At $519 million in 2003, Offset investments are two-thirds below agreed sum

The American offset agreements, which allowed Poland to buy 48 F-16 military planes for $3.5 billion, are not being met. Last year, the total value of offset projects was only $519 million, while the agreement envisaged a sum of $1.7 billion. Stanisław Janas, the President of the National Security Commission said he would let the government know about the issue and that he would also appeal to Lockheed Martin as well as to the American government to speed up investments. "The American government helped secure a loan of over $3.5 million for us to buy these planes, so they are equally responsible for the offset agreements," stated Janas. However, Sejm deputy Bronisław Komorowski of the Civic Platform believes that appealing to Washington is pointless as Poland has to take care of its own business by itself. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) D.W.