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- <text id=91TT1490>
- <title>
- July 08, 1991: World Notes:Poland
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- July 08, 1991 Who Are We?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 41
- World Notes
- POLAND
- Bulls and Bears
- </hdr><body>
- <p> When he was campaigning for President, Lech Walesa promised
- to give every citizen a slice of the country's wealth. Last week
- his government took a giant step toward fulfilling that pledge
- when Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki announced that Warsaw
- will effectively make every one of the country's 27 million
- adult citizens a shareholder in Poland, Inc.
- </p>
- <p> The unprecedented giveaway plan, which must be approved by
- parliament, calls for majority shares in 400 state-owned
- businesses--accounting for one-fourth of production--to be
- turned over to between five and 20 newly created private stock
- funds co-owned by Poles. Western investment houses would run the
- funds, which would be structured to resemble U.S. mutual funds,
- for growth and profit. Unlike the American model, which gives
- managers no direct power over how an individual company is run,
- the overseers of Poland's new stock funds would be able to
- restructure promising enterprises and liquidate poor performers.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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