President: Offset to accompany Patriot and helicopter contracts
Contracts for the purchase of helicopters and missile defence systems for the Polish army will be accompanied by offset deals, President Bronislaw Komorowski declared on Thursday.
On Tuesday the government decided to negotiate an agreement on the purchase by Poland of Patriot medium-range air/missile defence systems from the US Raytheon company and to test H225M choppers produced by Airbus Helicopters. A contract for the purchase of helicopters is to be signed in the autumn and of missile defence systems next year.
Speaking to reporters in the Sejm (lower house), the president said that such contracts should produce profits also for the Polish arms industry and that offset deals on industrial cooperation were to serve this goal.
"(This cooperation) is a chance for the Polish industry, and not only for foreign firms operating in Poland," the president stressed.
"No suppliers like offset deals but they are loved by the Polish industry. Our experience from the implementation of offset deals accompanying the purchase of the US multi-task plane was not good (...) but now we are much more experienced," he said.
President Komorowski expressed conviction that the government would create chances for the Polish arms industry to take advantage of the deals.
Source: PAP