„It is some obstacle to investments that the region’s economies are rather small. However, this is definitely the direction that should be taken by companies from that part of Europe”, said the Unicredit economist Martin Blum during the panel „Are We Losing the Chance? Time for International Expansion of Polish and Other Central European Companies”. In his opinion, the value of Polish investments abroad can be expected to grow 10-15% a year in the years to come. Mentioned as the main directions of the expansion are Poland’s neighbours – Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic. What also forces the foreign expansion of Central European companies is the fact that, despite the persistent high levels of inflowing foreign investments, a slight drop is forecasted for this year in Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia.
Even though the foreign concerns” investments in Poland are still growing, the experts who gathered in Krynica suggest that our economy, just like other economies in this part of Europe, forces companies to seek their opportunities abroad. The more so as – according to assertions made by Wieslaw Rozlucki during the panel „Investment Risk in Central and Eastern Europe: Is Recession Imminent?” the former head of the Warsaw Stock Exchange– Poland is not threatened with serious recession for the time being. – As yet, this is just a slowdown, which may be transformed into recession if our GNP drops below 3%. According to Rozłucki, the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe is much less threatened with recession than the West European countries.
It is beyond all doubt, however, that the high growth potential we can offer to investors would become much higher if we could raise the quality of the infrastructure faster and more effectively.
The Russians fail to notice such problems in their country. Igor Naumov of „Niezavissimaya Gazeta” stresses that Russia is willing both to receive investors and to invest abroad. „We have no problems with capital. High oil prices earn us a lot of money. What we are lacking are highly specialised managers and technologies. We can build factories, but we cannot guarantee high quality of the cars”, said Naumov. „Yet if a concern – as recently Volkswagen – wants to launch production in our country, we can enter an alliance with them, build the plant and provide cheap labour.”
What Naumov failed to mention, though, was that other obstacles might pose a problem for investors. „This affects small and medium-sized companies in particular, which complain a lot about administrative obstacles and bureaucracy”, explains Prof. Anatoli Chuikinshei of the marketing and trade department of Kant University in Kaliningrad. He admits, however, that in times of slowdown in the West, the investment profitability, especially in the area of highbrow technologies, may be high precisely in Russia due to the low production costs. „Despite the high inflation of 10%, our economy is growing incessantly”, adds the Professor.
