Lenovo invests in Poland

PC giant Lenovo will build a computer manufacturing center in the Legnica SEZ

Chinese firm Lenovo, the world's third-largest personal-computer manufacturer, will invest over $20 (zł.49.3) million on the construction of a manufacturing plant in the Legnica Special Economic Zone in western Poland. Construction is expected to be complete by Q3 of 2008.

Apart from product assembly and configuration, the company's activities in Poland will include product distribution, logistics and value-added services. It is expected to employ 1,000 people by 2010. Production will be targeted towards the markets of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The first year of operation is expected to see the production of some two million computers. After this, the plant will increase its production to five million units annually.

Lenovo employs over 23,000 people worldwide and has offices in 66 countries. In Central Europe it is present in Hungary, where it has a manufacturing plant, and in Slovakia, where it has a client service center.

Milko van Duijl, president of Lenovo Europe, Middle East and Africa said that the company was looking to invest more in the region since the company is "happy with [its] activities in CEE."

Paweł Olszynka, an IT specialist at PMR Consulting, was cautiously optimistic about the investment.

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Poland will not join euro zone before 2012: bank chief

Poland's national bank chief Slawomir Skrzypek said on Friday that the country would not join the euro zone before 2012.

Skrzypek said Poland is only expected to meet fiscal deficit levels required in the Masstricht Treaty in 2009, and will then enter the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) which was designed to ensure that would-be euro zone members can orient their currency policies toward stability, and lasts two years.

"Therefore, the country could join the euro zone in 2012 at the earliest," Skrzypek said, adding that Poland would only join it when circumstances are most favorable.

At a seminar held earlier in the day to discuss the euro's influence on Poland's future, Skrzypek said the government had assigned a group of experts to study issues related to the euro zone entry. The group will issue a report on their findings by the end of 2008.

A newcomer in the European Union, Poland has been hesitant on whether to join the euro zone. Warsaw worries that the entry could slow down economic growth and has thereby taken a wait-and-see attitude towards the issue.

President Lech Kaczynski once said in 2006 that Poland would hold a referendum in 2010 on whether to join the euro zon.
Source:http: english.people.com.cn