ABOUT BUSINESS - 10.2009

LOT Charters
LOT Polish Airlines is coming back to charters. After an unsuccessful experiment with Centralwings, our national carrier will provide services under a new name – LOT Charters. The line wants to have carried 400,000 passengers by the end of this year. This would give the company a 25 percent share in the domestic charter market, and allow them to return to the position of being the largest charter carrier in Poland. The first airplane with the LOT Charters logos took off at the beginning of June. Most of the connections are supposed to be realized by six Boeing 737-400s, which will serve the routes from Warsaw and other domestic regional airports to cities like Salonik, Heraklion, Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Lisbon, Sharm El-Sheik, and to Rodos. LOT, for the first time in its history, will also use a larger Boeing 767 for charter flights, which until now had been used in transatlantic routes. It ­will serve connections with Mexico, Thailand, and the Carribean.

Forum in Krynica
This year’s XIX Economic Forum in Krynica, the official main topic of which was „European solidarity – 20 years after the revolution”, aroused many people’s interest. Hundreds of Polish and foreign entrepreneurs participated in the Forum, including presidents of the biggest companies, politicians, scientists and activists of non-governmental organizations. Among the participants in the Forum there were Professor Edmund Phelps, a Nobel prizewinner in economy in 2006 and a lecturer at the Columbia University, as well as Peter Schiff, an economist, the President of Euro Pacific Capital, one of those few commentators who had publicly foretold the present crisis and its scale. The Forum consisted of almost 150 meetings, panels and seminars, the majority of which were not, however, dedicated to the history but rather focused on the consequences of the crisis and on forecasting its effects on the world economy.

Poland looks impressive!
In the first quarter of this year, the Polish economy had GDP growth of 1.9 percent. That is the best result in Europe. The main factor of GDP growth is still domestic demand. Marginal negative influence on economic growth from foreign demand (net export) was noted, according to the announcement. Analysts emphasize that the very fact that growth has been maintained, particularly considering the situation in the rest of the world, is a great success. It is the first statistical data to show for sure what the scale of the crisis in Poland actually is. Now we know that our country is one of a very exclusive group of European countries that is holding off recession. A certain slowdown is visible, but in spite of it all we still have growth. That was also the expectation of the markets.

Another Radisson
The fifth Radisson hotel in Poland has been opened in Gdańsk. The hotel, located on Długi Targ Street, has 134 rooms of various standards. There is also a recreation center for guests with saunas, a fitness room, and a bio-renewal parlor. The hotel also has two conference halls and two restaurants, which serve delicacies of French and Irish cuisine.

The attractiveness of Polish food products
The crisis has not hurt Polish food exports. In the first four months of this year, Poland sold food products abroad worth more than 3.5 billion euro, according to the newest data from the Ministry of Economy. Other areas of economy noted a drop in exports. Producers confirm the positive trend in the agricultural-food industry. Polish food competes in terms of its price as well as its quality, since our agricultural industry has been greatly modernized since Poland joined the European Union, in order to fulfill the EU standards.

More and more hotels
The number of new hotels in Poland keeps growing. This year, as many as 140 new facilities will be built. That is more than 20 times more than in 2008. Euro 2012, which will be organized in Poland, has stimulated the hotel sector, in spite of the fact that the crisis is also discernible. This year, the value of hotel investments will reach around 3 billion zloty, and 140 new hotels will be opened. Though the crisis has affected the hotel industry in the world and in Poland, too, another 160 hotels are still planned. According to experts, there are two main reasons for the increased activity in the industry – the upcoming European football championships and the enormous deficit in accommodation.

A billion euro for Poland
There will be a billion euro for Poland from the World Bank. The World Bank in Washington announced that the board of directors of the World Bank accepted the strategy for cooperation between the World Bank and the Polish government for the years 2009-2013, and the second payment of a loan for our country amounting to 1 billion euro.

We are using funds from the European Union
Polish companies are using funds from the European Union. Only one of the 111 large investments in infrastructure which received funding from the Cohesion Fund cannot be realized in time. By the end of June, Polish companies had received 4.8 billion euro. That is 70% of the amount which needs to be used by the end of 2010.