Hungarian Post faces hard times ahead
The Hungarian post Magyar Posta will have a hard time meeting European Union standards, Magyar Posta president Gyorgy Csaki told a meeting organised by the Association of Postal Workers.
He said the postal services market will be fully liberalised by 2009.
Mr Csaki said the company will face substantial costs in the run-up to liberalisation. Calculating the company’s costs is very difficult, although essential to its endeavours, he said.
He said the post office will not receive any central budget subsidies this year, though the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications will pay HUF 400m for IT developments, and the expected sale of Postabank will also bring in some money.
Mr Csaki said Magyar Posta should spend HUF 80-90bn on investments and HUF 40bn to restore the capital balance of the company.
He added that the post does not expect to see any EU funds before 2006-2007.
Magyar Posta has still not completed its 2003 business plan and strategy. Mr Csaki said the company will invest over HUF 20bn in development projects this year, but less in 2004.
(HUF 100 = EUR 0.4097)
Copyright 2003 Hungarian News Agency Corporation. Source: Financial Times Information Limited.
