Business

A South African media powerhouse that has begun investing in Central and Eastern Europe has bought a controlling interest in the Polish Internet company Gadu-Gadu.

Polish Internet stores are getting into really serious business as two of them - Hoopla.pl and Agito.pl - will debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange this fall. They will join Oponeo.pl, the first Internet-based seller on the exchange.

Another 15 bln euro has been released by the European Commission for local development programs in Poland. Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Huebner signed the decision October 1 at Warsaw Royal Castle.

As the carrier easyJet informed last week, this new connection from Krakow would be the fourth connection introduced to this years' winter flights timetable.

Beginning in 2009, two towns south of Warsaw will be home to what is being called "City Town," a sort of Polish Hollywood.

Poland's auto factories produced more than 50,000 cars and almost 10,000 trucks in July of this year, a 4.2 percent increase in cars but a 1.2 percent drop in trucks, according to the Warsaw-based Automotive Market Research Institute SAMAR.

Balice Airport is changing its image and name to establish a strong position in the international flight market.

The German government is opening its labor market to Polish engineers and specialists in automation, robotics and electronics. Poland's western neighbor will welcome the engineers beginning November 1, the daily newspaper Dziennik reported.

Four hundred Poles who will begin working in November at a new Dell Computer factory in Lodz have begun training at Dell's factory in Limerick, Ireland.

Poland received the highest work-force rating among 31 European countries in a recent survey that looked at the cost of labor, quality of labor and 13 other workforce factors.