PHZ Bumar seals biggest defense export deal for 20 years

A delegation of businessmen, including Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdziński and Roman Baczyński, the head of PHZ Bumar, an enterprise specializing in exporting military equipment, is on its way to Malaysia to sign the country's largest arms delivery contract for twenty years - worth $400 million - for the supply to Malaysia of 48 PT-91M tanks. The contract will be in effect until 2006 and the first tank, produced in Warsaw's Wola district, will be sent next year. The contract envisages that in return Poland will be granted palm oil worth over $100 million. The agreement is part of the F-16 offset program. The value of compensating contracts, concerning the transfer of Polish technology and other orders tops $70 million. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) A.K.