Chinese company eyes near-billion euro investment in Poland

The Chinese-owned Tian Yu sp z.o.o. company plans to invest between 500 million and one billion euros in a swish lake-side apartment and hotel complex plus yacht port near Poland's north-western Baltic Sea port city of Szczecin. Szczecin city authorities and Tian Yu company representatives signed a letter of intent concerning the project Thursday, the Polish PAP news agency reported.

"Financially we are prepared to begin construction immediately," Tian Yu company president Yu Jian Er said. The company is waiting for final administrative decisions to be made for the project to go ahead.

The swish development is planned around the Dąbie Lake, nearby Szczecin, which is in turn located on the German border and just 130 kilometres north of the German capital Berlin.

Investment from Asian economic Goliath China is slowly beginning to trickle into European Union newcomer Poland and other Central and Eastern European states which also joined the bloc in May 2004.

Total Chinese investment in Poland is currently estimated at just over 50 million dollars by Poland's PAIIZ foreign investment agency.

GD Poland Distribution Centre Ltd., a wholesale complex for mostly Chinese-made clothing and small consumer goods currently tops Chinas investment list. More commonly known as the Chinese Trade Centre it is located 25 kilometre south-east of the Polish capital Warsaw.

According to Poland's official Central Statistical Office (GUS), trade turnover between China and Poland totalled 6 billion dollars in 2005.

Imports to Poland from China, which grew by 35.2 per cent last year, accounted for 5.5 billion dollars of the total in trade and brought Poland's trade deficit with the Asian giant to nearly 5 billion dollars - an increase of nearly 40 per cent over the previous year.

Polish exports to China in 2005 were worth nearly 600 million dollars and consisted primarily of copper, chemicals, machinery and paper.

The Polish Baltic Sea coast city of Koszalin, population 100,000 and located 300 kilometres north-east of Berlin has also drawn Chinese investment.

A bicycle factory worth 3 million was set up two years ago. Media reports suggest another Chinese investment in an LCD monitor factory is currently being planned.
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