Taking a stand

Polish employers gathered last week to hammer out a common position on the modernization of the economy during the first Employers Congress in Warsaw. The event was organized by the six largest entrepreneurship organizations in Poland, including the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan, the American Chamber of Commerce and the Polish Craft Association.

During the event, the government declared its will to cooperate with entrepreneurs. "You are the salt of this earth," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on the first day of the Congress. He added that the development of entrepreneurship was beneficial for all social groups in Poland and that any change proposed by his cabinet would make employers' work easier.

"We will assess the government on the basis of the effects, rather than promises," countered Andrzej Malinowski, the president of the Confederation of Polish Employers (KPP). He appealed for greater economic freedom, clearer laws and reduced bureaucracy, among other things. "Our country is too small for such excessive a bureaucracy as there is now," he said.

Leszek Balcerowicz, the former head of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), stressed the importance of low taxes and appealed for the process of privatizing of state-owned companies to be accelerated. The need for a better law on public-private partnerships was emphasized by Christian Schnell of the Polish-German Chamber of Commerce.

Entrepreneurs in Poland provide 6.5 million jobs and pay 60 percent of all the salaries in the country. Investments from the private sector, meanwhile, make up over 75 percent of all the investment in the Polish economy. The organizers of the conference noted that thanks to the private sector, Poland is the 11th fastest-growing economy in the world, with an average annual GDP growth of 4.5 percent over the last 16 years.