Bureaucratic blunder blocks possible zł.200m investment

Leszek Pankiewicz, the head of Intel Technology Poland, the research center in Gdańsk, wanted to encourage Intel to start another investment in Poland. "Within five years Intel would invest around zł.200 million. It would establish a modern research and development laboratory. I applied to the Economy Ministry for government subsidies under the act on support for investments. I asked for zł.7 million in connection with the creation of 200 new jobs," said Pankiewicz. However, the committee, which evaluates the applications, considered the planned investment as "not sufficiently innovative", although the investment included technologies, which are less t han two year old. "Unfortunately, in the expert's reports attached to the application there was no information on how long a given technology is used in the world. The official was not able to evaluate it himself so he gave the investment no points", explained Deputy Economy Minister Krzysztof Krystowski, who supervises the evaluation of the projects' innovativeness. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1,6) EB