During my recent visit to Poland, I was invited by Teresa Kaminska, President of the Baltic Special Economic Zone, in Sopot, a northern city on the Baltic Sea. The zone is one of many created across the country after joining the free market world. After attending a series of presentations, it amazed me to find how much creative, competitive and aggressive a nation can be to attract foreign investments. Conservatively, religious Poland is closer in many ways to Arab countries. Two devastating World Wars, a German occupation followed by a Russian dominance had hurt the economic prospects of this industrious country and hard-working 38 million people. But all the above couldn't kill the people's fighting spirit. The capital, Warsaw, was rebuilt from ashes after it was bombed to the ground during the Nazi invasion. The rest of the country suffered communist rule but managed, after its 1990 revolution, to restructure and redirect towards free market economy smoother than most Eastern European nations. Lately, it weathered the worst of the European financial meltdown. In fact, its 2% GDP growth last year puts it ahead of its follow European Union members. I told the Polish officials I met, including Jerzy Pomianowski, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs; Tomasz Ostaszewicz, Director of the Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Economy; Professor Roman Kuzniar, Adviser to the Polish President on International Affairs; Bogdan Borusewicz, President of the Senate, that your country has an experience we could learn from in the Arab world. All Arab Spring countries have gone through what Poland experienced, I told them. Arabs were occupied by foreign empires, not including Poland, dragged into foreign wars, devastated by bad economic administration and dictatorial rule, and are going through the aftermath of revolutions. How can they transfer their governments and economies in the new era as smoothly and painlessly as possible? This is The question of the day, and Poland has a lot of experience to help in providing answers and solutions — and no ugly colonial history. My hosts seemed to agree. During my tour in the park, I found that new investors may get up to 70% public support. So a project that costs 10 million euros may require a capital of only 3 millions. The rest is given in land lease, tax cuts and direct cash assistance. There is also tax breaks and soft loans for qualified businesses. How could an investor resist such incentives? We have a lot to learn in this regard. I wish the administrations of our economic cities in Rabigh, Jazan, Hail and the rest could copy some of these tactics. You don't wait for the investors to come looking for opportunities. Instead, you reach out to them, invite them, entice them, and then nourish and support their progress. Most importantly, you should deliver on your promises. I asked my hosts to please visit our economic zones, especially King Abdullah Economic City. They welcomed the idea and asked for information and contacts, which I happily provided. I suggested the same to Walid Radwan, Saudi Ambassador to Poland. He, too, was very enthusiastic. "We have a joint Saudi-Polish Business Council in Riyadh and Polish-Saudi Business Council in Warsaw, whose members visited Riyadh at the beginning of 2012," he adds. "I hope our side visits here soon." Now, I am asking the authorities of our economic cities to visit the Polish cities and similar projects in the rest of the world. Dubai and Doha are closer to us, but we should also learn from the experience of advanced and financially-responsible Europeans, like the Polish, and smart Asians, like the Malaysian and Koreans — and the Americans. The US states are competing with each other to attract local and foreign investors. All concerned public and private entities come hand in hand to offer hard to resist incentives and merits. Saudi Arabia has a lot to offer, I told Polish officials and corporate managers. Their ambassador to the Kingdom, Witold Smidowski, agrees. It has stability, security, cheap energy, rich and expanding market, as well as modern and sophisticated land, air, sea and communication networks, internally and worldwide. Our industrial and economic cities, especially in Jubail, Yanbu and Rabigh, as well as, in the suburbs of all major cities, provide lands, loans and cheap energy to investors. Our population is mostly under 30. Most are highly educated. Many are trained in the best Western universities. Our financial and banking standing is among the top 20 nations — G20. We, too, managed to weather the worst of the global financial crisis of 2008, and are witnessing huge development and progress. The country is booming with projects that call for partnership with sophisticated Europeans, like our Polish friends. We need to learn from the best, and to partner with best, in order to join the best.
— Dr. Khaled Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@Kbatarfi
