New agency for trade and investment to open in Poland in 2017

The start of the Polish Agency for Investment and Trade (PAIH) will be one of the most important plans of the Ministry of Development for the upcoming year, the Ministry’s Deputy Minister indicated in a press release on Sunday. Jerzy Kwieciński stated that the PAIH will further facilitate entrepreneurial activity and investment in the year ahead, and hence spur economic growth to, he believed, above 3 percent. “The absolute priority for our Ministry will be the implementation of the Strategy for Responsible Development (the SOR). The SOR has already been transferred to the inter-ministerial consultations. We assume that the formal adoption of the Strategy by the Government will be in late January and early February,” he said. “At the same time [we are] carrying out activities related to the use of European funds. The cohesion policy is on the right track. We are the absolute leader in the EU when it comes to the use of European funds,” he added. PAIH will operate within the Group PFR, which implements financial instruments aimed at the development of Polish entrepreneurs. It plans to open primarily to Asia, Africa or Latin American investment. The Deputy Minister elaborated on the government’s plans for 2017 with respect to foreign investment. “We attract foreign investment. We care about [its] quality, so we support the foreign investments that have a very strong component of technology and research and development […], both Polish and foreign,” he stated. [We] also use the tools that the [Polish] state has, or such as Special Economic Zones, and support from the EU's research and development, and work directly with investors,” he also said.