EFTA & UNIDO

Simo Jelača, Ph.D.

While working as a director of two factories under construction: for the production of high-fructose syrups and grain alcohol, in Vrbas, I often had meetings ex officio at the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade, so in the summer of 1986 I was invited to Yugoslav business delegations participate in the meeting of EFTA countries in Vienna, during the Vienna Fair.

The EFTA Association, the European Free Trade Association, was formed in 1960 under the Stockholm Declaration. The member countries were: Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and later: Iceland, Finland, Liechtenstein and Yugoslavia joined. Our task at that meeting was to insist on the greatest possible duty-free exchange of goods of European countries. The head of the Yugoslav delegation was Milorad Unkovic. We flew to Vienna with an Austrian company from Belgrade, via Dubrovnik, so that the plane would not land twice on the route Vienna - Belgrade-Dubrovnik and vice versa, and in Vienna we were accommodated in a small hotel on "Prince Eugene" street.

As the first day of our stay in Vienna was a Sunday, we visited the Vienna Fair, and then we took a bus "Jugoturs" around the city, visited some castles and churches as well as some other city landmarks, among which the most important castle "Schönbrunn". It was the time when the vineyards were picked in the vicinity of Vienna, so our driver took us to a suburban place where we attended the grape harvest and tasted their wines from previous years, with a good appetizer. The day was sunny and warm, autumn, very pleasant to enjoy nature.

UNIDO, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, is a United Nations industrial development organization, in the field of food industry, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, in a building called, abbreviated, UNO CITY.

That year, I started working for that United Nations organization, as a training manager for engineers from developing countries. The training was held once a year, for three months, in Novi Sad. The training was under the jurisdiction of the Yugoslav government (Federal Executive Council) and was funded by the United Nations and the Federal Executive Council of Yugoslavia.

During my stay in Vienna, as a member of the Yugoslav delegation at the EFTA meeting, I took the opportunity to pay a short visit to the UNIDO Center, where I met the staff in charge of our training program and agreed on a program for the first year. The head of the training program for UNIDO was Ms. Lorenzo, and her assistant, Mr. Hanzelman, who attended the completion of each training session.

As the head of the UNIDO training program for developing countries, I went to Vienna every year before the start of the training, where we determined the training program, selected candidates, taking into account the equal representation of countries by continents and nationalities, and determined all necessary elements for candidates. calculated the expected costs (costs of airline tickets, accommodation, local transportation, food, possible medical expenses and personal allowance). We divided the monetary needs into dollar and dinar amounts, which were divided into UNIDO and SIV.

At home, in Novi Sad, I contacted all the candidates, provided them with airline tickets, gave them information about the expected weather forecasts in Yugoslavia during the training and how to dress, provided them with hotel accommodation, waited for each candidate at the airport and drove it to Novi Sad, mediated in the SUP when needed, gave them pocket money, city maps, and when we had training in factory plants I personally drove them in vans, provided permits for visits to factories and everything that came up as necessary . After completing the course, I drove them to the airport.

Every year, we have had cases where candidates from Africa come without winter clothes, simply because they have never had the opportunity to feel winter in their lives, so we gave them our clothes in such situations. We even had one case when a candidate from an African country came to us "pregnant", and abortion was forbidden in her country, so she did it in Novi Sad, and I presented the costs as a necessary increase in the pocket money of all candidates, because increased inflation. And it passed. She was grateful.

In the last year, just before the break-up of Yugoslavia, when inflation was gaining immeasurable proportions, all training costs were rising, so I had to ask for additional funding from both SIV and UNIDO.

When I addressed the SIV, the then President of the Federal Executive Council was Radoje Kontić. I arranged a meeting with their chief of finances and had a meeting in person with Radoje Kontić. When I presented our difficulties and needs to him, he turned to me:

- You know, we finance you in dinars as a means of payment, and we also have payment obligations for our staff in New York, at the United Nations. We pay them in dollars. Here, I will give the order to make a payment in dinars to you now, and do not accidentally come to me soon to ask for payment supplements in dollars. I understand that Mr. Radoje confused two things, in his mind, he connected us with the United Nations in New York, and I gave him my word of honor:

- I give you my word of honor that I will not ask you for dollar funds.

He called the director of accounting and she came, wrote me a check, and I greeted them with sincere gratitude and left satisfied. In essence, I passed the president of SIV, and it is my fault that he did not understand enough about finances.

I went through a similar experience in Vienna. I go to visit Mrs. Lorenzo, explain our needs to her, and she looks at me suspiciously. I ask her:

- Mrs. Lotenzo, did you receive your salary?

"Yes," she replied, a little surprised by the question.

"And did Mr. Hanzelman receive a salary?" I asked her, to which she also answered in the affirmative, with even greater astonishment. Then I said to her:

"Mrs. Lotenzo, I didn't get paid!" Then she paused, as if holding her breath, looked at me for a while, then picked up the phone and called the chief accountant and gave her an order to bring her a check, and when she brought one, Mrs. Lorenzo wrote it for me for $ 12,000. I remember Mr. Kontić then, so I think that even Mrs. Lorenzo cannot understand high inflation and how to survive it. I leave satisfied, with a job well done.

When the courses were over, Mr. Hanzelman came to us regularly and attended the final tests of the acquired knowledge, the impressions of the candidates, questions and suggestions and everything that interested him. Mr. Hanzelman signed the certificates we issued to the candidates, and at the end we exchanged addresses and took pictures for memories.

During the tour of the facilities where the candidates had practical training, we experienced friends' impressions, and we always tried to include visits to tourist attractions on those trips. We wanted to show them the beauties of our country, Yugoslavia.

We also had one case where one candidate arrived a day later than planned, and he arrived in Novi Sad at night, drunk. As he failed to find me or anyone responsible for the training, he turned to the police and spent the night with them in some necessary accommodation. The next day, by some chance, the militia found me and I brought him to our premises. We also had the case of a candidate who worked for the intelligence service. There was everything and everything, and there were, nevertheless, extraordinarily beautiful experiences. We stayed in contact with some candidates.

SHARE THIS PAGE ON: