Gowin: State-owned companies will invest more in R&D

Vicepremier and minister of education Jarosław Gowin announced that Polish state-owned companies will substantially increase their spending in research and development in the coming years. Gowin noted that thanks to the possibility of EU funding, the financial means for expanding R&D in the country as a whole are very large, and while he conceded that spending had increased somewhat under the previous government,  he asserted that Poland still had a long way to go to reach 'European standards' and that it would take a concerted effort to ramp up spending to 1,7 percent of the country's GDP by 2020, which is the official target. He admitted that Polish private firms are, on the whole, still underdeveloped  for the time being to properly engage in R&D, and that the onus on increasing activity in this area would fall on state-owned firms, adding, "The Minister of Treasury will require that...investments in R&D increase, even if it means spending less money elsewhere." Singling out the defense industry as one area in which progress could be made, Gowin also added that all efforts would be undertaken to ensure that increases in R&D spending would lead to tangible positive effects for the economy, though he did go into any specifics.