Poland/Economy/Careers
Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The hearings of the parliamentary commission concerning PKN Orlen fuel giant get increased interest as they reveal controversial issues concerning VIPs. Recently, it turned out that Jan Kulczyk, one of the richest Poles, met a Russian spy. He was to be questioned by the commission yesterday but on his way home from US where he was due to health problems, he felt ill in London and stayed there. He demands that he is questioned in London as he fears for his security.
Jan Kulczyk, in an interview for “Financial Times”, said that his problems will be a threat to foreign investors. Polish businessmen, all anonymously, say that foreign partners may get nervous, investments may fall for some time, the stock market may fall – as it happened in Russia after Michail Chodorkowski, the former Yukos CEO had been arrested. But some of them believe that explaining the case will help clear the Polish economy full of political-business connections, which in effect will improve the investment climate.
‘What’s going on now has no influence on foreign investors. For an investor willing to invest USD 20-55 million, the Kulczyk case is without meaning. Big international firms have no idea what PKN Orlen is and what is the commission investigating’, Andrzej Zdebski, PAIIZ investment agency CEO said. The recent report by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, ‘Transition Report 2004, underlined that Poland should improve its business environment. The authors of the report said that the government should continue legal changes and strengthen judiciary and administration