POLAND - Economic Newsletter  December 6, 2004

Robin Heart – Polish robot for cardio surgery

Robin Heart is the third in the world robot designed to make surgery on the open heart through the arm and a camera injected between ribs. The robot invented by specialists from Foundation for Cardio Surgery in Zabrze, and Technical Universities in Warsaw, and in Lodz is much cheaper than other two (price of da Vinci, or Zeus robots is c.a. $1.2 MN). Robin is equipped with all required medical tools and is fully automatic.


First Skytruck plane for the USA market

The first plane built by the PZL WSK Mielec took off from a local airfield in Mielec. Next year the company will build 4-9 such planes, all to be sold in the USA. Over the coming 8 years 100 Skytrucks will leave the PZL Mielec under the Lockheed Martin offset deal.



SITEL Corp. started customer care center in Poland

SITEL Corp. - Omaha, NE has opened multi lingual service center (German, English, Russian, and most Eastern European languages). Operations of the center include: customer care, technical support, and product and warranty information services for SITEL’s largest technology clients. The services entail multi-channel communications with the client’s customers in Germany, including telephone, e-mail, fax, and traditional mail.



Hewlett-Packard Europe moves accounting and finance departments to Poland

HP plans to move the accounting and financial departments serving all HP units in Europe. The center (1,000 employees) is scheduled to be open in Spring 2005 in Poznan or in Wroclaw.

Boeing intends to produce parts for 7E7 model in Poland

Boeing negotiates investment in Poland to start the production of parts for the Boeing 7E7. Currently, the Polish airplane manufacturer PZL WSK Mielec delivers doors for the model 757.



Skiing in the coal mine in Belchatow, Central Poland

The Belchatow Coal Mine is going to transfer the dirty mountains of lignite waste into pikes for the Polish ski funs. The corporation has invested c.a. $5 MN to create three kilometers of serviced runs, a snowboard park, a ski lift, T-bar drags, an army of snow-making machines, a hotel and restaurant complex and parking for 500 cars. A mining concern is swapping shovels for skis to make money out of one of Poland's fastest growing leisure industries.



International Monetary Fund about the Polish economy

Polish economy has experienced a very strong growth this year says the IMF’s forecast for 2005 reported by Iits managing director Rodrigo de Rato. Inflation is expected to be stable at the level of 2.5%. IMF considers opening its office in Warsaw to serve 8 EU member states in Central Europe.



Poland - Economy in Brief

Interest rates - the Monetary Policy Council (RPP) did not change rates; it means the intervention rate is 6.5%, the lombard rate 8%, the rediscount rate 7% and the deposit rate 5%.

Economic indicators: New orders in the Polish industry rose 33.1% in September on the year-ago level.

The GDP will grow by of 5.7% for the whole of 2004

Car market - over 111,000 delivery vans were produced in Poland in January - October 2004, 380% more than in the corresponding period of last year. Over 90% of the vans were exported.

438,000 passenger cars were manufactured in the January – October 2004 period, an increase of 67% over the same period of 2003. 80% of them were exported.

Insurance market - 18 life insurance companies (out of 35 operating in Poland) offer products based on insurance capital funds. The funds had assets worth c.a. $4 BN at the end of June 2004.

Radio broadcasting market - RMF FM radio station owned by Broker FM Group is the most widely listened national radio in Poland, according to SMG/KRC Poland Media (as of Oct. 31). RMF FM's share in the market was 24.1%, the second was Radio Zet with 20.8%, and the third Polish Radio One with 15.4%.

 

Outsourcing and Investment Opportunities in Poland

    

    For economic information on the Polish market potentials please contact:

 

 

Polish Information & Foreign Investment Agency ul. Bagatela 12 00-585 Warsaw, Poland tel.: (+48 22) 334 98 00 fax: (+48 22) 334 99 99 e-mail: post@paiz.gov.pl

Commercial & Economic Division Consulate General of the Republic of Poland 12400 Wilshire Blvd. # 555 Los Angeles, CA 90025 tel.: (310) 442 – 8500 x 114 fax: (310) 442- 8526 e-mail: tradeconsul@earthlink.net