TADEUSZ KOŚCIŃSKI, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology
WE WANT TO HAVE MORE POLISH EXPORTERS
T
he Polish economy is doing increasingly well and what is even more important, it is growing in a sustainable manner. The GDP in the 2nd quarter of 2018 was higher by 5.1% year-onyear against 4.0% in the corresponding quarter of 2017. Moody's has recently revised upward its forecast for Polish GDP growth this year to 5 percent. The very recent promotion of Poland to developed market status by FTSE Russell marks a symbolic moment when Poland has become the first country from Central and Eastern Europe to be ranked a "developed market". Poland has never been in a better position to participate in global business and develop more intensified trade relations worldwide. However, very few companies have any export activity in Poland. The number is far below the European
26 polish market
average. In fact, most of them rely on one or two partners from the EU. This means that we strongly rely on the economic condition of the European countries. Acknowledging the crucial importance of export as an engine of the Polish economy we have made it one of the five pillars of our Government Strategy for Responsible Development – a key document in the field of economic policy. Polish companies need to increasingly engage in foreign expansion including to remote and more demanding destinations. For entrepreneurs, export activity is a chance to innovate, invest, employ new staff and increase revenue. For the Polish economy it is a chance to develop local companies and let small ones become medium ones, and medium ones become large ones. That is why we have to double the number of Polish