Educational and cultural exchanges and sister institutions programs with Poland and Hungary

The United States should expand its participation in educational and cultural exchange activities with Poland and Hungary, using the full array of existing government-funded and privately-funded programs, with particular emphasis on the J. William Fulbright Educational Exchange Program, the International Visitors Program, the Samantha Smith Memorial Exchange Program, the exchange programs of the National Academy of Sciences, youth and student exchanges through such private organizations as The Experiment in International Living, The American Field Service Committee, and Youth for Understanding, and research exchanges sponsored by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). The United States should place particular emphasis on expanding its participation in educational exchange activities that will assist in developing the skills in business and economics that are necessary for the development of a free market economy in Poland and Hungary. The United States should take all appropriate action to establish binational Fulbright commissions with Poland and Hungary in order to facilitate and enhance academic and scholarly exchanges with those countries. The President should consider the establishment of reciprocal cultural centers in Poland and the United States and in Hungary and the United States to facilitate government-funded and privately-funded cultural exchanges. The President shall act to encourage the establishment of “sister institution” programs between American and Polish organizations and between American and Hungarian organizations, including such organizations as institutions of higher education, cities and towns, and organizations in such fields as medicine and health care, business management, environmental protection, and agricultural research and marketing. To enable the United States Information Agency to support the activities described in this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $12,000,000 for the 3-year period beginning October 1, 1989, in addition to amounts otherwise available for such purposes.