VNPT ventures into Poland

VNPT, the largest Vietnamese telecom operator, is planning to enter the Polish mobile telephone market.

VNPT, the state-owned Vietnamese Posts and Telecommunications Group, is to venture into Poland possibly by the end of this month. Radovan Mihalik of the VNPT management board said at a press conference in Warsaw that the company has been operating successfully already in the Czech Republic and that it is planning to expand throughout Central and Eastern Europe in the near future. Poland is to be the second country after the Czech Republic in which the VNPT intends to launch its operations and that possibly as soon as by the end of August. “Our offer is mainly directed at the large Vietnamese community living in Poland”, he said. Officially, the current Vietnamese population in Poland totals 20.000 30.000, but real figures are much higher. This country is currently one of the few European states in which the Vietnamese form one of the biggest and best organised migrant communities.
VNPT’s plans counter those of at least three Polish mobile phone operators to offer special services for national minorities.

Polish Market

ECONOMIC MONITOR

download pdf

• ● In December 2009 and January 2010, as in previous months in the second half of 2009, the Polish economy stood out against other countries in terms of GDP growth. Poland’s economic growth was higher than projected and higher than in other European countries.
read more »

• In 2009 construction output increased by 3.7%.
read more »

• Retail sales increase in most product groups.
read more »

• On the Warsaw Stock Exchange, stock prices were very volatile in January 2010.
read more »

• At the end of December 2009 the registered unemployment rate (claimant count rate) amounted to 11.9% versus 11.4% in November.
read more »

• At the end of January the president signed the 2010 budget bill into law. The bill was adopted by the parliament on December 18.
read more »

• In the fourth quarter of 2009 the Polish economy turned out to be more resistant to the global crisis than had been projected and than the economies of Polish neighbours, something which boosts optimism in forecasts for 2010 and the next years.
read more »

PODCAST

• Why do Israeli property developers pick Poland?

• New Polish president’s economic priorities

• Storm over homoerotic art show at Warsaw’s National Museum

• Poland’s new president Bronislaw Komorowski: a pragmatic, pro-business, euroenthusiast

• Poland and OECD innovation strategy

• How to make the Polish economy more innovative?

COMING UP

18th International Defence Industry Exhibition >>

WEEKLY MARKET ANALYSIS

Retail sales up again in June
Retail sales growth in nominal terms accelerated in June to 6.4% y-o-y from 4.3% y-o-y in May. The increase was higher than expected. In real terms, retail sales growth accelerated to 4.5% y-o-y from 2.0% y-o-y. June was a consecutive month with retail sales figures stronger than expected, which indicates that consumption is recovering after it slowed significantly at the beginning of the year. Private consumption is driven by an improvement on the labour market coupled with a rise in disposable incomes. In Q2 2010 retail sales grew by around 3% y-o-y in nominal terms and around 1% y-o-y in real terms. On the basis of retail sales and industrial production data, it can be estimated that the GDP growth rate was close to 3%.

MARKET INFO