Bangalore: Describing the current level of trade between India and Poland as "insufficient", Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller on February 18 said his country would seek new forms of co-operation and saw "great opportunities" for co- operation between the defence industries of both nations.

"Statistical data showed that in 2001 our turnover was only $ 250 million. It is clear that the level of trade is insufficient and should be increased. We will seek new forms of co-operation," he told Indo-Polish businessmen at a meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Polish market, he said, was not only open to traditional Indian goods, such as tea, coffee, textile products, but also electro-technical products, computer software, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

"I see great opportunities for the co-operation of our defence industries," Miller, who, accompanied by a high-power business delegation, is in Bangalore at the end of his four-day visit to India, said.

Noting that India was Poland's traditional trading and economic partner, the Polish leader said "we should build co-operation on this basis".

He said he also saw a large potential for expansion of economic co-operation in establishing and developing contacts at the local level, with different states of India, especially with Karnataka.

Seeking to woo Indian investors, Miller said Poland was "a country friendly for investors" and it provided favourable conditions for direct foreign investment and adopted measures to assure stable and transparent legal regulations.

In March 2002, Poland adopted the Law on financial support of investments, which increases the attractiveness of investing in Poland, he said.

Foreign investors who invested in new technologies or created a significant number of new jobs in Poland could count on public assistance. The institution of ombudsman representing foreign investors who would assist all those who had difficulties investing in Poland would also soon be established, he said.

Miller said Poland would also take other measures to improve its attractiveness for investment.

He said Poland's accession to the European Union on May 1, 2004 would "positively" impact the acceleration of its economy and create new incentives for investors.

"We are aware that there are some factors in Poland, which weaken the enthusiasm of investors," he said, noting these difficulties were the remains of a Centrally planned economy, which prevailed in Poland over the past 50 years.

Miller also said that as part of the government's economic strategy, it was adopting actions to bring the country back to the path of rapid development and to reach the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5 to 6 per cent, to increase employment and change structure of the economy by means of modernisation and privatisation of large parts of the public sector.

PTI