ABSTRACT
With priority given to industry, the tertiary sector was generally neglected. Furthermore, the elimination of private wealth reduced banking and financial services to insignificance and also eliminated virtually all the demand for quality shopping. Even certain services of great strategic importance, like telecommunications, were poorly developed and many rural areas were almost totally isolated apart from basic provision to serve the network of local government offices, police stations and socialist farms. Even the more advanced economies failed to appreciate the constraint on efficiency arising from a backward telecoms sector (though Bulgaria did well in this respect thanks to the industrial profile that evolved under Comecom specialisation). Of course, the provision of even basic services requires substantial numbers to be employed in health and education, not to mention trade and transport; so the 25.6% of the workforce scored by Romania in 1989 represents the bare minimum with substantially more in Bulgaria (34.4%), Poland (35.5%) and Hungary (42.6%)—but with lower percentages all round for contribution to national income. Construction was naturally accorded greater status, almost as a branch of industry, since it was crucial for the achievement of the development plans (and became significent for foreign trade through many projects that were undertaken abroad, often as part of international aid programmes): this would account for another 7-10% of the workforce and slightly more in terms of national income. Regional distribution does not show great variations since planning aimed at reasonable equality of provision but the more highly urbanised regions stand out-and likewise the more developed republics in Yugoslavia (with Montenegro’s good showing a reflection of the coastal tourist trade). However, the concentration of East Germany’s industry in the south tends to give services greater relative importance in the north (Figure 7.1). As with earlier periods, this study will now focus on transport, energy and tourism.
