Foreign direct investment increases over first six months, but is still too low

Despite a very low level of foreign direct investments (FDI) at the start of the year, the first half-year proved encouraging according to some specialists. Foreign businesses invested $3.2 billion in the first six months - $30 million less than in the same period of 2001. Changes to existing company ownership structures accounted for 73% of the above amount, while greenfield investments constituted about 25% of the total value of investments in 2002. "We can expect that the overall result for the whole year will not be worse," said Antoni Styrczula, president of the Polish Foreign Investment Agency (PAIZ). "This result, as with previous years, is unsatisfactory, as Poland needs at least $10 billion of foreign investments a year. The Czech Republic records $5-6 billion of FDI a year and, being four times the size, Poland should receive twice that," said Adam Pawlowicz, director of a Warsaw law firm. (Puls Biznesu, p. 15) P.W.