Kaczmarek defends STOEN privatization against hostile Sejm opposition

Treasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek tried for two hours yesterday to convince deputies that the continuation of the privatization of Warsaw-based energy distributor STOEN is necessary. Unfortunately, Kaczmarek failed to satisfy the opposition, including Self-Defense (Samoobrona) leader Andrzej Lepper, who claimed that STOEN was sold at a price lowered by at least zl. 656 million. Kaczmarek defended the deal saying that German investor RWE's offer was the best of those received by the Treasury Ministry and that the sale of companies to foreign investors provides access to new technologies as well as financial resources for further development. "As tax payers and consumers we should keep our fingers crossed for the success of the transaction. The incidents accompanying the privatization only serve to devalue state assets remaining to be privatized," said an anonymous representative of one of a consulting companies dealing with the energy sector. "I hope it is only folklore. However, there is no doubt that incidents of this kind only reduce the attractiveness of Poland as a place for locating capital," said one of the investors. (Puls Biznesu, p. 4). A.Z