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The Opening Words of the President of the Republic at the Economic Forum in Bialystok, on March 19, 200219.03.2002
Dear Hosts,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to introduce the presentations of today's economic forum.
Today we have gathered at the present economic forum to discover our potential of economic co-operation. Our readiness for discovering this is demonstrated by the co-operation agreement concluded recently between the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Polish-Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce of Eastern markets, as well as by your active participation in the present forum. I am hopeful that our visit also helps to pave the way for building closer economic relations between us.
The economic development both in Estonia and in Poland is accelerating, but a continuous growth presupposes that we seek for new opportunities. We are increasingly pressured to do so by international competition and also by our progress towards the European Union. At the same time, both Estonia and Poland have many unused resources, unemployment being the one striking most painfully.
In an environment like this, we must persistently look for and capitalize on relative advantages of our region.
The foundations of economic relations are laid by activities of public authorities. I am pleased to note that between Estonia and Poland a free trade agreement has been concluded. I believe that Estonia's and Podlaskie's enterprises have many different possibilities to trade with each other in foodstuffs and in industrial products, including both finished and semi-finished goods. The Pronar-Narew Tractor Factory, which we are going to visit later today, may serve as an excellent example of this. Polish businessmen can bring their products via Estonia to northern markets and Estonian businessmen, in turn, via Poland their products south. This kind of trade also creates favourable conditions for investments.
At the same time, it is frequently a problem for border regions that many are passing through but only few are coming to a stop there. The Estonians know the name of Bialystok well, but the majority of them have seen it only through car windows on their way to Warsaw or farther. In Estonia, we have a similar kind of the problem with tourists. Thus, the tourists have not yet spotted all the interesting areas neither in Estonia nor in Poland, although Podlaskie for instance, as for its beautiful nature, reminds me of my home country.
However, transport corridors - roads and railways - are the arteries of trade and tourism. You, the residents of the Podlaskie region, can see this bottleneck particularly well. As I have told yesterday in my lecture at the Warsaw Technical University, the Via Baltica will pave the way for developing new business contacts. For Poland, this means closer relations not only with Finland, Northwest-Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but also with European countries towards the south. Transit and tourism will open new opportunities to develop service sector in Podlaskie and in other regions.
Dear Businessmen,
Certainly, it is possible to create favourable conditions for the economic development at national level, but your role is more important. You have the spirit of enterprise and ideas; may you also have the courage to realize and to develop them, in spite of difficulties.
I would like to thank our kind hosts and wish all participants successful results of the forum!
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