The French in Belgrade

The three day long visit of 26 French businessmen to Belgrade (October 23-25) strikingly refers to the Yugoslav preoccupation following the announcement that the sanctions are to be suspended in the near future. Briefly, everything boils down to two words: investments and capital. Without hesitation, the guests were informed of the impressive sum of 15 billion US Dollars. From the ten or so economic sectors which the hosts had offered, the French showed the greatest interest in telecommunications (the continuation of the operations commenced six years ago, and stopped in June of 1992), the railroad (fast trains) and, naturally, a possible "installing" of their banking system. They were clear from the very start. Of all the phrases, the ones that they liked best were those on the market and private sector, as stated by Gerard Degas, the head of the delegation and president of Alkatel at the preliminary talks held in Sava Center, where the guests were taken directly from the airport so that they could view the films and hear the introductory speeches.

During the numerous talks held at the Chamber of Economy with the general managers of the Serbian companies, at the Federal Government, at the National Bank of Yugoslavia and Government of Serbia, the conditions which we are to meet if we wish investments and economic cooperation to flow out way, became evident: a precise program of the private sector, debt liquidation and convertible local currency, functioning of the financial market and securities, as well as reintegration into the international financial system. Without that, Yugoslavia will remain a country of "high risk, where, according to certain international estimates, for every invested Dollar an additional 55 cents are to be put into the insurance funds" (National Bank, Paris).

The amount of 15 billion USD has appeared for the first time in the report of one of the almost forgotten Avramovic work groups. Namely, that is how heavy the investment package could be which should be open as soon as possible - is the gist of the message of the investment work group.

Almost half of this amount is "reserved" for telecommunications and the railroad (six plus one billion USD). That immediately points to two things: first, what is shakiest and second, how important a modern infrastructure for the functioning of the overall economy is. At the same time, these details are the most striking explanations why the French chose the president of Alkatel as the head of their economic delegation, one of the leading international companies in the telecommunications field. However, we should be acquainted with the fact that the head of Alkatel did not arrive groping in the dark. Six years ago, following up on a political decision of the Serbian authorities (therefore, without a prior international auction) Alkatel had practically built the foundations of technological domination in this region by signing an agreement with the Post Office, Telegraph and Telephone Company (PTT) of Serbia and EI Pupin. In a certain way, that has severed the several decades long continuity of Siemens (since 1912) and the positions of Ericson, which had been deeply immersed into the PTT system of Serbia, have been strongly shaken. Ericson is holding its positions in Montenegro ("It is not good for one country to have several technological systems" objects Gerard Degas), and as for Siemens, there is absolutely no question of their being definitely ousted from their traditional sphere of interest. Last summer's official visit of the Bundestag member, Joseph Vosen, to Belgrade, according to the information given by local businessmen, was directly financed by Siemens.

The second biggest investment package that was discussed with the French businessmen in Belgrade pertains to the railroad, that is, fast trains. The French have expressed their readiness to transport their technology and equipment to the Yugoslav Railroad as well as to start off with the railroad section Belgrade - Hungarian border. Naturally, in this arrangement, companies from Kraljevo, Trstenik, Smederevska Palanka and Nis would have their shares. The French are especially attractive here since out of all other European countries, they have advanced the most in the fast trains domain of over 200 kilometers per hour. The subject being discussed also concerns circumstances that have been hushed up here that the fast train system pertains only to passenger traffic, and it is questionable when the Balkan-Express will become commercially profitable in that sense.

The fact that the delegation of French businessmen had in their delegation representatives from Renault and Citroen has aroused great curiosity amongst our public. Primarily due to the fate of Zastava (the only automobile factory in Yugoslavia), which has been brought to its knees a long time ago and without any hopes of recovery on the foundations it was built on, following the lifting of the sanctions: foreign design with domestic production and sales. The people from Kragujevac have announced a long time ago that they hope for a partnership on new foundations, that they are ready to surrender ownership to their partner, that they are negotiating with several international companies (obligatorily stressing that Fiat still holds its honorable position if the Italians offer a satisfactory arrangement). The French denied, on the spot, news printed in certain local newspapers, that their intention is to completely take over Zastava, since current French automobile project capacities are completely full. However, interests exist in the field of cooperation on the mutual delivery of parts, and the presence of the Renault and Citroen representatives confirm that those were not merely courteous statements.

It seems that the French businessmen's presence has served to assess certain domestic ideas like, for example, those that foreigners would be enabled to buy shares of our energetic system. A decidedly negative answer was received followed by a suggestion: talks can be held concerning concessions for new energetic objects. In that span, the offer of the Yugoslav manufacturers of energetic equipment were lost for mutual investments on third markets ("we already have the production you are offering", was the French reply).

The Yugoslavs have also laid a few more infrastructure objects on the table: supplying the Montenegrin coast with water from Lake Skadar (118 kilometers long water supply system and a whole package of waste waters); filtering the waste waters of Belgrade; coming up with a solution for the ozone block worth a billion US Dollars in the Novi Sad water supply system, as well as several other lesser demands. For this as well the replies were precise: we must have an offer with precise conditions, we can only credit the parts we are working on, the prerequisite being complete reintegration into the international financial system. Almost identical answers were given to the groups in charge of petrol, gas, construction, the pharmaceutical industry. Always insisting on preciseness. As illustration in that regard, are the answers given to the pharmaceutical industry: production regulations, registration and drugs turnover, manner of price setting, the number of citizens included in the public health system.

Who finds himself in a situation where he has to, at least three times per day, reach for the phone - in, let's say, Belgrade - is guaranteed to become annoyed. Either his own telephone shall transmit busy signals, or he will find himself included in somebody else's conversation, or his conversation shall be disconnected in the midst of a sentence, and all that more often than not, accompanied by sounds which are very likely to harm your middle ear. Swear words aimed at the post office because of it shall be repeated only in the next few years under condition that a meeting is arranged for November 6 in Paris, as proposed by the people from Alkatel. Therefore, in the next week, a revision should be made on the previous agreement of around a billion USD to a larger amount, Yugoslav engineers are to become acquainted with the technological novelties introduced during the times of our sanctions and a special training program is to be set up for a larger number of our engineers. The French stated that they shall deliver 115,000 lines accompanied by corresponding equipment by the end of this year, of the previously agreed upon 150,000 lines, obtained thanks to a credit of the French government. Of course, under condition that the sanctions in Yugoslavia become drastically alleviated or lifted.