INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION IN GDR AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 49 inability to provide a comparable assortment of consumer goods, puts an unbeatable pressure on the leadership to increase efficiency. On the other hand, GDR's cultural and geographical closeness with FRG has also made GDR's leadership extremely wary of introducing measures which may result in any kind of political or economic instability. There exists no immediate crisis situation in the GDR to require major alteration in planning and management methods. In any case the viability of the Hungarian reforms or the proposed Soviet reforms is yet to be proved in unambiguous terms. NOTES 1. The Soviet Union has shown a keen desire to enter the capitalist world market, which will naturally constrain its participation in CMEA division of labour. 2. Osnovhye Polozheniia was passed by the Central Committee Plenum in June 1987. For details see Hewett (1?88). 3. For a detailed description of NES and post-NES recentralisation see Leptin (1975), Leptin and Melzer (1978), Karen (1973 a, b). 4. On the state of technology in the GDR and various measures undertaken for attaining innovative efficiency see Bentley (1984). 5. The arrangement would come to an end in 1992, and the GDR will have to look for alternative export avenues. 6. Incidentally Gorbachev's offer for greater autonomy to enterprises in dealing with the external economy-enterprises can retain a part of the export earnings, which can be directly used for import purposes. REFERENCES Bentley, Raymond (1984), Technological Change in the German Democratic Republic, West View Press. Boot, Peter (1983), 'Continuity and Change in Planning System of GDR', Soviet Studies, Vol. XXXV, No. 3. Karen, Michael (1973a), "The New Economic System in GDR: An Obituary', Soviet Studies, Vol. XXXIV, No. 4. ———— (1973b), 'Concentration amid Devolution in East Germany's Reform', in Bomstein Morris (ed.). Plan and Market—Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe, Yale University Press. Leptin, G. (1975), 'The German Democratic Republic', in Hohman Kaser Thalheim (ed.), The New Economic System of Eastern Europe, Harst and Company, London. Leptin, G. and M. Melzer (1978), Economic Reforms in East German Industry, Oxford University Press. Liberman, E.G. (1962), 'The Plan Profits and Bonuses', Pravda, Sept. 9, Excerpts available in A Nove and D.M. Nuty (eds.). Socialist Economies, Penguin Books. Melzer, M. (1981), 'Combine Formation in the GDR', Soviet Studies, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1. ———— (1982a), 'The GDR Economic Policy Caught Between Pressure for Efficiency and Lack of Ideas', in A. Nove, H.H. Hohman and Stecher Seiden (eds.). The East European Economies in the 70s, Butterworth and Co. Ltd. Patnaik, Prabhat (1989), 'Efficiency, Planning and Reforms in Socialist Economies: Some Theoretical Comments'. Paper presented at the workshop on Socialist Economies organised by Social Scientist, March 24-26, 1989.