The National Association of Packaging and Material Handling celebrates its 35th anniversary

“We looked forward to 1990 with great expectations. In the spring, for the first time in a long time, free, democratic parliamentary elections took place, which confirmed the changes that had begun in the mid-1980s with the votes of the people, and this year entered the recent history of Hungary as the year of the regime change.

In Hungary, the changes had already begun around 1985, even while the official political system was still in existence. By 1988-89, political parties were formed one after another, thus creating the foundations of political pluralism. During this period, the room for maneuver of the leaders of large companies in economic decisions was becoming wider, so they were able to implement numerous reform steps, indicating the forerunners of later economic liberalization. With the beginning of the The planned economic model began to lay the foundations of a market economy.

The prepared, leading experts of the packaging industry recognized early on that fundamental legislative innovations resulting from the market economy, market competition, transformation and the need to return to Europe were expected, and these necessitated the creation of specialized interest representation for the participants in the economy.

In this political and economic environment and even before the elections, the leaders of 72 companies participating in the March 1990 meeting of the Packaging Section of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce decided to establish the independent legal personality of the Packaging and Material Handling National Association, CSAOSZ, which was registered by the Metropolitan Court in June as the second in Hungary.

This forward thinking also resulted in the fact that by the time the new government began its operations in earnest, CSAOSZ already had a prepared working organization. The Association focused its work primarily on issues affecting the profession, as Galli Former CSAOSZ president Miklós once remarked: “we have to deal with what hurts us.”

While in the early period governments changed every four years, new and fresh concepts were born, CSAOSZ was characterized by stability, conceptual and unified leadership, and was able to carry out consistent work.