigrade, while night temperatures hover around zero. In
Prague record-breaking 17 degrees Centigrade above zero was measured on
Tuesday, January 12. Reputedly, last time that warm during January
happened to be in 1775.
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