Jack of all trades...

The Sejm Committees for Economy and Enterprise Development have completed the regulations which will allow the establishment of the Polish Agency for Trade and Investments (PAHI), which is designed to replace the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ). The Committee for Economy will present the draft legislation to the Sejm at the beginning of December.

Though this plan has been in the pipeline for some time, the Ministry of Economy has come up with a new strategy. The Ministry now says it wants to combine PAIiIZ and the Polish Tourist Organization (POT) in January.

Whether the government favors this plan, and whether it will become a reality is still unclear. However, Andrzej Kaczmarek, Deputy Economy Minister, says there is not yet a draft of the new law and the Ministry is considering various solutions. "There is no coordination in our foreign operations because of a shortage of people and money," says Kaczmarek.

Deputy Ryszard Wawryniewicz, chairman of the two Sejm Committees, says: "We were working on a governmental law, so I will continue my work until the government withdraws it from the Sejm."

Many representatives of the country's tourism industry have objected to the Economy Ministry's new plan. "The Ministry didn't consult us, and decisions such as this need the opinion of the environment involved," says Aleksander Giertler, chairman at the National Council of Regional Chambers of Tourism. "The tourism industry is governed by its own rules. Economic promotion is something completely different from tourism promotion," he adds.