Poland to upgrade army using funding methods first deployed to fight COVID-19

Poland to upgrade army using funding methods first deployed to fight COVID-19

by Joseph Anthony
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FILE PHOTO: Polish armoured vehicles take part in the Polish National Army Day parade in Katowice. Agencja Gazeta/Kamila Kotusz via REUTERS

Poland will use a mode of financing employed to fight the economic consequences of COVID-19 to help fund a large increase in military spending, the defence minister said on Tuesday, as the government seeks to modernise and expand the armed forces.

Polandโ€˜s government has used bonds issued by institutions such as the national development bank BGK or state fund PFR โ€“ but secured by the state โ€“ to finance much of its spending on helping the economy through the pandemic.
This has helped it avoid including such spending in the state budget, a tactic that has been criticised by the Supreme Audit Office as lacking transparency.
Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said the government would create an Armed Forces Support Fund, financed by government-secured bonds issued by BGK, treasury bonds, the state budget and profits from the central bank.
โ€œThis is a solution that was used by the COVID fund. I want to strongly underline that the Armed Forces Support Fund will be run by BGK, so it wonโ€™t be some additional institution,โ€ Blaszczak told a news conference.
He did not say exactly how much the expansion and modernisation of the armed forces would cost. However, the leader of Polandโ€˜s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said spending would be โ€œsignificantly higherโ€ than 2% of gross domestic product, the level required of NATO states which Poland already exceeds.
โ€œIt is better to be safe and a little bit more in debt,โ€ Kaczynski said.
Blaszczak said the Defence Ministry aimed to have more than 250,000 full-time soldiers and more than 50,000 members of the Territorial Defence Force, which is made up of professional and part-time volunteer soldiers. In 2020, there were around 110,000 full-time soldiers.
REUTERS

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