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Polish region near Ukraine eyes new business opportunities: audio report

20.02.2023 17:00
Several hundred people, including business executives and diplomats from over 40 countries, took part in the 8th Diplomatic Opening of the Year event held in Warsaw by the Polish Chamber of Commerce (KIG) under the theme "Towards a Brighter Future."
Audio
Mariusz Dąbrowski, Director of Investors Assistance and Business Promotion Bureau, Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshalls Office
Mariusz Dąbrowski, Director of Investors Assistance and Business Promotion Bureau, Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshall's OfficePhoto: Danuta Isler/Radio Poland

The business mixer earlier this month was also attended by Polish public administration officials, entrepreneurs and representatives from chambers of commerce and industry active in the country.

Among them were representatives of the northeastern Polish region of Podlasie, which borders Lithuania and Belarus and which felt the first-hand effects of being close to war-torn Ukraine.

"What is the most important for us now is I hope that people will not be afraid to come to eastern Poland because they were afraid because of the war in Ukraine," Mariusz Dąbrowski, Director of the Investors Assistance and Business Promotion Bureau at the Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshall's Office, told Radio Poland's Danuta Isler.

"So if this changes and people abroad see that maybe this area is not so dangerous, it will be better and better," he added.

Podlasie is an agricultural and industrial region where the timber processing industry, light industry and mechanical engineering play an important role in the local economy, alongside the dairy, IT and sailboat manufacturing sectors.

There are more than 250 firms with foreign ownership in the region. Its cross-border location creates good conditions for wide-ranging economic cooperation with other countries, according to officials.

The Podlaskie region is crossed by important road routes, including the Via Baltica, which links the Baltic states to the trans-European transport network, and the Via Carpathia, which links Gdańsk and Klaipeda with southeastern Europe. This, according to local authorities, makes it a gateway between Europe and Asia.

Click on the audio player above to listen.