Kwaśniewski appoints Zbigniew Kaniewski as new Treasury Minister

"I hope that your calmness, responsibility (...) will be your strengths, while taking care of essential issues and working in accordance with the interests of our nation will help you succeed as Treasury Minister," proclaimed the president. During the official ceremony, Prime Minister Leszek Miller announced that he expects an increased pace of privatization "not only because the budget needs more funds, or to lower the public debt, but also because the Polish economy must become more competitive". Miller added that he expects Kaniewski to speed up the privatization of the oil, chemical, energy and fuel sectors in particular. Kaniewski also confirmed his earlier plans to act in accordance with the expectations of the Prime Minister to accelerate the process of privatization in several fields, and reach the target of zł. 8.83 billion in revenues from this source this year. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1; Puls Biznesu, p. 1) A.K.