The power of financial cooperation between Türkiye and Poland is obvious within the rising commerce quantity between the nations, Witold Lesniak, the consul normal of the Republic of Poland in Istanbul famous lately, highlighting its broad scope and the potential to boost it additional within the areas equivalent to renewable vitality, innovation and protection.
“I witnessed the doubling of the turnover between the two countries and despite the COVID pandemic, which hit the economy very hard and also the war in Ukraine, which came straight afterwards,” Lesniak mentioned.
He recalled the commerce quantity of round 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) some 15 years in the past and round 6 billion euros seven or eight years later, noting that since then he was in Türkiye repeatedly, witnessing it double.
“Now, the main fields of this trade exchange, they are of course automotive industries, this is very big part of trade, in Poland because many of automotive spare part plants but also plants belonging to the international concerns like Mercedes are located in Poland, but also in Türkiye,” Lesniak informed Daily Sabah in an interview lately.
“And you mentioned also the defense industry, I guess there are big chances for both of the countries because Türkiye realized like decades ago that it has to establish its own, independently working defense sector,” he added, referring to Turkish naval, aerospace industries and land automobiles.
“Poland is also building up this sector because of the threats we all know around us, and this industry is more state-controlled … so it is more dependent on politics just to establish a stable cooperation,” he mentioned.
Turkish drone magnate Baykar delivered to Poland the ultimate batch of TB2 drones earlier this 12 months, after a 2021 12 months settlement to accumulate 24 models, marking the primary time a NATO or European Union member state acquired drones from Türkiye.
Moreover, the consul normal highlighted the central position of Poland in his speech, saying that it “is located in a very important place in Europe.”
“It’s in (between) of trade routes from the West to East and from the North to South but the second route is in my opinion underestimated, by many,” he famous.
He additionally highlighted the position of infrastructure, equivalent to motorways, railways and roads in boosting commerce and industrial cooperation.
Answering a query in regards to the involvement of Polish commerce businesses in fostering collaboration between the nations, Lesniak touched upon the position of the Polish Trade and Investment Agency.
“So we have the Polish Trade and Investment Agency. It is having their branch offices around the world and one of these is also in Istanbul. They are located in Levent, and they are covering many connections, direct B2B connections between Turkish and Polish companies. They were with us visiting Kocaeli a couple of weeks ago,” he mentioned.
“They have organized a very strong presence of Polish companies at Beauty Istanbul Fair in September, October,” he added.
Cooperation, renewable vitality
When speaking of cooperation, he additionally famous the significance of mentioning the regular progress of the Polish financial system, which has seen one of many strongest gross home product (GDP) performances worldwide in current many years.
“We can mention automotive, R&D, smart cities, cybersecurity, we have already organized events with the Trade and Investment Agency on these but the scope actually is much much broader; whatever field you would chose you would find companies from Türkiye and Poland cooperating, agro industry, energy, renewable energy,” Lesniak outlined.
He talked about renewable vitality because the sector that would carry potential when wanting forward whereas additionally recalling current mortgage co-guaranteed by Polish and U.Okay. businesses for the Turkish renewable vitality funding firm Kalyon Enerji.
Highlighting the position of inexperienced insurance policies in stimulating financial progress and Poland’s very energetic position within the international local weather agenda, Lesniak mentioned: “Within this context, I am very glad that Polish Export Credit Insurance Corporation (KUKE) together with U.K. Export Finance (UKEF) have guaranteed a 249 million euro loan for Kalyon Enerji, enabling the construction of Türkiye’s second-largest solar project to date.”
He additionally drew consideration to Poland’s method within the vitality sector, mentioning that the nation managed to attain an awesome efficiency in guaranteeing financial progress whereas additionally lowering emissions.
To mark one instance, he supplied info on an initiative referred to as “GreenEvo,” sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Climate, which goals to assist Polish inexperienced firms promote and increase their attain within the international market whereas expressing optimism these firms could current presents and applied sciences in Türkiye within the coming years.
Another widespread space between Tükiye and Poland is innovation and startups, with Lesniak mentioning Katowice, a metropolis within the south of Poland being recognized for the gaming trade.
Türkiye-EU ties
Furthermore, answering Daily Sabah’s query on the view of Poland relating to the prospect of Türkiye becoming a member of the European Union presently of ongoing turmoil within the Middle East, Donald Trump’s presidency and fast-changing and multipolar international dynamics, Lensiak mentioned that Warsaw has at all times supported Türkiye within the intention to affix European Union and “we haven’t changed this opinion.”
“We consider Türkiye as a very important European player and contributor to the security of Europe as a whole, and to European economy and culture,” he mentioned.
In this regard, he affirmed sturdy cultural and historic ties between Türkiye and Poland, mentioning what he mentioned was a lesser-known anniversary, the a hundredth anniversary of “the 1924 Polish Industrial Exhibition,” which happened in Bosporus, shortly after the institution of the Turkish republic and solely six years after the Second Polish Republic was established.
He concluded by saying that when considering of the long run, we consider ideas equivalent to R&D, fashionable applied sciences, commerce and so forth, “but whatever topic we speak on, this brings us sooner or later (back to), 200, a hundred years ago,” underscoring on this sense deep-rooted and “very fair” relations between the 2 nations.
Source: www.dailysabah.com