250 entrepreneurs, including from 21 African countries from Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Ghana and Congo participated in the Polish-African Economic Forum, which took place on March 28 in Dubai.
During the Forum, Grzegorz Piechowiak, a secretary of state and government plenipotentiary for foreign investments at the Ministry of Development and Technology said that Poland has a great potential to offer to Africa. “The current trade level does not match the potential of Poland, which is one of the world’s largest economies. We perceive Africa as a very promising direction of development in many areas and sectors of the economy. We estimate Polish export potential at the level of USD 200 billion, which is approximately 60 times more than current results”, said Piechowiak.
In 2021, Polish exports to Africa amounted to only EUR 3.386 billion, and its imports amounted to EUR 3.308 billion. The Forum contributed to a stronger tightening of economic relations with African countries. The agenda of the Polish-African Economic Forum included five discussion panels: “Evolution of the food value chain”, “Transport and infrastructure”, “Green Africa: an inclusive and sustainable future”, “The future of health” and “Financial support instruments”.
“We should consider Africa as a continent of great possibilities. It is the second-largest continent in terms of population, but the first in terms of population growth. There is a huge space there to promote trade and cooperation”, explained Krzysztof Drynda, president of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIiH).
The head of PAIiH pointed out that four sectors are of key importance from the Polish perspective. “The first sector is the food safety segment in terms of advanced projects, incl. food processing and storage. The second area is infrastructure, i.e. road and bridge construction as well as hydrological and electrification issues. The third area is the issue of energy transformation. These are technologies that we can talk about, we have successes and we can share. The last sector is medicine, incl. modern technologies in medicine or the construction of modular hospitals” enumerated Krzysztof Drynda.
Adrian Andrzejewski order