French Mirage consortium to unveil offset details

After months of silence, the French consortium offering Poland the Mirage as its multipurpose plane has finally presented its offer. The consortium, including among others Dassault, Snecma Thales and MBDA, will propose a plane worth $40 million and invest in certain sectors of Polish industry provided, of course, that it wins the tender to supply the plane. The final price and offset proposals will be presented by the French on November 12 while yesterday they revealed only the draft of their offer. However, it could be interesting for the Economy Ministry as it concerns shipyards, steel-mills, the chemical and automotive sectors as well as environmental protection and agriculture, which are all in trouble and in need of financial help. The key word of the French offer is "elasticity". The French also declare that their investments would consist of more than merely purchasing goods in Poland. "We prefer capital investments," said Yves Robins, deputy president of Dassault Aviation. He also said that the fact that the consortium has already invested about euro 45 billion under offset agreements in 50 countries over the last 30 years makes their offer credible. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4) A.D.