Polish Business Survey
Balcerowicz starts fight with corruption
Deputy Prime Minister Leszek Balcerowicz is to open a special department which will report directly to the Cabinet charged with reducing the amount of bureaucracy, and consequently, corruption.
The government departments of Justice, Home Office, Finance and Economy as well as the Office of Public Works will each contribute to the project. Up until now, all organisations designed to fight corruption in Poland became just as bent themselves. This time the anti-corruption drive will be aided by the World Bank, the Control Commission (NIK) and independent experts. A full anti-corruption strategy should be worked out by 20 June. This, in the opinion of the Premier, will allow the appropriate laws to be prepared.
Balcerowicz said that the focus is on prevention by removing the reason for corruption. He noted that the World Bank sees corruption as a major problem although noted that Poland compares favourably to her neighbours. Nonetheless, he says that his aim is to have a good position when compared to the best countries in the OECD.
Polski Express sold
Polski Express, the largest private coach network in Poland, has at last been sold by the British National Express. Adam Wasiak, Managing Director of Polski Express has refused to name the owners but said that there are various parties involved. The company did not have funds for development but now it has been announced that it will obtain five new Volvo coaches for PLN650,000 each in a leasing agreement.
Despite its financial situation Polski Express has ambitions of expansion. It is interested not only in the State run long distance coach services (PKS) but also the rail privatisation process. The PKS companies it claims it has its eye on are in Puławy, Brzeg, Kluczbork, Lubiniec, Ostrów Wielkopolski and Pabianice.
Long distance concessions by tomorrow
Yesterday a sixty day deadline elapsed which the Ministry of Communications set for the signing of three long distance telephone concessions. The three companies waiting for their concessions are Netia 1, NG Koleje and NOM.
Invest Bank invests PLM80m
Invest Bank will be investing PLN80m in a network of new branches and the development of electronic banking services. The number of branches will be increased this year from seventy to 120 with a further fifty in 2001. The bank further claims that it is trying to provide home banking via the Polsat digital television system.
InvestBank has a 1.6 percent share of the banking market and a 3.5 percent share of the credit market.
UniCredito buys Pioneer Group
The Italian UniCredito Italiano has bought the US based Pioneer Group which announced that it was looking for an investor in March. The Italians will pay USD1.2bn for not only the American company but also its subsidiaries in Germany, Ireland, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. In Poland Pioneer has five companies which include investment and pension funds. This will lead to a problem as the UniCredito is already a shareholder in the Pekao/Alliance pension fund and the law allows a shareholding in one such company.
UniCredito Italiano is the strategic investor in Pekao SA.
ComputerLand invests PLN107m
ComputerLand has announced that it is to invest PLN40m on new Internet products together with PLN67m for the purchase of web based companies. Yesterday the company introduced WAP-CL@nd, a product which is designed to access bank accounts by WAP cellular phones. This service will be offered through Centertel and negotiations are apparently in place with banks. Sławomir Chłoń, MD of ComputerLand claims that he does not want to charge banks for the service, rather he will charge per use. He declined to say how much will be charged but believes that banks must reduce costs by using new technologies. He went on to claim that this is the first service being offered in Poland that can also be used to give instructions, previous services could only access information. A further service will be aimed at stockbrokers who will be able to buy shares over the Internet.
ComputerLand has been one of the least active IT firms in making acquisitions, so far its only purchase has been PLN2.5m for eCard which was bought with BRE bank and Euronet.
Okocim looks to acquire
Marcin Piróg will today become the Managing Director of one of PolandŐs largest breweries, Okocim. He stated that he is interested in buying smaller breweries and dispelled rumours that Carlsberg, the strategic investor in Okocim, was considering pulling out. Okocim has been losing market position over the past three years, in the first quarter of this year its market share fell by 5.7 percent over the same period in 1999.