Word: bonne
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...backbone of West Germany's economy. There is a great need for such firms in the East, which suffers a dearth of everything from corner restaurants to car dealerships. In the past two months, some 40,000 East Germans have applied for a share of the $3.5 billion that Bonn will make available to them over the next three years for loans to start small enterprises...
Obviously, the move from big and bungling to small and snappy will not be painless. Even those Kombinate most likely to survive the rigors of a free market, such as optics manufacturer Zeiss-Ikon Jena, will have to cut their bloated payrolls. Officials in Bonn have estimated that the ranks of the East German jobless will grow from 26,000 today to an estimated 2 million (out of a work force of 8 million) by next year...
Ironically, the transition to a sleeker economy will be eased further by the estimated 1 million East German workers who will be occupied over the next two years filling orders placed by the Soviet Union. Bonn has pledged that a unified Germany will honor those contracts. "The Soviets cannot generate economic success on their own," says Pieroth, "and it is in no one's interest for them to fail...
Private investments from West Germany will fund most of East Germany's makeover, but the Bonn government will bear the huge costs of swapping the East's nonconvertible currency for deutsche marks and establishing social benefits, like unemployment insurance, in the East. But Pieroth insists that those expenditures will be offset by an additional one to two percentage points of economic growth he reckons will be created in West Germany by new business opportunities in the East...
London: William Mader, Anne Constable Paris: Christopher Redman, Margot Hornblower Brussels: Adam Zagorin Bonn: James O. Jackson Rome: Cathy Booth Eastern Europe: John Borrell Moscow: John Kohan, Ann Blackman Jerusalem: Jon D. Hull Cairo: Dean Fischer, William Dowell Nairobi: Marguerite Michaels Johannesburg: Scott MacLeod New Delhi: Edward W. Desmond Beijing: Sandra Burton, Jaime A. FlorCruz Southeast Asia: William Stewart Hong Kong: Jay Branegan Bangkok: Ross H. Munro Seoul: David S. Jackson Tokyo: Barry Hillenbrand, Seiichi Kanise, Kumiko Makihara Ottawa: James L. Graff Central America: John Moody Rio de Janeiro: Laura Lopez...