Questions about PAI's financial state cast a shadow over future of PAIIZ
By Karol Chlipalski
Business analysts and opponents to the creation of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIIZ) have voiced suspicions that the newborn agency is penniless and will not be able to fulfill its tasks properly.
"This merger is nothing but the creation of a new bankrupt (company)," said Andrzej Szejnfeld, a Sejm deputy and head of the parliamentary economic commission.
The new agency was created June 5 from the merger of the Polish Foreign Investment Agency (PAIZ) and the Polish Information Agency (PAI), both state-owned companies focused on promoting the Polish economy abroad.
Andrzej Szejna, under-secretary of state at the ministry of economy, labor and social policy, declined to reveal details concerning the budget at the disposal of the new agency this year.
Szejnfeld said that the new board will have to focus on the financial problems of the company and not on fulfilling its mission. His view is shared by Adam Pawłowicz, former head of PAIZ.
"The decision has been made to merge two agencies, but it has not been preceded with any deeper reflection. It has happened to the detriment of PAIZ and its mission," Pawłowicz said.
The merger was officially completed despite strong objections from Antoni Styrczula, the former head of PAIZ. On May 30, when the general assembly of shareholders of PAI and PAIZ was initially supposed to make a decision on the merger, Styrczula, then president of PAIZ, withdrew from the courts a consent to the merger in the name of the company. He said that he had learned that very day from the business daily Puls Biznesu that PAI's net loss in 2002 amounted to zł. 2.5 million (€562,000), and that it had stopped paying its debts and salaries.
"I was forced to (withdraw the consent) as I cannot act to the disadvantage of the company I work for," Styrczula said, explaining that he is in favor of the merger, but only once PAI's financial situation has improved.
Styrczula's decision was a complete surprise to Andrzej Szejna, who is supervising the merger. He declined to make any comments on that issue, apart from expressing his astonishment.
In the opinion of Rafał Steffen, head of PAIZ and appointee to the supervisory board of PAIIZ, Styrczula tried desperately to postpone the moment the old board would be dismissed.
Andrzej Szejna hopes that from here on the process of merging the two agencies will go smoothly. As he told the Business Journal, the newly appointed president will first have to clarify the financial situation of PAIIZ.
"Real estate owned by PAI will be helpful in this matter," he added.
Simultaneously the head of PAIIZ will have to focus on the strategy of the future government body responsible for promoting Polish exports and Poland as a place for investment. Szejna anticipates the creation of PAIIZ for the beginning of next year. Meanwhile a draft of a law regulating the creation of PAIIZ and its responsibilities is expected to pass through parliament soon.
Experts doubt that the agency will be formed smoothly. As the Business Journal has learned, real estate belonging to PAI is not profitable at the moment. The building located on the prestigious ul. Bagatela has seen its previous owners appear, who have started legal action in order to reclaim the estate. Meanwhile two major clients, legal firm White and Case and publishing house H. Bauer, have moved, stripping the agency of a majority of its real estate revenues. TV network Polsat, which has been renting a building from PAI in Warsaw's Praga district, has completed the construction of its own headquarters and is expected to move there shortly. Steffen estimates 2003 revenue from rent at zł. 2 million-zł. 3 million (€450,000-€680,000), an estimate which has surprised real estate experts, who expect it to be much lower.
The new agency's financial problems come at a time when foreign investment in Poland is on the decline.
"Investors go where they feel they are wanted," said Adam Pawłowicz. "Poland is not such a place any more. The way this agency is created will not significantly change this impression."
Andrzej Zdebski, 47, president of the board of PAIIZ, served as an undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Economy from 2001-2003. He chairs the board of the International Center of Culture Foundation and The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kraków, and is a board member of the International Center for Democracy Development and the Inter-banking Council of Promotion of the Association of Polish Banks. He also is a member of the supervisory board of the Małopolska Agency for Regional Development in Kraków. Zdebski has worked at Bank Współpracy Regionalnej, where he held several positions, in addition to working as head of the Kraków branch of Millenium Prestige bank. Zdebski is a lawyer by education. He was born in 1956 in Oświęcim.
Sebastian Mikosz, 30, has been occupying the position of executive director of the Polish-French Chamber of Industry and Trade. Previously he worked in the Paris branch of Arthur Andersen consulting, where he was responsible for introducing customers to emerging markets in central and eastern Europe. He is a graduate of the Paris-based Ecole Nationale des Sciences Politiques.
