Poland government is keen on Indian companies to invest in their country and are sparing no effort to ensure it happens. A twenty member delegation led by Jerzy Witold Pietrewicz, State Minister for Economy, Tomasz Łukaszuk Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Krzysztof Grabczuk Deputy Marshall of Lubelskie Province, Poland and leading entrepreneurs. The Minister informed the Indian entrepreneurs that their government has launched a ‘Go to India campaign,’ before their visit here. “We have launched Go to India programme to support the entrepreneurs and establish our presence here. The aim is to encourage mutual trade and investments. It is on lines of your Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India policy. Similarly we too are encouraging Indian entrepreneurs to invest in Poland,” said Jerzy Witold Pietrewicz, State Minister, at a B2B event organized by the World Trade Centre and All India Association of Industries on October 30.
The Minister Pietrewicz explained the current economic and political environment in Poland is conducive to foreign investments. “Since 2000, we have political stability and made economic progress. Our GDP is stable and deficit is low. As per the latest World Bank report, Poland is on number 32 for ease of doing business,” the Minister informed the business community. He added, “Our government has reduced clearances and brought down the time of giving clearances to only 24 hours.” The minister also said investors need to explore new areas of trade. Poland has engineering, nuclear medicine, defence and other areas.
Echoing his minister’s call for encouraging mutual trade growth, Krzysztof Grabczuk Deputy Marshall of Lubelskie Province said that their country believed in transfer of technology and knowledge to India. Likewise new regions need to explored by investors in both Poland and India. “We started with Punjab for sharing of technology and trade in new areas. There is a potential of investment in my region, Lubelskie, which is close to Ukraine. We are strong in agriculture, food processing, fruit exports, mining and other technologies,” said Grabczuk. The Counsellor.
Tomasz Łukaszuk Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in his speech highlighted the importance of Maharashtra in the Indian economy and said Polish investors cannot afford to miss this state. He praised the Maharashtra government for bringing down the number of licences and reposing faith in investors. “We would like our companies to focus on Mumbai and Maharashtra which is contributing significantly to India’s economy. We are here to assist the business contacts. I am confident our companies will find a place here,” said Łukaszuk. He added, “We are happy that the government has reduced the number of licences from 75 to 26 and attempts are being made to reduce further. It creates a really favourable climate for our companies.
In his welcome address, Vijay Kalantri, Vice Chairman WTC Mumbai and President AIAI said trade links between India and Poland are well established and growing well. “We have mutual interests in sectors like mining, engineering, agriculture and medicine. However we need to explore areas for investments,” said Kalantri. He added, “We can think of collaborations of setting up plants in Poland, which will help us to make Make in India programme successful.”
Kalantri said the trade between the two countries will double in next five years India is a big market, emerging economy and big market.