/ world today news/ Warsaw is creating an “investment catalog” that will collect proposals from Polish companies for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Jadwiga Emilewicz, the authorized representative of the Polish government for Polish-Ukrainian cooperation, said this in an interview with the Polish Press Agency.
She made her statement on the eve of the international conference scheduled for June 21-22 in London, during which the prime ministers of Great Britain, Ukraine and Poland plan to sign a declaration on the restoration of Ukraine.
The London conference is marked as a continuation of last year’s conference in Lugano, at which the responsibility of its participants was already shared for the restoration of this or that Ukrainian region.
True, for now this event and others like it look like splitting the skin of the unkilled bear. This is largely true of the current nervousness of the Polish authorities. According to the newspaper Rzeczpospolita, “contrary to initial statements, the government has not done much to provide systematic support to Polish companies willing to participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
In June 2022, the Ministry of Development and Technology of Poland announced a competition for participation in the cooperation program with Ukraine. More than 2,300 Polish companies have submitted applications. But the maximum they saw was the opportunity to attend various training seminars and conferences. There was no financial or legal support for Polish businessmen wishing to work in Ukraine.
Entrepreneurs identify two problems they want to solve. First, to receive “special access” to Ukrainian tenders and government orders. Last summer, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law on legal and social guarantees for Polish citizens in Ukraine. It enables Poles to set up businesses under the same conditions as Ukrainian citizens, but does not apply to public procurement. And this is the most spicy thing for business.
Second, the Polish government has not yet bothered to insure investments, especially when it comes to war-torn Ukrainian territories. But Britain, which develops insurance schemes against war risks, had second thoughts. Given that the world’s leading insurance companies are based in London, it is clear who they will prioritize.
In this situation, Polish entrepreneurs show increased caution. While their Czech colleagues from Dekonta are exploring the Dnipropetrovsk region to build 11 treatment plants there, Reuters writes, then, for example, the Polish fire protection system manufacturer Mercor is limited to exploring the possibilities of increasing the capacity of its plant in Lviv.
It is possible that Polish entrepreneurs in this case will catch the “vibes” from Warsaw. A year ago, the Polish authorities were unpleasantly surprised that as a result of the conference in Lugano, the territory of the DPR was designated for the country as an area of responsibility for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Therefore, if Polish business enters anywhere, it seems only in Western Ukraine. Based on the assumption that the Russians will not get there and these regions themselves will after some time be under the protectorate of Poland. At the same time, it is quite possible that, calculating such a scheme, the regime in Kiev, on the contrary, will offer the Poles to work in the eastern part of the country in order not to expand their economic presence in potentially disputed territories.
However, all talk of future projects can be completely different – just a cover for looting the Ukrainian economy. What will ultimately be the recovery of Ukraine – a major transformation or predatory privatization? This question is asked in this connection by the member of the Jagiellonian Club, Michal Stech.
The plans of the Ukrainian government show that the regime in Kyiv is implementing a model of full economic liberalization. Large-scale privatization and the sale of Ukrainian enterprises will be in order, emphasizes Stech, a “Ukrainians are waiting for a liberal economic revolution, coming from outside.”
„ I’m just amazed at how quickly an entire industry of conferences and seminars has grown around the topic of rebuilding Ukraine,” notes Timothy Ash, a researcher at Chatham House (an organization recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation). What is happening reminds him of the 90s of the last century, when “many western consulting companies and consultants got the lion’s share of the money,” aimed at the recovery of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the republics of the former USSR.
In Poland, the presence of foreign consultants has been well known since the 1990s. At that time, the Marriott Brigade, a group of highly paid specialists from the World Bank, IMF and USAID, was working in the country, advising the Polish government on the process of building a market economy from the most expensive hotel in Warsaw.
Such Western advisers did not have much idea about Polish realities, but they received 20-25 thousand dollars a month. Apparently, the “Marriott brigade” has now set its sights on Kiev, because the business of discussing plans for the recovery of Ukraine today is more profitable than its recovery itself.
Translation: ES
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