Speakers

How can Poland become a country of innovation and leadership?

Over the last 30 years, Poland managed to increase its GDP nearly 8-fold, catching up to the European average from the darkest depths of economic underdevelopment and overtaking such long-established economies as Portugal. Throughout that time, we got used to thinking of our prospects in the brightest of terms. However, that may cease to be the case. It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to continue catching up with Europe’s most developed economies and avoiding the middle-income trap, Poland will need to become a country of innovation, introducing new ideas instead of simply copying good ones from others and executing them more cheaply. Poland will need to offer a home to a range of sector leaders, offering cutting-edge solutions. Can Poland get there? What will it take? The Business Development panel will host a range of speakers from some of the Polish companies that are already leaders, and from policymaking circles, who will tackle that question and provide prospects and recommendations for the future.

Digital Disruption in Finance

There’s no industry in the world that isn’t facing digital disruption, and the financial services sector has been at the forefront of this revolution. On our panel we have representatives of three of the main actors: traditional banks that are coping with this new challenge; one of the challengers, a leading global fintech; and investors: PE funds which on the one hand are providing capital and helping fuel this revolution, and on the other are exposed to this disruption risk themselves.

Green Revolution: How can we save our planet without jeopardizing economic growth?

Hardly any topic today attracts as much attention as the environment. It seems that just like the peace movement in the 1970s and national emancipation in the mid-19th century, environmental protection has become the rallying cry of the younger generation in the early 21st century. Serious challenges and questions lie ahead if that social energy is to drive real change. The greatest of them seems to be the question of how to introduce solutions that will decrease the impact of the energy sector on our environment, without at the same time undermining its efficiency. In other words, how can we save our planet without jeopardizing economic growth? The Green Energy panel will seek answers to that question in the Polish and the broader European context.

How can Poland ensure the alliance defends its interests?

More than two decades since Poland’s accession to NATO, the alliance enjoys record support in our society compared with other allied countries. Poland’s security is more stable than it has been for centuries and the strategic imperatives of NATO membership enjoy support from across the political spectrum.

However, as the relative lack of serious great-power rivalry during the immediate post-Cold War period gives way to greater uncertainty and tension in the international system, the alliance’s future course is far from clear. There is broad consensus only on the need to work out our strategic choices. In this ongoing debate, Poland must know its priorities and be able to influence the discussion to shape NATO’s future in accordance with its interests. As evidenced by the most recent NATO summit and the preceding NATO Engages debates, we can identify certain questions that have a fundamental impact on Poland’s strategic interests and at the same time provoke differences of opinion among the allies, leaving their resolution open to discussion and change.

The aftershocks of a successful revolution?

The political transformation of 1989 and the resulting economic shock therapy are recognised as a historic success for Poland, making it the fastest growing country in Europe over the last 30 years, and a model for other societies aspiring to democracy and prosperity. However, voices fundamentally critical of many aspects of the transformation have recently been louder than ever before. From deep changes in the structure of the judiciary, which according to some has never come to terms with its communist past, to the redistribution of Poland’s great economic success to places that never experienced it, a second revolution claims to be giving a voice to those who were previously silenced, and breaking down the entrenched structures that plague certain sectors of the state.

This argument seems to be backed up by popular support. Last year the government that represents this approach to the history of transformation was re-elected for a second term in office.

The overarching question is to what extent, if at all, is that narrative true? Is any popular discontent truly based in the legacies of 1989, or is this a question of imposing a political narrative on economic issues whose roots lie elsewhere?