On the 28^th of November 2019 SGH Warsaw School of Economic, World Economy Research Institute, The Department of East Asian Economic Studies in cooperation with Polish Investment & Trade Agency (PAIH) organised closed seminar for Indian companies operating in Poland. The opening was done by The Dean, Prof. Marzenna Weresa. The first part of the seminar was PAIH’s presentation. What is an especially noteworthy takeaway is that from October 2019, there are new criteria in force for the government cash grants for new investments, allowing investors to cover up to 15% of eligible investment costs.

   The second part of the seminar concerned the determinants of choosing Poland by companies as a location for their foreign direct investment (FDI). A very interesting presentation was done by CEO of Lumel. Mr. Dinesh Musalekar, who shared his experiences related to investing in Poland. One of the key problems he described were regulatory issues related to the liquidity of fixed assets (e.g. land) which impede the company’s reinvestment plans. Another important aspects are: the steep increase of wages, which forces the company to automate its operations, and the lengthy bureaucratic process necessary to obtain foreign workforce from India (taking close to a year). What mainly impacted the choice of Poland as the target country for FDI was its steady GDP growth and the stability as part of the EU. Indian company Lumel impacts local human capital development by technical knowledge transfer, investing in their own engineering class (currently 70 students) in cooperation with various universities. The conclusions from this seminar will be addressed to relevant authorities that deal with Foreign Direct Investment in Poland.  

 

Mr. Dinesh Musalekar, CEO Lumel