Belka pessimistic about euro 500 million car plant for Poland

Finance Minister Marek Belka has played down the chances of Toyota and Peuge ot-Citroen building a new car plant in Poland. In an interview with Gazeta W yborcza Belka said that the likelihood of the investment being realized was small. His statement followed a meeting with a delegation from the two compa nies, which are looking for a location for a new euro 500 million European p roduction base. The plant is expected to generate between euro 1.5 billion a nd euro 2 billion in annual export revenues. Explaining his pessimism Belka said, "I didn't discuss the infrastructure for the new plant, because we hav en't even reached that point yet. The French and Japanese were interested in the state of the Polish economy." He went on, "It was unfortunate that the l ast Parliament failed to pass the bill on investment subsidies. Anyway, it's enough today for a potential investor to hear "import tax" and he packs his bags at once." Belka concluded by saying that at the moment either Hungary o r the Czech Republic seems a more likely location for the plant. (Gazeta Wyb orcza, p. 17) P.W.