Economy Minister Janusz Piechocinski speaking at the "Let's change Polish industry" forum. Photo: PAP/ Leszek Szymanski
Piechocinski, who is also deputy prime minister, announced the goal at the opening of the “Let's change Polish industry” forum in Warsaw on Monday.
His declaration echoes Poland's proposals at a conference hosted earlier this month for delegates from the Weimar Triangle.
“One can see that in countries where industry has a higher share in the GDP, such as Germany at 23 percent, and Poland at 18 percent, these countries have a more stable economy, proving more resistant to fluctuations in the financial markets,” Olgierd Dziekonski, Secretary of State in the President Bronislaw Komorowski's Chancellery had argued.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk predicted that Poland's GDP will grow by over 3 percent in 2014. He made the prognosis while speaking at a press conference in Opole, southern Poland, where construction is due to get under way on two new units of a coal-fired power plant.
Tusk said the government had deliberately been cautious in its 2.5 percent growth prognosis for the budget bill, but that Poland would like to “surprise Europe” with its growth over the next few years.
“I would like to say that I'm an optimist, and that if I were to make a sportsman's bet, then I'd predict that growth will be over 3 percent in 2014.”
Poland's Central Statistical Office (GUS) confirmed on Friday that Poland's GDP rose by 2.7 percent in the last quarter of 2013, compared with the same period in 2012.
The prime minister confirmed recently that although Poland aims to reduce its CO2 emissions with the aid of new technology, in line with EU targets, but that the country's economy “will continue to be based on coal.
“Some wanted coal to be dispensed with, but energy independence requires not only the diversification of energy resources, but also the maximum use of one's own resources,” he said.
Diversification programmes currently involve a far-reaching bid to tap into Poland's shale gas resources, as well plans to have a two-part nuclear plant up operational by 2035. (nh)
Source: PAP