There was very little contact with the West, and then suddenly they discovered they were 20 or 30 years behind, and that the West did not want their shoddy products. So they had a hard time acquiring Western capital to modernize their industries. Here in America we have the choice to buy products from around the world. It allows for competition and greater efficiency. Businessmen need to travel to see what the competition is doing and what the consumers want.
Freedom of information is one of the most important aspects for business.
These freedoms were absent in these communist countries. Moreover, their communications networks were backwards, and it took financial networks weeks to clear a check. There was a man from Poland who imported electronic products from Singapore. He had to go to Singapore himself to pay his supplier in cash because he could not transmit checks through the Polish checking system. What Execuserve International wants to do is to provide the best possible communications for our clients.