Annual Report 2004 [antikvár]

1. PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2003-2004 Dear AmCham Members, Having now compieted my two-year term as the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary, it is with mixed emotion that I sit down to write my introduction to this year's annual report. During this period I have wntten several letters in our publication the "Business Hungary" touching on a number of critical issues, both political and economical affecting the business climate under which our membership works in this country. Let me not repeat myself (even though it would make the writing of this introduction a lot simpler). It was with great pleasure, and I admit, alsó with somewhat of a surprise that I have received several supporting comments from our members and alsó from readers as far away as the United States and Brussels on somé of the more controversial issues that I tried to champion during my term of office. One of these was a somewhat futile attempt to tone down the political debate between government and opposition to a level that was less likely to deterthe faint hearted investor reading only the headlines. This attempt I admit was less than successful, although nevertheless absolutely necessary. In any case, FDI is once again on the rise and business delegations continue to come to Hungary looking for opportunities. We at the AmCham continue our work in meeting with these groups and individuals and encouraging them to jóin us in Hungary. So let us now see what we did accomplish... The state of our organization is good! With our six hundred members representingthe cream ofthe investment and business community in Hungary we are without question the preeminent business organization in the country. While our size and our list of members would have been sufficient to retain this position, and rest on a laurels, we have nevertheless this past year taken a very active position to live up to our vision "to be the leading representative for US and intemational business in Hungary and to promote the global competitiveness of the country" by issuing a number of position briefs on such critical issues as Education, Logistics, and Taxation, following a previous one on the investment promotion system. These summaries of somé very professionally prepared studies, containing specific recommendations, have been extremely well-received and have been the subject of follow-up discussions with responsible Ministers, state secretaries and government officials. This work must continue and the responsible committees and individual contributors must be acknowledged. At the same time I would ask that more and more of our individual