Land of the Blue(??)Danube
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, is flying to Austria today. Despite the fact that the Danube that passes through Vienna is more muddy than blue, the thought of this once imperial city of pomp and show, culture and music invokes a sense of history even in the least romantic. Austria being one of the two countries (the other being Switzerland) at the neutral core of Europe, is geographically placed at a crossroads between East and West, North and South. This small nation of 9 million people, of which full 98% are German speaking, was at the centre of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, its location determining its important and central role in European road, rail, air and river traffic.
Austria is now a democratic republic based on the 1920 constitution (made in the aftermath of the collapse of the Empire), with minor changes effected in 1929. This constitution was overturned by an authoritarian regime in 1934, in turn eliminated by Hitler’s Anchluss in 1938 (the annexation of Austria by Germany), being restored by liberation at the end of World War II. Austria has been dominated by two political parties, the Peoples Party, in contrast to its Pakistani namesake a combination of conservative forces and religious groupings, very much like the Islamic Democratic Alliance (the IJI or Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) and the Socialist Party, which like the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) followed a leftist democratic platform in its initial history before adopting a more pragmatic platform (since 1945).
At present Austria’s main trading partners are West Germany and Switzerland but the greatest invisible export is the tourist trade with tourists spending about 60 million nights in Austria annually. This accounts for a great influx of foreign currency and acts as a tremendous boost to the mixed economy.
At the end of the Second World War in 1945, a large sector of Austrian enterprises and industries came under Soviet control as they were alleged to be German-owned. In 1946 the Austrian Parliament nationalised this large segment that included three of the biggest banks and 70 of the larger industries, mainly in the fields of iron and steel, aluminum and machinery. Subsequently the number was reduced to only 19. This public sector grouping and management thereof acted as a role model for the PPP planners of the early 70s, the architect of nationalisation in Pakistan being the German-speaking Secretary General of the Peoples Party, Mr.J A Rahim, who as the Federal Minister for Production (and Presidential Affairs) was the first Chairman of the Board of Industrial Management (BIM), modelled closely on the Osterreische Industrie-Ahlian-Gesellschaft or OIAG (Austria Industrial Administration). Unfortunately for Pakistan, the senior management was overwhelmingly composed of bureaucrats who closely followed government policies or that which brought personal gain without exercising any initiative or displaying the honesty and dedication of the professionals of the OIAG whose Board of Directors did represent the Government but were totally independent in respect of managerial decisions.
Government, management and labour in Austria have generally followed a wage-price policy that has attempted to avoid social upheaval by cooperative participation in a joint wage-price commission, a body that includes representatives of the various segments of the economy and coordinates wage and price movements. This allows for meaningful and objective-oriented collective bargaining to take place without causing a debilitating hammerlock on the economy. Most important, each of the economic groups in Austria-labour, management and the farmers have approximately similar independent structure and organisation that cooperate with each other to provide relative economic stability. While a special trading relationship exists with the European Community, Austria has been a trading crossroads in deals between the East and the West. While three-fourth of the economy is in private sector hands, there is an exceedingly good blend with the public sector. One wishes that this were the case in Pakistan, Third World countries must have a conducive public sector-private sector mix!
The net result is that Austria has a very strong industrial base which is modern by western standards but not that sophisticated as to be beyond the reach of Third World blue-collar workers. Some of the world’s biggest industrial conglomerates such as the Voest-Alpine Group, the Simmering-Graz-Pauker (SGP) companies, the Steyr Group of industries, etc belong to Austria. The manufactured items are world class and much cheaper than their western cousins, the quality and efficacy of some of the material has no comparison in the world. Above all, the Austrians are good trading partners, being honest in effecting transfer of technology adequately and without the fuss one presently associates with western countries. For Third World countries usually at the receiving end of a short stick, this makes for a trustworthy partner.
The visit of the Prime Minister of Pakistan attaches special significance when one takes into account the objectives of the Nawaz Sharif Government (as indeed the Ms Benazir regime previously) to search non-traditional partners for trade expansion and to break free from the present embrace of restrictive trade confined to a few traditional items. Nawaz Sharif’s visit has been closely preceded by that of the Commerce Minister, Malik Naeem Khan, and obviously the framework has been laid to break fresh ground in trade expansion. One important consideration would be to seek out those items which are of critical necessity to Pakistan, especially in the field of defence production. To make the visit meaningful the Prime Minister would be well advised to enter into serious negotiations concerning necessary items for transfer of technology along with relevant buy-back clauses.
One of the companies that the Prime Minister is likely to visit would be the Steyr Group, a conglomerate making a wide range of military and civilian products consisting of small arms, cross country vehicles, tactical military trucks, armoured vehicles (both tracked and wheeled) besides tractors, motor cycles (Mopeds), etc. It may be remembered that the famous German Tiger tanks of World War II were actually the Steyr tank produced in their St Valentine factory. Though each of the Steyr companies have become more or less independent, our interest should be focussed on Steyr-Mannlicher and their Army Universal Gun (AUG), a unique 5.56 mm NATO calibre weapon that is already in use in the Defence services and other law enforcement agencies in Pakistan. This weapon transforms from a short barrelled automatic weapon to a long barrel automatic rifle or even a light machine gun with a long barrel with bipod, all with the simple change of requisite barrel! There is an optical sight of 1.5 magnification and the body of the weapon is made of composite material that is rust proof, the barrel being from chromite. This is the perfect weapon for the modern infantryman, bringing accurate aimed fire on the enemy and an overdue change from the Heckler & Koch Rifle G-3 Calibre 7.62 mm NATO standard presently in use in the Pakistan Army. The AUG is supposed to have done extremely well in field trials all over the world including Pakistan. Malaysia and Australia have already established factories producing the weapon in their respective countries. Any army that is to depend primarily on the infantry, as do all countries of Third World origin must have a light infantry weapon that can exercise due fear among the country’s opponents. Vested interest in the form of extremely corrupt technocrats, military and civilian, have contrived to keep open the doors for Heckler and Koch’s caseless ammunition project (not yet perfected) and thus have managed to delay the decision-making on one pretext or the other as much as possible so as to keep the pretences of their own dubious contender afloat. While opting for F-16s and other high-tech weapons, including smart weapons, at tremendous cost, we seem to forget that it is the infantryman who deserves a force-multiplier weapon in his hands. If favourable terms can be forthcoming, it is time to initiate the changeover as soon as possible.
Austria is one of the world leaders in hydel technology, as a net power shortage area with mountainous region Pakistan could enter into mutually profitable ventures in this area. Austria has many companies in this field with a wide range of hydel stations from the smallest size to large projects. Private sector entrepreneurs entering into the field of power generation will find Austria an excellent partner. Similarly in other fields, such as railways, road building, etc, we could enter into profitable negotiations. Already Voest Alpine has undertaken a major project in the expansion of Pakistan Steel.
The Prime Minister’s trip to Austria is welcome if it can yield important trade results for our mutual benefit. There is a whole variety of fields for mutual exploitation provided we can cut through the bureaucratic red tape for national benefit. The speed with which the PM’s trip has been arranged seems to suggest serious efforts are under way to make the trip result-oriented, if successful, we can hum “Blue Danube” with some feeling on the PM’s return from Vienna.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment