BGK / In Dubai on strengthening Polish-African cooperation

The Polish-African forum, which took place on the 28th of March was another, crucial business initiative of the Polish economic programme at Expo 2020 in Dubai. The potential for developing collaboration and trade of Polish entrepreneurs on African markets was the main topic of the event. BGK representatives took part in panel discussions.

BGK’s President of the Management Board, Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka, participated in the opening discussion titled “Potential and development directions of cooperation with the African continent countries”. She pointed out the challenges that Polish exporters are facing right now and why it is beneficial to open for cooperation with African companies.

“First, the Coronavirus pandemic and now the war in Ukraine, are enormous challenges for the world economies. Building new supply chains and adapting new business models is becoming a necessity. BGK supports Polish exporters in their foreign expansion independently of the sector or project location. We offer them the whole range of instruments – mainly letters of credit, investment loans and in some countries contracts between governments. Together with KUKE we insure loans granted to exporters. Entrepreneurs can still access these instruments. Now businesses need to make a move to look for partners in Africa” – the CEO of BGK said.

In the interview for the Polish newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” she emphasised that companies which have already benefited from BGK’s offer for exporters are currently present on 16 African markets and that there is a great potential in the African food and IT sectors.

Paweł Nierada, first vice president of BGK, participated in the discussion on the access to trade finance in Africa.

“So far our relations with Africa have been limited. If we want to develop our cooperation, we should focus on the bilateral exchange, not only on the economic level, but also on cultural and educational one e.g. by student exchange programmes” – he said.