Revving up reform
Excessive bureaucracy and the laborious task of making contact with government administrators presents a significant hindrance to companies, especially small ones. Frequent and unclear changes in economic law cause further difficulties. According to the Ministry of Economy, the total cost of all the red tape exceeds five percent of Poland's total GDP. Now, a program of reforms of Poland's economic laws, which the Ministry of Economy has been working on since autumn 2006, has reached the consultation phase, and the Ministry is hoping it will find wide support within the government.
"What we need to change is the very way laws are made, not the just regulations themselves," declares Piotr Woniak, the Minister of Economy.
The prospective changes involve the simplification and reduction in a number of regulations as well as an overall decrease in the bureaucratic burden on business. The Ministry has said that it will regularly monitor the changes and eliminate legislative obstacles. The full program of reform will take two and a half years. So far, the measures have been highly praised by the EU's Sigma (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) initiative, which has recognized Poland as a leader in legal reform among the countries that entered the EU in 2004.
Adam Szejnfeld, vice chairman of the Sejm Committee on the Economy, points out that much as he supports such changes, measures taken by the Ministry of Economy will not have too much of effect if not backed up by the government. However, Woniak remains optimistic. "We started dynamically, now it is time to shift it up a gear," he concludes.
