3 Cities, 3 Rivers
www.gowarsaw.eu, 2008-02-04

What are the directions of future developments of Polish cities? In which projects are they going to invest in the upcoming years? Is it already a time for city authorities to outsource services from private sector?

Janusz Malinowski (President,
Stroër Polska), Andrzej Cudak
(Acting Director of the
Sekretariat for Euro 2012,
Warsaw’s City Hall).

These and other questions were raised and discussed during the "3 Cities, 3 Rivers - Investments, Market Opportunities&Challenges" conference held last Tuesday at InterContinental Hotel in Warsaw.

"Warsaw hotel capacity accounts for around 30,000 beds and there is a need to increase this number by another 10,000", said Andrzej Cudak, Acting Director of the Secretariat for Euro 2012 at the Warsaw's City Hall . "Therefore, Warsaw has implemented a 5-year tax-free period to attract new hotel investors", he added.

Another investments, that Warsaw is preparing for, is a development of Vistula's river banks. "City authorities have already raised about EUR 40 mio from EU funds for this project. Another EUR 85 mio is going to be invested from the city budget," Andrzej Cudak said"

Jan Okonski, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of the City of Cracow for Advancement of Entrepreneurship also sees a big opportunity in the river banks' developments. "Soon there should be a chance to take a water tram. Also nightlife attractions such as Night Cinema should be realized on the banks of Vistula river in Cracow.

Wroclaw also doesn't stand in a background with its river banks' developments. In fact the Odra river, together with its several islands, provide the city with great predispositions and Adam Grehl, Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw, is going to take an advantage of it. He plans to give to each of the islands some characteristics: "Soon there should be such islands as students', childrens' or islands dedicated to relaxation and nightlife events".

Another direction of foreseen developments "on" the river are such as: boat rentals, gondola bay and river yachting.

Alan Aleksandrowicz, Deputy Director of Economic Policy Department of Gdansk city disclosed the plans to develop of both river banks and sea beaches: "The city is among others going to build new marinas there", he said

Janusz Malinowski, President of Stroer Polska, raised an interesting issue. "If the cities complain that they don't have neither the time nor the money to invest, why they don't outsource?" , he asked. "Cities are financed mainly from the taxes of private companies so why they are afraid of cooperation with them?", he added.

Andrzej Cudak agreed with him. He knows that outsourcing is already working well in Berlin. "There is one agency with one common program promoting the city and 50% of the agency belongs to the city and the other half to the private companies", he explained.

Michał Borowski (Chairman
of National Sports Centre),
Jacek Tokarski (Financial
Analyst, Colliers),
Jolanta Kalecińska
(Partner, White&Case).

Based on the above conclusions, Private Partnershi Program (PPP) - as a way to finance the city developments, was raised as the following discussion point of the conference.

"There is a new law about PPP, however nobody took an advantage of it yet. I think there won't be any PPP investment unless the law is changed for better one," said Michal Borowski, Chairman of National Sports Centre, who is responsible for the EURO 2012 preparations. This opinion was shared by all city representatives who took part in the discussion.

The only opponent to this opinion was Jolanta Kalecinska, Partner of White & Case, supported by Bartosz Korbus, President of Polish PPP Institute. She argued that it is not a big surprise the new PPP law hasn't been used yet as it is only 18 months old. As she said, even if somebody would start with PPP project preparations 18 months ago it most likely wouldn't be finished by now yet. PPP are large scale and long term projects requiring deep analysis and preparation. She doesn't agree the law needs to be changed now. It needs to be first tested in the practice and both investors and city authorities need to learn how to apply it .

Prof. Witold Orlowski, Chief Economic Adviser of PricewaterhouseCoopers was optimistic about the EURO 2012. He sees no reason why the EURO 2012 should be threatened with risk of not being held in Poland. Even if there are delays in constructions and developments it will happen here. "The question is not whether we pass the test, but what mark we get on it", he said.

Remigiusz Kobierski
(Ownership Supervision
Bureau Director
„Polish Airports”
State Enterprise),
Czesław Warsewicz
(President PKP InterCity)

Talking about the city developments we should also talk about means of transport which get us to the cities. PKP InterCity (Polish Railways) is getting ready for the biggest investments in its history - PLN 0,5 bio in 2008 and PLN 2,7 bio during two following years. PKP Intercity is going to be modernized and developed and its trains should reach speed of 200 km/hour.

"The fast trains will get on the rails by 2010-2011, there is no reason to wait for the EURO 2012," Czeslaw Warsewicz, President of PKP InterCity said. "Those who want, find the way, who doesn't want, find the reason," he added.

Further developments are also planned with the city airports and their connection with the city centre.

To sum up, the conference organized by Roadshow Polska, gave some good introduction to the plans of city investments connected with their developments and the up-coming EURO 2012. The organizer deserves congratulations for a very interesting panels, professional organization and execution of this event, attended and chaired by some leading top executives and experts in this field.

źródło: www.gowarsaweu