Plaza Centers buys site in Poland to develop shopping centre

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Plaza Centers N.V. said it has acquired a 17,000 square metre site in Leszno, Poland, for the development of a major new shopping and entertainment centre.

The emerging markets property developer said it expects the project to have a gross development budget of about 37 million euros and that it expects to start construction in the middle of 2009, with completion targeted for the end of 2010.

Plaza Centers said the shopping and entertainment centre will provide space for over 70 shops, with a total lettable area of 16,000 square metres.
Source:forbes.com

Poland wants to export more meat to Russia

MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Warsaw hopes Moscow will enlarge the number of accredited livestock produce suppliers to Russia, a Polish Embassy official said on Monday.

So far, only six Polish meat companies have been permitted to supply Russia with beef and pork, nine with poultry, 20 with dairy produce and one with egg products. Four companies have a license to store agricultural products prior to onward shipment to Russia.

An earlier Russian ban on Polish meat was previously a major source of tension between Moscow and Warsaw. In January 2008, the two countries signed a memorandum lifting the ban, imposed in 2005 over claims of low quality imports.

Jerzy Rutkowski, head of the Polish embassy's economic department, said since the memorandum was signed, Russian inspectors had carried out inspections of several Polish meat producers, but only five had received accreditation to export to Russia.

"There are many more meat processing enterprises in Poland that wish to export their produce to Russia and that meet Russian veterinary standards," he said.

"A little more than 4,000 tons of meat was delivered to Russia from Poland from the start of this year until the end of April. This is an insignificant amount," the embassy official said, adding that Poland would like the number of its meat exporters to Russia to increase several fold.

Poland had earlier vetoed the start of negotiations on a new EU partnership agreement with Moscow over Russia's meat embargo. Warsaw lifted its veto after the two countries resolved the dispute and took steps to improve relations.
Source: rian.ru

Poland wants to fully privatise all 4 power groups

Poland wants to fully privatise all of its four state-owned power groups -- PGE, Enea, Energa and Tauron -- Treasury Minister Aleksander Grad said on Monday.

"We expect the four energy groups to be fully privatised," Grad told a business seminar. "We want to conduct the privatisation in such a way that would not change the state monopoly into a private one."

Earlier the ministry said it planned to float shares of the power groups, including Poland's largest electricity provider PGE, but wanted to retain a controlling stake in all of them.

Because of companies' nearly total reliance on domestic coal, as well as outdated distribution and production facilities, they will need to spend growing amounts of cash to buy carbon dioxide (CO2) permits to comply with the EU's plan to limit greenhouse gases emissions.

Government talks on allocating Poland's 2008-2012 annual quota of 208.5 million tonnes of CO2 between economy sectors have been delayed because the treasury and economy ministries differ from the environment ministry on the preferable split.

Originally, the environment ministry wanted the energy sector to be hardest hit by the country's emissions cuts, but other ministers warned it would cause another jump in electricity prices, already driving Poland's inflation.

"The Treasury thinks that the electro-energetic sector must have different (higher) CO2 limits, so the value of the power companies is not hurt days before the public offerings," Grad also said.

"But we are very close to reaching a deal on the carbon allocations with the environment ministry," he added.

Earlier in April, a deputy economy minister said that the energy sector's emissions will stand at 132 million tonnes, about 63 percent of the country's entire limit. (Reporting by Patryk Wasilewski, writing by Gabriela Baczynska)
Source:http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINL0247976920080602

Poland new market for Bangladesh's knitwear

Poland new market for Bangladesh's knitwear

Poland, a central European country, is becoming a major export destination for Bangladesh's knitwear products, according to industry insiders.

The demand for the local knitwear products in the Polish market increases because those are good in quality and cheap in prices. Besides, there is a new development that the Polish, who were accustomed to buying Bangladesh knitwear through German retailers, are now keen to import those directly, a major exporter told The Daily Star.

The Polish market is being dominated by Germany, a major buyer of Bangladesh knitwear products in European Union.

Data shows Bangladesh exported knitwear products worth US$21.06 million to Poland in 2007, while the earning was $18.39 million in 2006 and $7.13 million in 2005.

These knitwear products include T-shirts, sweater and lady's polo.

An official of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) however said the amount of knitwear product exports to Poland in the current year could not be ascertained as compilation now goes on.

Meanwhile, a 3-year record shows a decline in woven exports to the central European country. In 2007, woven products worth $2.6 million were exported, while the country fetched $6 million from exports to Poland in 2006 and $3 million in 2005.

According to industry people, the country's knitwear exports to Europe were $3.9 billion in 2007, which is 75 percent of the item's total export figure.

Considering Poland as a highly potential market, the trade body for the knitwear sector has already urged the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) to send soon a high profile business mission to that country.

BKMEA President Fazlul Hoque said, “Since the response from Polish side is good the government should take it into consideration as soon as possible.”

Hoque, however, said his organisation will consider sending such a team if the state-run export promotional agency does not respond positively in this regard.

Meanwhile, knitwear, the largest export earner followed by woven garments, earned $3.913 billion during July-March period of the current fiscal, marking a 17.34 percent growth over the same period of the previous fiscal.

During this time, woven garments earned $3.770 billion, a 7.54 percent growth over the same period of the previous fiscal.

Source: By Refayet Ullah Mirdha, thedailystar.net