– With our public support it is difficult to speak of foreign expansion. Even the Polish president intervened at the purchase of the Możejki oil refinery – the President of PKN Orlen said in an interview in Krynica Wojciech Heydel during a panel called the „Foreign expansion of companies and supporting role of the state”.
Activity of state authorities, which facilitates the expansion of home companies abroad, can be observed more and more frequently. The US president takes on his foreign delegations groups of business people, the same as in the case of the authorities of Germany, France or Russia. That is why they bring back contracts worth billions from apparently political talks. Russian president Dmitrij Miedviediev has openly announced protection of interests of his country’s companies, which enter new markets. – thanks to its political connections E. ON concern was able to block a few big transactions and prevent the establishment of big competitors in other countries – emphasized Wojciech Topolnicki, a Vice-president of PGE.
Representatives of strongly regulated industries, such as energy, fuel, or insurance, say openly: without the state’s assistance foreign expansion is very difficult. Certainly the fact that the state is generally their major shareholder is not helpful, so usual are frequent personal changes and willing entertainment of the right to dividend, which divests companies of funds for their development. – The State treasury is always short of money, so if I would want to increase the company’s capital for example by PLN 4 billion, I would not be able to do it. Every government should support the development of its companies, because they are the ones which pay taxes – said Andrzej Klesyk, The President of PZU.
Politics helps also in supranational projects. A good regional example is here a project of a new nuclear power plant in Ignalina, which is carried out jointly by Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estona. – Energy is a strategic sector, so the active role of the Government is not surprising – said Darius Degutis, formerly the Ambassador of Lithuania to Poland and currently an International Affairs Director in LEO LT.
Smaller companies are much more sceptical with regards to the state’s support for their investments. – We are second in the world’s market of roof windows, and so far we have not received any support, although our competitor applies various practices, which are very unfavourable for us – admitted Ryszard Florek, the President of Fakro. His company has already filed a petition to Brussels for the abuse of the dominating position by Danish Velux.
