Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 18; CZECHOSLOVAKIA; THE ECONOMY CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110014-8.pdf/24

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110014-8

Exports of processed agricultural commodities represent only a small share of the overall output of the industry and consist mostly of sugar, malt, and beer.

Plans call for reducing the food industry's dependence on imported raw materials and bringing about a structural change in product mix by increasing the relative importance of meat, milk and dairy products, and fruits and vegetables at the expense of fats and flour. Government officials, however, admit that these goals will be difficult to achieve without a large infusion of investment funds. The industry is characterized by a large number of small facilities with obsolescent, inefficient equipment. It has neither the flexibility to cope with annual and seasonal fluctuations in agricultural production nor the capacity—especially cold storage—to take advantage of particularly good harvests of agricultural products. Deficiencies in the transportation system and distribution network also have contributed to delays and losses in the procurement of raw materials and in the distribution of processed commodities.

e. Construction

The construction sector accounts for 11.9% of national income and employs 639,000 workers (10.5% of the nonagricultural labor force). Since 1956 growth rates have fluctuated greatly:

Total construction for 1972 was valued at 87.6 billion korunas.

During recent years the construction industry has continued to encounter many problems, some of which are similar to those encountered by other major sectors of the economy. It is poorly managed, and too many projects are started without adequate resources for their completion. The industry has suffered from shortages of labor—particularly shortages of special skills—and from a large turnover of laborers, averaging one-third of production workers annually. Yet, despite these problems, the industry, when compared with its counterparts in other East European countries, is relatively efficient. Together with East Germany, Czechoslovakia in the early 1960's led the other East European countries in the level of labor productivity in construction. The Czechoslovak industry does not, however, compare favorably with similar industries in Western Europe, where average labor productivity in construction is 20% to 30% higher.

Czechoslovak construction has been characterized by building methods which rely primarily on manual labor and on traditional building methods. Ordinary clay brick has been used for a large share of the masonry construction, even though the use of concrete has increased in recent years. Because of the outmoded structure of the building materials industry, a significant share of output is not sold to construction firms, and stocks of unsold materials expand rapidly. Moreover, the assortment of building materials—estimated at 20,000 items—is one-fifteenth that available in Western Europe, and is generally of much poorer quality. It is estimated, for example, that the inferior quality of thermal insulation available in Czechoslovakia increases by 30% the fuel requirement for heating houses. Another factor affecting the quality of construction is the small proportion—compared with Western Europe—of workers engaged in repair and modernization of existing structures.

Methods have been developed to use prefabricated, prestressed concrete components for apartment buildings and the foundations of industrial plants. A number of factories for the production of concrete

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110014-8