USAID calls Poland 'corporate capital of Central Europe'
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) closeout events here highlighted not just the uncommon success of its programs in Poland, but also the pioneering role that outsiders expect Poland to play in the second decade after the collapse of communism.
USAID's J. Brady Anderson, sent in to perform the honors from the Washington D.C. headquarters, said that "Poland is now the corporate capital of Central Europe and the geo-political gateway to the East."
Hungary may disagree, as it claims a huge multinational business base. But Anderson's point is echoed in other quarters.
Last week's The Economist featured an article about the need to update definitions of Central Europe. It went beyond the now-obvious first-tier status of four to five transition countries to discuss how a growing number of experts now consider Poland's success and its influence to be a driving force for the further development of countries to the East, especially Ukraine.
Anderson also had praise for Poles in general, as well as President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, "for their faith in the future."
He downplayed, in talking to reporters, any one magic solution that Western aid donors brought to Poland, saying that what Westerners imported was primarily know-how and experience, both in the inner workings of a market economy and a grassroots dominated democracy. What he didn't say was that these things had not led to that much progress in many countries. But Poland was different.
"These seeds grew in very fertile soil in Poland," said Anderson, adding that an unusually large number of projects started with foreign aid "are in the self-sustaining stage."
In Buzek's chancellery last Wednesday, more than 230 people were honored who had key roles in the USAID's attempts to aid the transition. The honorees worked with USAID in shaping institutions or non-profit groups, working on taxes and tariffs, devolving power from the center to the grassroots, and starting research think tanks.
Fifteen people received certificates of appreciation, including: Barbara Litak-Zarebska, a deputy minister of privatization; Jacek Piechota, chairman of the Sejm Small Business Committee; Krystyna Gurbiel, director of the Polish Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs); business advisory-service specialist Dariusz Kaluzny of the Konin Regional Development Agency; Piotr Uszok, president of the Association of Polish Cities; government-decentralization specialist Jerzy Hausner of the Malopolska School of Public Administration; Ambassador Jerzy Regulski, the creator of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy, and Pawel Lukasiak, president of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland.
Others were municipal-tariff expert Slawomir Najnigier, chief of the Housing and Urban Development Authority; management-business education specialist Szczepan Figiel from the Mazury University in Olsztyn; Jerzy Wertz of the Krakow Voivodship Environmental Office; Maria Stankiewicz, director of energy conservation group Energie Cites; Barbara Blaszczyk, president of the macroeconomic researcher CASE Foundation; Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz, director of the Polish Bank Association, and Wojciech Kwasniak, chief of the National Bank of Poland's Bank Supervisory Commission (KNB).
Marek Wierzbowski's defection from Weil, Gotshal and Manges never would have come at a good time. He's not only a cutting-edge expert on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, but is also up to snuff on the blossoming IT sector. He was billed as the Weil, Gotshal moderator of a high-profile conference June 28 on investing in internet companies.
Few knew he'd left the company (after the program was printed). Those who led the daylong exploration of IT legal niceties were Lech Gilicinski, who was joined by Jon Filipek, the firm's European Union specialist in from Brussels, and bolstered by Andrzej Krawczyk and Michal Wojtaszek.
This is the time of year when business executives get hit up for help in sponsoring all sorts of picnics, concerts, dance festivals you name it. It's also an opportunity for the investors, Polish or Western, to get their name in front of folks if not in lights, then on a poster board or on a handout program.
Foreign investors usually get hit twice by being asked to help foot the bill for Polish festivals as well as annual barbeques by their home-country embassy and business chambers.
Sometimes the investors do the on-site heavy lifting themselves.
That was the case several years ago at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) picnic, when G. Andrew Espinosa and his colleagues put in lots of sweat equity (with emphasis on the sweat) to make sure thousands of expats and Poles alike got their tacos. This was just as they opened the Tortilla Factory at Ground Zero and the idea was to woo future customers. (Today, they've about outgrown that space especially since they're providing flour tortillas for all the major hotels and restaurants.)
This summer, AMCHAM went upscale for a July 1 barbeque on the patio of the Belvedere Restaurant, with invitees restricted mostly to partners and owners of chamber companies. The sponsors included Enron, International Paper, Volvo, the Warsaw Financial Center, Boeing and General Motors Poland, with raffle prizes kicked in by the Sheraton Warsaw Hotel & Towers, the Warsaw Marriott, British Airways, Estee Lauder and Clinique.
At the Australian Day barbeque July 12, some sponsors emulated Espinosa. That was true of Stanislaw Batorski, the area manager of Centrum Wina, which is distributing Australian wines in Poland. He poured wine for hours. Robert Konopacki of the Mamuska Cheesecake Shop was probably present, but he wasn't doing his own cheesecake handouts. That was left to a bevy of beauties.
