– The deregulation of economic law is crucial for increasing the competitiveness of Polish companies and attracting investments- comments the President of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, Andrzej Dycha. This week, the team responsible for this deregulation, which was established in response to an appeal by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has already presented its first proposed changes. These include reducing company audits, simplifying tax regulations and facilitating the employment of foreigners. The President of PAIH also emphasizes that this list should also include strengthening the role of business chambers, which can play a larger role in the dialogue between business and the government.
-In Europe and in Poland, perhaps even more so in Poland, we need smart deregulation today. In the current international situation, with the prospect of a trade war on the horizon, we will of course have to maintain access to EU markets, but we will also have to compete more and more with the advantages associated with smart regulations. These smart regulations should make our products and services more competitive in foreign markets. It is in our interest, in the interest of entrepreneurs and the government, that we have the best, most well-thought-out regulations in the European Union- says Andrzej Dycha to Newseria agency.
Last week, during the “Poland. Year of the Breakthrough” conference at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Prime Minister Donald Tusk introduced a new economic and investment strategy for Poland. One of its elements is to be deregulation. The Prime Minister made a public request to Rafał Brzoska, the CEO of InPost, to set up a team that will prepare proposals in this area. Brzoska reported that a social movement was created in response to this appeal, which over 500 representatives of entrepreneurs, experts, and officials volunteered for, to work on such solutions.
The first meeting of the working team responsible for deregulation and business representatives with Prime Minister Donald Tusk took place last Friday, February 14. This week, the team led by Rafał Brzoska presented the first details. They propose, among other things, to reduce company audits by half, to abandon the regulation that obliges Polish companies to employ foreigners as temporary workers exclusively on the basis of an employment contract, to introduce presumption of innocence for taxpayers in tax settlements, not to punish taxpayers and accountants for unintentional errors and mistakes, to change aggressive debt collection practices, to increase the number of general interpretations issued by the Finance Minister, to limit abuses in the application of pre-trial detention, to equalize the importance of electronic documentation with paper, and to introduce the obligation for tax authorities to comply with rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union that are favorable to taxpayers. All these proposed changes (there are several dozen of them in total) have been published on the sprawdzamy.com website.
“The entrepreneurs know best because they have the reporting obligations, they fill out all these forms. That’s why effective communication between entrepreneurs, who bear the costs associated with these administrative requirements, and the legislative side, which creates these regulations is so important. Nevertheless, the goal on both sides is the same: we want to have friendly, as minimally costly and burdensome regulations as possible, because thanks to this we will be more competitive, we will provide cheaper services and cheaper goods both on the market in Poland and in foreign markets.” – says Andrzej Dycha.
As he points out, one of the points within the planned deregulation should be to strengthen the role of business chambers.
-The role of economic self-government is huge. If we want to win the war in the future for a better position of our companies and products on foreign markets, we must rethink and strengthen the role and the way economic self-government operates, i.e. business chambers, both sectoral and horizontal- calls for the President of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency. – The business chambers should be the transmission belt for ideas from the business side to the government side. And vice versa as well, as that is the space, the forum for mutual conversation.
As he assesses, deregulation and business-friendly regulations are necessary to attract investment and build the competitive advantage of Polish business. Especially in the context of changes occurring on the international stage and the trade war caused by the policy of the new American administration.
-In this new situation, we should find our own way to use this threat, challenge, which is related to it, and convert it into opportunities. And in this context, good collaboration between business and the government to establish good regulations, redefine our growth drivers play a critical role- says Andrzej Dycha.
The “Trump effect” was visible in investments. During a recent conference summarizing last year, the Director of the PAIH Investment Support Department, Monika Grzelak, informed that since the presidential election campaign began in the USA, there was a visible pause and anticipation on the part of investors.
In the face of international economic turbulence, PAIH focuses on supporting strategic investments that will increase innovation and resilience of the Polish economy. New perspectives with an explicit emphasis on sectors such as data centers and semiconductors become a priority for the coming years –reported the agency in a statement.
Currently, PAIH services in Poland investment projects with a total value of 8.9 billion euros. In the entire year of 2024, it supported 53 investment projects with a total declared value of about 2.4 billion euros, which contributed to the creation of about 7 thousand new jobs.
