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GV EXTERIOR Victoria Inter-continental Hotel, Warsaw
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CU COMECON sign ZOOM OUT TO GV conference in progress
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SV Polish Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz seated
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SV Romanian Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz seated
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SV Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin
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SV Hungarian Prime Minister Gyorgy Lazar (2 shots)
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SV East German Prime Minister Willy Stoph
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SV Cuban Prime Minister C.R. Rodriguez
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SV Mongolian Prime Minister Z. Batmukh
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SV North Korean and other delegates
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SV Czechoslovak Prime Minister Lubomir Sztrougal
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CU ZOOM OUT TO GV Polish Prime Minister addressing conference
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Initials OS



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Prime Ministers of the Soviet block economic grouping, COMECON, met in Warsaw on Tuesday (21 June) to review progress among the nine member states towards the goal of interesting their economic planning.

Mr Jaroszewicz said "socialist integration" among the COMECON members served "the interests of working people" and denied that it would restrict co-operation with outside countries.

SYNOPSIS: A three-day session at Warsaw's luxury Victoria-Intercontinental Hotel review progress since a communist summit conference in East Berlin last year announced 10 to 15 year "common goal" programme in five key sectors. The five fields concerned are energy and raw materials, engineering, agriculture and food, consumer good and transport. The Polish Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz is hosting the conference.

Romania, represented at the conference by Prime Minister Manea Manescu, has traditionally objected to integration and specialisation amongst the COMECON countries since they feel this would force them to concentrate on less profitable sectors. The Soviet union has been the strongest advocate of integration and specialisation. The meeting was attended by the Prime Ministers of Romania, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Cuba, Mongolia and the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, which has associate membership, sent a Vice-President of the Federal Executive Council Dobrosav Czulaficz, and there were observers from Angola, North Korea, Vietnam and Laos.

The Premiers are discussing the 1976-80 plan period, in which, for the first time, member countries have written integration measures into their individual five-year plans. These partly involve joint investment projects, many of them large fuel and energy schemes in the Soviet Union. Energy resources are one of COMECON's major concerns.

In his opening speech Prime Minister Jaroszewicz denied that COMECON was dominated by the Soviet Union as alleged in the west.