That was the week
Business
The State Treasury Minister announced last week that the delegation sent to the United Kingdom to negotiate the conditions under which U.K. carmaker MG Rover would take over the operations of the Daewoo-FSO car plant has come back without an agreement. Daewoo-FSO representatives responded to the news by saying that the fate of the bankrupt car manufacturer rests entirely with the company's creditor banks. However, MG Rover says that it is still interested in the possibility of manufacturing Rovers in the Warsaw-area factory.
The president of the Office of Telecommunication and Post Regulation (URTiP), Witold Graboś, rejected four proposals by telephone monopolist TPSA for competitor access to telecommunications infrastructure. Graboś determined that the proposals were not in accordance with existing telecom laws, and that they did not cover all aspects that need to be considered.
The long-running conflict between Elektrim and its bondholders took a slightly positive turn when the company announced its intentions to pay off the long-overdue bonds. Company representatives said that Elektrim has the money, but the company is also obliged to ensure the financing of its investment in ZE PAK. Elektrim owes bondholders nearly €500 million (zł. 2.2 billion). Meanwhile, Elektrim's creditors accused the company of breaking its promise to pay off nearly zł. 2 billion in debts, and have threatened to file for the company's bankruptcy. The matter revolves around a zł. 32-million (€7.2-million) payment which Elektrim is obliged to make to its creditors by the end of the month.
Map publisher PPWK is in negotiations with financial creditors to reduce its debts. The proposal that PPWK has tabled includes the sell-off of various pieces of intellectual property, such as authors' rights, technical know-how and archives. Additionally, the company is planning a share issue and the transfer of properties owned by PPWK Inwestycje to BRE Bank.
A new idea has appeared to transfer PKN Orlen's fuel depots to the national liquid fuel depot company Naftobazy. In return, Orlen would receive shares in the company. Orlen does not seem too impressed with the concept.
Economy, Labor and Social Policy Minister Jerzy Hausner has publicly rejected the idea of merging PZU and PKO BP. However, the presidents of the insurer and bank still back the plan, pointing to similar successful tie-ups in Europe.
Marek Grabarek, who was the acting president of national carrier LOT for the last few months, has now been appointed as the new company president. Fears that his appointment would not be welcomed by trade unions were not borne out.
Poczta Polska's 2002 revenues rose by 5.8% over 2001, to zł. 5.51 billion (€1.3 billion), while net profit rose to zł. 21 million (€4.8 million), which is 23.5% more than a year earlier.
The Banking Supervisory Commission is trying to raise capital from its members in order to help Bank Polskiej Spółdzielczości overcome its solvency ratio problem, which fell far below the statutory level of 8% to 2.7%.
The Słupsk local authority wants to open the Redzikowo military airport to cheap airline operators.
Moody's has increased its rating on Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC) to Ba1 from Ba2. A few weeks ago Standard & Poor's also decided to improve the mobile operator's rating.
France Telecom was quick to shoot down rumors, which appeared in a leading business daily, that it wanted to sell TPSA either to private investors or through some kind of management buy-out.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) held a press conference in which it announced that it had questioned a large number of specimen contracts drafted by real estate agents and developers, claiming that unfair clauses were forced on clients to their detriment. The office has asked the courts to ban the most offending clauses.
IT companies Prokom and ComputerLand jointly registered two companies, C2 and RMU IT, to service projects financed from the F-16 offset deal. Shares in the new entities have been evenly distributed between the two companies.
Mining equipment and services company Kopex is about to sign three foreign contracts worth almost €500 million (zł. 2.2 billion) with Serbia, Iran and Vietnam. Kopex also is preparing an €85-million (zł. 379-million) offer with German Knauf to reconstruct a plaster mine in Russia.
The Lithuanian government tried to entice the Polish National Grid (PSE) to build a power bridge with its own energy network, as well as to allow them to participate in privatizing its energy sector. PSE rejected the first offer as the project to connect the grids would require €530 million.
Holland-based LNM Group has submitted an offer to purchase the shares of the Częstochowa Steel Mill, which has an annual production capacity of 700,000 tons.
Technicolor has completed a new DVD production plant that is scheduled to be opened in September. It has an annual production capacity of 140 million DVDs.
Al-Pras has sold the zł. 5 million (€1.12 million) in liabilities it was to receive from bankrupt 4Media for €57,000 (zł. 250,000).
The management of Kielce-based roof tiles company Mega-Plus submitted a court motion for their company to be declared bankrupt. If the request is upheld, NFI Jupiter could lose the zł. 10.7 million (€2.45 million) it invested in the enterprise.
Politics
Leszek Miller was so overjoyed with the wide margin by which he won the parliamentary vote of confidence that he began making wild promises. While his party deputies rally in the Sejm, he may face more critical colleagues in the coming Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party conference.
Upon being appointed the new finance minister, Andrzej Raczko announced he would reform public finances, be tough in negotaitions with the National Bank of Poland over the use of revaluation reserves for the budget, and promised "some serious cuts in tax rates."
At his second appearance in front of the Rywin commission, the prime minister followed the pattern he set at his first hearing, and heated exchanges followed. Miller accused Civic Platform (PO) deputy Jan Rokita of "vulgar manipulation" of the facts. Rokita, in turn, pointed out the number of insults Miller leveled at the commission members.
Economy
Next year health premiums are to rise by 0.25%. The increase will be felt especially hard, considering that the new higher premium will not be tax deductible.
According to an "Entrepreneurship in Poland" report prepared by the Economy Ministry, it turns out that wages between 1994 and 2000 rose by 201%, whereas productivity rose by only half the EU average over the same period.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, even if the Polish economy continued to grow at 2.9% per annum, it would need at least 59 years to catch up with the EU average.
The results of the 2002 national census were published last week and showed that more than 21% of the public declared that they were unemployed, while the number of people of productive age increased by 1.8 million and those registered as handicapped skyrocketed by 46%.
International
The Law and Justice (PiS) party is outraged that the new EU constitution limits Poland's say in key areas of immigration and economic policies. They are demanding that the government hold a referendum to decide whether Poland should accept the Constitution.
The Italian government has proposed a plan to extend the so-called Trans-European Transportation Network of motorways and high-speed trains to the 10 new member states. The cost would be at least €100 billion (zł. 437 billion), of which about 40% would be spent on Poland.
Domestic
A poll of leading entrepreneurs, economists and general members of the public showed that their ideal candidates for prime minister are Józef Oleksy, Andrzej Olechowski and Marek Borowski. They favored Leszek Balcerowicz as finance minister and Jerzy Hausner as economy minister, with Janusz Lewandowski as treasury minister.
An ambulance paramedic accused of murdering his patients in order to receive a commission from funeral houses has confessed to his crimes. This is a breakthrough in the year-long "Ambulances of Death" case. The paramedic now faces a trial and a likely life sentence.
