In Brief: PKP restructuring; Netia Group; World Bank's new bureau

The Infrastructure Ministry has announced that the final draft update for the act on restructuring, commercialization and privatization of PKP will be ready between August and September. The draft assumes an increase in the amount of public and legal liabilities of PKP, which were set to be repaid in installments. It also assumes an increase in the total value of liabilities guaranteed by the State Treasury, from zl. 3.9 billion to zl. 6 billion. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) .... Netia Group returned a net loss of zl. 277 million over the second quarter due to the increasing costs of servicing its debt. A small improvement in the efficiency of the group's basic operation - increased revenues from sales and a lower operational loss - does not change the company's increasingly dramatic financial situation. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 23) .... The World Bank has decided to create a bureau for Central Europe and the Baltic States with its head office in Warsaw. It's newly appointed chief is Roger W.Grawe, an economist working for the World Bank since 1975 and since 1996 as a manager responsible for the World Bank's macroeconomic unit for Southern Africa. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) P.W.