Polish prime minister Waldemar Pawlak said his administration would be seeking ways to enable Polish firms as well as foreign ones to participate in the construction of information highways in the country and he appealed to domestic firms to let him know of any difficulties they faced in competing for tenders handled under the auspices of the World Bank. He said they should have equal if not better chances of winning business from projects financed by the bank. His comments echo sentiment in the Czech Republic where local firms are set to receive as yet unspecified preferences in the evaluation of bids for public sector tenders if planned legislation goes ahead. They contrast with current thinking in Hungary however, where some large contracts have recently been awarded following closed tenders in which only foreign-owned multinationals were invited to participate.
