Page 44 - bne_May 2021_20210601

44 I Central Europe bne June 2021
Czech former president Vaclav Klaus reportedly secretly sent a loan
to Soviet Union after revolution
bne IntelliNews
The Czech post-revolutionary finance minister (and later Czech president) Vaclav Klaus allegedly fulfilled a loan contract concluded by the head of the Czech communist government, Ladislav Adamec, with the Soviet Union just before the Velvet Revolution that brought the Communist reign to an end, and sent around $1.3bn to the Russians (one third of the total Russian debt to Czechia), daily Hospodarske Noviny (HN) and Aktualne.cz reported.
The uncovered documents confirmed that Czechoslovakia did really send the money to the Soviet Union and that the Russians acknowledged the debt. However, the loan was quietly shifted to a package of so-called Russian debt from the 1990s which politicians claimed were old receivables from pre-1989.
The daily stressed that the loan to the Soviets was sent despite the protests of the then-state bankers, who warned Klaus against the billion-dollar loan. "It is not clear from what sources the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank will cover the transfer," wrote CEO of the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank (CSOB) Rostislav Petras to Klaus in December 1989.
Back then CSOB was part of the Czech central bank and was in charge of financing foreign trade under the direct supervision of the state and loans in foreign currencies.
Klaus himself has denied these allegations. "I repeat it again that I know nothing about a contract of November 10, 1989. ... It's been 32 years. It happened during [the] communist era, it was certainly a treaty that was not publicly discussed," he said, claiming the reports are a pre-arranged attack on him, possibly with the aim of blocking his return to politics.
According to HN, an agreement was proposed in April 1989 by an official of the Ministry of Finance, Zdenek Rachac, who until November 6, 1989 was on the list of the Czech Secret Police (StB) as a collaborator with the code name Riga. Rachac later took a job at the finance ministry, in which he remained after Klaus joined the office as his adviser.
"I don't know the name Zdenek Rachac, he was probably one of several hundred employees of the finance ministry, but he was by no means my advisor. I have never consulted with him, I do not know anything about him,” Klaus denied.
Klaus resigned as PM in 1998 and the current President Milos Zeman (back then leader of the Social Democrats) became the new head of the cabinet.
Zeman then in a hurry agreed a deal with the Russians amounting to only one fifth of the total debt, or CZK100bn, and the rest would be waived. The condition set by the Russians was that the transaction would take place through intermediaries, Russia’s RAO UES and a Czech firm Falcon Capital. But Russia only sent CZK53bn, half of the loan, and another CZK30bn went missing.
Hungary
When German carmaker BMW announced plans in 2019 to build a €1bn assembly plant in Debrecen, near the Romanian border, it aimed to produce 150,000 models a year using internal combustion engines. After a delay because of the pandemic, the project
is now back on track as an EV plant.
Audi and Daimler, which are already present in Hungary, are already producing hybrids. Audi began serial production of the Audi Q3 plug-in hybrid at its plant in Gyor last year and Daimler has invested €140mn to add fully electric vehicles to the production palette at its Hungarian base this year. Audi, one of the largest investors in Hungary, with
a total of €9bn spent over the past 25 years, launched production of electric motors at its Gyor plant in July 2018.
Japan’s Suzuki exclusively manufactures hybrid Suzuki Vitara and SX4 S-Cross models for the Hungarian and EU markets.
The Hungarian government has supported these investments with generous subsidies as part of its push into electromobility. It is also pushing aggressively into battery production.
The world’s leading EV battery producers have established their presence in the country. Korea's SK Innovation plans to spend $2.3bn – the largest Hungarian greenfield investment to date – to start to build a 30-GWh plant in Hungary this year; it already has two, one of them producing 7.5 GWh of batteries
a year and another making 10 GWh.
South Korean Samsung SDI and the Japanese GS Yuasa have already picked Hungary for their European manufacturing hubs.
The government is also backing autono- mous driving. It has funded ZalaZone, a unique race track for testing autonomous cars. Hungary even has a domestic firm in this space: AImotive, which is developing technology using cameras and AI so a car can detect its surroundings. AImotive has become the largest VC-backed company developing automated driving technology in Europe, with total funding of $75mn.
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