European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes Money matters wednesday july 6, 1994p- today a rates following Are fixed Rales at which community., banking and credit Union facilities will sell for-., eign currencies to . Personnel for personal use a British Pound .1.58 dutch Guilder. 1.74 German Mark. 1.55 greek drachma 233.1225 nolo the rates above apply within the Host country. Figures Are expressed in dollars so the British Pound other currencies 1o the Dollar. A following Are Interbank rates that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign currencies austrian Schilling .11.2075 Bahrain Dinar. 0.37675 belgian franc. 32,99 British Pound. 1.5445 Canadian Dollar .1.387 danish Krone 6.251 dutch Guilder. 1.792 French franc 5.445 German Mark 15695 italian lira 1,574.25 Kuwait Dinar 0.295b norwegian Krone portuguese escudo .164.05 saudi rial. 3.7503 Spanish peseta. 131.28 Swiss franc 1.3365 turkish lira 31,000,00. Note figures Aro of pics amp of to dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar. Gold quote s3q7.go an ounce. A Silver quote1. $5.40 an ounce \. Sources merchants National ban 4 Trust co the associated press,.United press International Californi Japan acts to ease on imports Tokyo apr Japan a new government committed itself tuesday to enforcing measures designed to ease business Antt Trade regulations that its trading partners say Block them out of japanese markets. Socialist prime minister Tomiichi Murayama plans to explain the Long promised deregulation plan to president Clinton this week in Naples Italy officials said. Clinton Murayama and other leaders of the group of seven Industrial nations will hold a three Day annual economic Summit there beginning Friday. Tuesdays Cabinet approval turns the package which cuts regulations that hinder Trade in 279 items into official government policy. Last week the previous government under prime minister Tsutomu Hata adopted it but. Only As a Batch of  changes. A. A Murayama told a news conference Friday that he would continue to promote economic Reform  consumer demand to try to increase economic expansion and  friction. Deregulation measures Are essentially government orders to Rcd a the applications for licenses  do business Complex rules on How to import products and other forms of red tape that place business activity at the discretion of bureaucrats. The United slates and other trading partners say  help boost economic activity and encourage imports. A Quot fiut Many experts including finance minister Masayoshi take Mura said tucs. Days Steps Are not enough Quot Takemura said the current package is a a insufficient and urged other Cabinet members to promote deregulation More aggressively. A this package is a step in the right direction Butmore Steps Are necessary to give foreign competitors a better Chance at Success on Japan a Market said Jason James an economist at James Cape Pacific Japan posted a $59 billion Trade surplus with the United states last year. By James a Peltz. Los Angeles times Kim Garvey an Engineer at Mcdonnell Douglas corp. In Huntington Beach calif., Well remembers her seventh birthday. It was july 20, 1969 a the Day of the first Moon Landing. A i can remember no one was paying any attention to me on my birthday a she recalled a everybody was watching  ,. Now on the verge of her 32nd birthday and the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar Mission Garvey herself works on the team designing the proposed space station including the trusses that would form the station s Backbone. But Garvey and the rest of California s space companies face a far More Uncertain future than their predecessors did in the 1960s, when the United states had a singular goal a beat the soviet Union to the Moon  spared Little Effort or expense to win the race. That Golden Era has Long passed replaced by a us space program whose Mission is debated constantly and whose funding is an Annua tug of War in con. Gress partly As a result the space business w trying to ensure its survival with its own form of defense conversion. The $14 billion that is being spent by the National aeronautics and space administration this year is 14 percent less than the Agency spent in 1969 after adjusting for inflation according to the University of California los Angeles. Indeed Garvey and the space station Are symptomatic of the fiscal problems facing the space Industry in California which remains the Industrial Hub of Nasa just As it was 2/2 decades ago. Nasa last Quot year made huge changes in the stations design and teamed up with the russians to Cut the stations costs and get it aloft quicker.  her colleagues had spent Foilb Yeats working on the stations propulsion system but a my Job went away last year after the russians assumed that role she said. She was Lucky Quot enough to find work on other parts of the station but her new Job is not secure either. After much debate Congress looks ready to approve an additional $2.1 billion for the station for the next fiscal year but the process must be repeated next a year and each year after that. And each year the station could be cancelled. A a it a frustrating a Garvey said a it would be Nice if there were multiyear budgets where you knew for the next five years if there was going to be a stable program.�?�. Budget squabbles Arentt the Only hurdles for the states space Industry. There arc fewer contracts to build defense sat Al tics and other military space gear because of Pentagon spending cuts. Worldwide. Competition in markets such As launch rockets is getting More intense. These pressures have been building for years and have forced californians space Industry to slash costs or merge. The state has lost about 30,000 space jobs since the mid-1980s, including 1,700 lost at the Mcdonnell Plant in Huntington Beach which now employs 6,500. Nonetheless Pace is still a huge business in California to and will remain so even if the space station is eventually cancelled. The largest share of nasal a annual budget about $4 billion still goes to Cali forma companies. That spending directly employs 37,000 people or 24 percent of. All Nasa funded jobs the highest level in the nation according to the governors office. Some 4,000 of those jobs Are dedicated to the space station. The total number of space related jobs in California is probably closer to 60,000 when contracts from the. Pentagon foreign customers and commercial clients Are included. Throw in the jobs indirectly a. A. A a Nasa Hie the Good old Days of Nasa Apollo 11 lifts off at Kennedy space Center fla., in july 1969 with the astronauts who later took the first human walk on the Moon. Tied to space and the number climbs Well above 100,000. There Are also hundreds of engineers scientists and computer experts at companies that provide extra brainpower and services to the space Industry. A All have had to tighten their belts because of the drop in . Space spending. But Many also Are developing products for commercial users and those customers Are a funnelling an Ever growing number of dollars into californians space Industry. A if you go Back a few cars ago there was almost no commercial space Market a said Daniel Goodman an analyst at eds management consulting services in Washington. A its growth has been  a no one is exactly sure How big that Market is but consider a los Angeles based Hughes aircraft co is launching a commercial satellite to Home to service called direct and is building Malaysia s first communications satellite. The company also plans to launch a $660 million twin satellite system dubbed a space Way that would provide a on demand telecommunications services Early in the next Century. Quot a Lockheed  Sunnyvale based space group a leading satellite builder for the . Government is also making  Motorola a iridium cellular Telephone project and marketing rus Sian Huilt rockets to other launch customers. A nasal a biggest contractor Rockwell International based in sea Beach is using the Pentagon a satellite based glob Al positioning system to develop electronic maps for Oldsmobile cars and tracking data devices for commercial truck fleets. A to Rwy s space group in Redondo Beach a leading builder of defense arid scientific satellites recently won a $61 million contract to build the first satellite for Taiwan a new civilian space program. Try also is using space technology to enhance the features of its vehicle air bag restraint business. Companies Are hustling for these markets because they done to expect a rebound in Nasa and Pentagon spending for space before the next Century. A we look at nasal a prospects at Best As Fiat a said Mel r. Brashears vice president of Lockheed a space systems division. Yet As promising As the commercial Market might be it is unclear whether those sales will Ever grow Large enough to offset the loss of government space contracts and fill the void left by the massive layoffs. A a while we Are looking at opportunities in commercial and International space Arenas they will not be a big portion of our business in the near future a said Fred Brown vice president for group development at to Rwy a space unit. As a result some space experts believe the number of workers is not expected to grow much and Long term Job Security will virtually disappear. A even though we expect to do More commercial Dollar work in the future we also expect to be More efficient a Brown said