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preceding period. The Gierek regime, in its first year, managed to increase per capita consumption 5%.

Gierek's long-term economic policy is aimed at raising both the rate of economic growth and the share of output devoted to consumer welfare. Gierek's goals for 1971-75, as announced in July 1972, are generally higher than in Gomulka's draft of 1969. The plan is fairly ambitious in that it projects a more rapid rise in national income than was achieved in 1966-70, while at the same time calling for a slower growth of investment and employment. Real wages and consumption are also planned to grow more rapidly than in 1966-70 (Figure 19).

In recent years, the Polish Government, like those of the other East European Communist countries, became increasingly concerned with the widening gap in technology, productivity, and levels of living between Eastern and Western Europe. Under Gomulka, controls over investment were tightened, strict ceilings were placed on employment levels in an attempt to increase labor efficiency and productivity, and plans were made to reorient industrial production to satisfy consumer interests more fully. Gomulka also expressed the intention to increase imports of technologically-advanced machinery and equipment from the West. Gierek has continued those politics but has discarded the ceilings on employment in response to the political needs for full employment. The desire to increase imports of advanced technology has become even more pronounced under Gierek.

2. Economic planning and administration

The basic goals of economic development and the general policies to be followed in implementing them are decided at the top levels of the Communist Party (Polish United Workers Party). The regime sets forth the goals for economic development in plans that cover, in varying detail, periods ranging from a month to 5 years or more. The principal guidelines for economic development have been incorporated in national economic plans, of which there have been five during the postwar period, covering the following periods: 1950-55, 1956-60, 1961-65, 1966-70, and 1971-75. Annual plans established in the context of the 5-year plans, and quarterly and monthly plans placed in the context of the annual plans, set forth operational targets for the producing units in the economy.

The plans establish goals for nearly all types of economic activity. Production is specified in physical units for the most important items and in value terms for all sectors and branches of the economy. Targets also are set for employment, productivity, costs, investment, foreign trade, retail sales, transportation, state procurement of agricultural commodities, wages, real income, consumption, and national income. The 5-year plans also contain regional plans for each province and for the major cities. In support of the annual economic plans, the Ministry of Finance draws up financial plans that outline the flow of funds within the economy to correspond to production, investment, and consumption goals. The government tries to rely on indirect controls, prices, and persuasion to implement the plans for personal consumption and for output in the non-socialized sectors of the economy — mainly agriculture. Direct administrative controls are exercised over most investments are over the socialized economy, which includes nearly all production outside of agriculture.

The lines of control in the socialized sector extend from the ministries, through industrial associations, to the enterprises. There are several ministries that oversee production units in socialized industry and construction, including the Ministries of Mining and Power, Heavy Industry, Chemical Industry, Light Industry, Engineering Industry, Food Industry and Procurement, Forestry and Timber Industry, and Construction and Building Materials. Other ministries also may have some responsibility for production; for example, the Ministry of Communications oversees the manufacture of telephone instruments and switching equipment by TELKOM Association.

The industrial associations, formed in 1958, comprise groups of enterprises engaged in similar lines of production; e.g., iron and steel, machine tools, and textiles. The associations have gradually taken over some of the functions and authority of both the enterprises and the ministries; the ministries now have

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