Dutch ambassador sorry to leave Hungary

After four years' service as Dutch Ambassador to Hungary, Ronald Mollinger was appointed to the helm of the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC).

The Dutch were the stereotypical sailors during the Middle Ages, but this time an influential Hollander is involved in marine affairs that could even contribute to supplying a drying planet's increasingly thirsty population with long-term water sources. After four years' service as Dutch ambassador to Hungary, Ronald Mollinger says he has been appointed to take the helm of the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC).

The MEDRC, promoting cooperation on the vital issue of water scarcity in the Middle East, is an intergovernmental organization in which Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, the United States, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands work together to solve such issues in the region. "The issues tackled include desalination, but also the reuse of waste water, and currently, providing emergency and reconstruction aid for Gaza. The MEDRC board includes Israelis and Palestinians who are able to control the aid mechanism from planning to the execution phase," Mollinger told Diplomacy and Trade in a recent interview. Despite its name, the Directorship of MEDRC is also a political position.

Elected last December from among 140 candidates, Mollinger's role will be managing mainly the external relations of the organization, and to raise awareness about the organization among would be MEDRC sponsors. Still, the organization's main activity is desalination, without which, the Middle East is not going to survive, according to Mollinger. "Fortunately, the price of desalination is decreasing due to technological development," he added. Cooking and filtering are the two methods that exist to extract drinkable fresh water from sea water. The first means boiling sea water, which is an expensive method used primarily for producing electricity with fresh water as a by-product.

The filtration method, also called ‘reversed osmosis’, pushes water though a filtering membrane. Mollinger arrived in Hungary in 2005 with numerous goals, such as involving Hungary in Afghanistan peacekeeping issues, due to his previous assignment of special envoy of the Netherlands to Afghanistan. Mollinger says he has his extensive involvement in Middle-Eastern affairs to thank for his appointment. "I have spent time as commercial counselor in Saudi Arabia, Ambassador in Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Tehran and as special envoy to the Gulf and Afghanistan. “After successful negotiations which I was involved in, Hungary took over the Netherlands Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Baghlan province,” Mollinger said. Now, Hungary also decided to join the leading Dutch troops, which are now based in the dangerous southern province of Uruzgan, and are going to train Afghan troops in the battle field. Concerning Dutch-Hungarian cultural relations,

Mollinger is proud to have been involved in organizing the Dutch-Flemish Low Festival in Hungary, in 2008. “Low was the largest Dutch cultural festival internationally," he pointed out. "It was a big success because we gave Hungarian organizers their own budget to personalize the event to a Hungarian audience." The Ambassador’s goals also included supporting the activities of the Dutch-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce. “I realized that our members are characteristically service-oriented SMEs, involved in banking, pensions, real estate, human resources, event organization, logistics, IT and leasing, whose clients are large, international corporate groups,” Mollinger said. As these companies arrive, they seek quality services they are accustomed to, which the ambassador believes Hungarian companies may not provide for them, as yet.

“This is why the Chamber is involved from the very beginning, providing assistance in human resources, real estate, office decoration or IT services,” he adds. As an example, Mollinger recalls a matchmaking reception held to provide an opportunity for Dutch service oriented companies looking for Japanese or Korean industrial partners, which established contacts and even business agreements. Mollinger is a member of the so-called 'Transparency Working Group', an alliance of nine Ambassadors of the biggest investor nations in Hungary. "We advise the Government on transparency and the fight against corruption. It's been a work of both success and disappointment,” he said.

The ambassador called party financing “the most serious sickness of Hungarian society," and wonders why highway construction is 40% more costly than Western European markets. Despite this, Mollinger hopes his efforts will leave a mark in the history of Hungary, and will have contributed to its development into a modern, democratic and transparent market economy.