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.
source:
www.gowarsaw.eul