Polish arms industry likely to win major export contracts in 2004

The coming year will probably be one of the most favorable for exporters in the defense industries. Bumar capital group alone estimates that the value of contracts its has signed, or is negotiating, will soon reach $1 billion. The company is currently bidding in a tender for the supply of equipment to the Iraqi army, which on its own is worth $0.5 billion. Information on the sales of domestic armament producers abroad is confidential, and its value can only be roughly estimated. Józef Nawolski, director of the Department of Defense and the Protection of Confidential Information at the State Treasury, confirmed that, during the first three quarters of 2003, the domestic industry had exported arms worth $175 million. Yet last year, revenues from this source did not exceed $80 million, while in 2001 they amounted only to $50 million. Among the export successes are tanks for the Malaysian army, battleships and helicopters for Indonesia and technical vehicles and parachutes for India. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) A.K.