LAS VEGAS SUN

29 april 1993

MEETING POLISH PARTNERS

Delegation visits Las Vegas to develop trade relationships

By Pauline Bell

Possible joint ventures were a major topic of discussion this week as 26 Polish entrepreneurs toured several Southern Nevada companies and held preliminary negotiations with Las Vegas businessmen.
The ultimate goal of visit is to bring together Nevada and Polish firms for possible future business relationships, said Lucinda Badillo, executive director of Nevada World Trade Center, which helped host the event.
"There is real desire (on the part of Polish business community) for Western technology, products and services" Badillo said.
Poland currently is trying to shed itself of the state-owned business system that operated under Communism and move toward privatization, she explained.
The group toured Accutemp, a Southern Nevada business which manufactures refrigeration units, and Vega Enterprises, a food products supplier to Southern Nevada resorts, restaurants and grocery stores.
Badillo said the Accutemp visit was designed to acquaint the delegation with available American technology, while the tour at Vega Enterprises was intended to show the visitors the capabilities of modern distribution system.
One delegation member, Henryk Olek, said he found Southern Nevada`s gaming economy especially interesting because it is dependent to a large extent on visitors for support. Poland boasts about 10 casinos, but they cater mostly to locals and are not dependent on tourism for survival.
"I`m impressed by the approach of American business and how anxious they are to try to cooperate with companies from central Europe" said Malgorzta Malec, foreign relations and marketing manager for Komag, a Polish mining company. She said she hopes the initial visit will lead to " fruitful cooperation in future". 
She said she was also impressed by the friendliness of the American people.
"They are friendly and very, very kind. You are privileged and (should be) really happy to live in such a wonderful country" Malgorzata said.
U.S. companies could benefit by the inexpensive labor found in central European countries such as Poland, said Malgorzata, who speaks fluent English and served as the group`s interpreter.
Poland has suffered for years from an economy that was "upside down" and it`s time to make it up for lost opportunities, she said. Importing some of the high technology that U.S. companies have to offer how Polish business could make up for yjat lost time, she added.
The tour which included a stop-offin Arizona, was arranged by Dr. George Schenk of Schenk and Associates, a management consulting firm in Phoenix and his Polish counterpart, Boguslaw J. Feder, founder of The Creative Leaders Center, an education and training center for Polish business.