Minister hints SEZ's may be with us for a long time yet

"We should know today what will happen to the zones after this date. Despite ongoing discussions with the European Commission over how to grant state aid, we should have our own plan. I believe the zones will operate after 2017. How and where remains an open issue," said Deputy Economy Minister Andrzej Kaczmarek. The EU Accession Treaty neither placed limitations concerning the area of zones, nor the scope of their activities. An amendment, which will come to power in a few days, will increase the size of the zones from 8,000 to 12,000 ha. A potential amendment concerning the length of operations of the zones would take three months to be implemented. "In the coming years they have to focus on creating investment parks, incubators, providing services to companies. The zones will evolve towards companies providing services to entrepreneurs," said Kaczmarek. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 7) M.M.