Putting business into perspective

The president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) has handed in his resignation and the body is now waiting for the new government to appoint a successor. But businesspeople are already meeting regularly to decide how Poland's business environment can be improved.

During a congress organized by the Polish Society of Entrepreneurship Support, Sebastian Mikosz, the deputy CEO of PAIiIZ, stressed that although foreign direct investment (FDI) grew considerably in the last two years, the uptrend won't last forever and soon Eastern European and Asian countries will turn out to be more competitive thanks to low labor costs.

"Within the next five years, Poland should focus on attracting all new investments, then, with a 10-year perspective, it should concentrate on encouraging those who have already invested in Poland to stay and develop their operations here and finally decide on a sector specialization," Mikosz said.

However, the majority of speakers agreed Poland would not be able to benefit from its potential without major improvements in its infrastructure. "My company operates in Wrocław, in the west of Poland, but we're going to cooperate with a new partner from Rzeszów, in the east. Paradoxically, we'll hold business meetings in London because it takes just above an hour to get there by low-fare airlines that fly both from Rzeszów and Wrocław while transport links between the two cities is an outrage," said Piotr Jan Maciejewski, head of PCC Rokita SA's supervisory board.