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Poland wins top-ten business ranking
A high-profile World Bank report commends leaders for cutting red tape but says they now need to overhaul the courts.
The World Bank has praised this country as one of the most rapidly improving environments in which to conduct business. In the bank's Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth, which was unveiled in Warsaw within the last few days, Poland is highlighted for introducing a series of reforms that have facilitated business activity.
The research shows business registration procedures have been simplified, insolvency laws tightened and the labor code liberalized. Poland was ranked eighth while Slovakia gained the top spot (see adjacent table).
However, the report highlighted a number of other areas that need addressing. It suggests the sluggishness of the courts is the major hindrance to growth. At the moment it is mandatory to go to court first before repossessing a loan, which is not the case in most other developed countries. Worse, the average time to enforce a contract is a whopping 1,000 days (compared to 213 days in the OECD) and it takes 200 days to register a real estate purchase.
The report's authors say further improvements will eventually boost GDP growth from 6 percent to 8 percent and reduce unemployment. They also suggest that the three Eastern European countries that registered in the top 10 will trigger faster changes in the old EU countries, which in the long term will contribute to the competitiveness of Europe.
The WBJ spoke to four businesspeople to find out whether the World Bank's encouraging words registered in the real Word
Piotr Kłodnicki is a financial consultant with Apix
"It is much safer now to do business in Poland than under communism. If you look at the Polish market you can see that joining the EU has made it even easier. The next area I would like to see addressing is tax policy. Greater stability in Polish politics and the general economy would go a long way towards helping business too. One fundamental change that will need to come is in the mentality of entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens. Now investors must drive the action; they can fuel business themselves but at the moment they are not looking hard enough."
Joanna Kosiorek, from Warsaw, is in the process of setting up Astro, a care foundation for disabled and elderly people
"We need to set up a business first to support the foundation. You can see how things have changed but I hope it will continue. I think it will become easier in the years ahead. There are many rules and regulations that we will have to satisfy and I hope that in the future this will become easier. So it is really administration that I think needs changing."
Jan Gajewski has been running his own landscaping and gardening business near Warsaw for nine years
"I ran a business in the United States for three years before coming to Poland. Of course things are very different.
"I employ 10 people and have 50 hectares of land and provide a variety of services. At the moment I pay 10 percent on my bank loan and this is too high. I want to expand by working with partners in America to become involved in producing machinery for the States, and the rate of loans is the thing that most concerns me."
Erika Kovalick, runs her own aesthetic medicine clinic, Collagena
"I am finding it easier than I have in the past doing business here in Poland.
"I set up my clinic several years ago and began franchising it, which at the time was a very novel business approach.
"Things are becoming easier but there are still some areas where we need to see big changes. I'm particularly thinking of taxes. The government has announced big alterations to social benefit payments for employers and this will hit a lot of people. Lower taxes would make a big difference to those already doing business here and others who might be looking to set up in Poland."
(Source: http://www.wbj.pl) |
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