Foreign Direct Investment down in 2002

Poland attracted $6.06 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2002, down from $7.1 billion in 2001, the State Foreign Investment Agency (PAIZ) said in a statement yesterday. PAIZ President Antoni Styrczula attributed the drop mostly to the global economic slowdown compounded by Poland's decreasing competitive advantage over its neighbors. Since the fall of communism in 1989, Poland has attracted $65 billion in foreign funds to its automotive, telecoms, manufacturing and financial sectors. But FDI inflows have been on the decline over the past few years as foreign in vestors complain that Poland is hamstrung by high payroll taxes and say that a fluid legal environment exposes them to pressure from lobbyists and the whims of bureaucrats. Last year Poland lost important battles to attract foreign investors, such as PSA Peugeot Citroen and Japan's Toyota, mainly due to red tape and poor infrastructure. (Reuters, Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 2, 10) M.M.