WARSAW -- Poland will transform the privatization ministry into a treasury ministry that will not only sell but also control and direct state assets, Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko said.


Kolodko told reporters last week that the move would come as part of government efforts to co-ordinate the implementation of its four-year economic plan, the Strategy for Poland. He said the government remained committed to privatization and wanted to accelerate it but that companies that would stay in state hands should not be neglected. State firms, which are controlled by various government and local authorities, needed to be first transformed into joint-stock companies owned by the treasury and later privatized, Kolodko said.