POZNAN, Poland (AP) — A generation ago, Poland Sugar and flour were rationed, and national salaries were one-tenth of West Germans’ incomes. Today, its economy has overtaken Switzerland to become the world’s 20th largest economy, with an annual output of more than $1 trillion.
it’s a historic leap Ruins after the fall of communism in 1989-1990 Economists say there are lessons for how to bring prosperity to ordinary people, and the Trump administration has argued that Poland should be allowed to attend international conferences. 20 countries/regions (G20) summit meeting Major economies are expected later this year.
This change is reflected in people like Joanna Kowalska, an engineer from Poznan, a town of 500,000 people halfway between Berlin and Warsaw. She returned home after staying in America for five years.
“People often ask me if I’m missing something when I come back to Poland, but to be honest, I feel the opposite is true,” Kowalska said. “We outperform the United States in so many areas.”
Kowalska works at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center. The center is developing Poland’s first artificial intelligence factory and integrating it with quantum computers. The factory is one of 10 on the continent, funded by a European Union program.
After graduating from Poznań University of Technology, Kowalska worked for Microsoft in the United States, a job she considered a “dream come true.”
But she missed having a “sense of mission,” she says.
“Technology has started to develop rapidly in Poland, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence,” Kowalska added. “That’s why I had such a strong desire to come back.”
Multiple factors to get out of poverty
Guest invitations to the G20 summit are mostly symbolic. Since the first G20 meeting at finance minister level in 1999, no guest country has been elevated to full membership, which requires a consensus decision from all member states. Furthermore, the original countries were selected not only for their GDP ranking, but also for their “systemic importance” in the world economy.
But this gesture reflects a statistical truth. This means that in 35 years, slightly less than a person’s working life, Poland’s per capita gross domestic product will rise to $55,340 in 2025, equivalent to 85% of the EU average. According to figures from the International Monetary Fund, measured in current dollars and adjusted to account for Poland’s low cost of living, this amount has risen from $6,730 in 1990 (38% of the EU average) and is now roughly equivalent to $52,039 in Japan.
Poland’s economy has grown at an average annual rate of 3.8% since joining the EU in 2004, easily exceeding the European average of 1.8%.
It wasn’t just one factor that helped Poland break out of the poverty trap, said Marcin Pientkowski of Warsaw’s Kozminski University and author of a book on the country’s economic development.
One of the most important elements is rapidly building a strong institutional framework for business, he said. For that an independent court; Antitrust agencies to ensure fair competition and strong regulations to prevent troubled banks from shutting down credit.
As a result, the economy was not taken over by corruption and oligarchy, as happened elsewhere in the post-communist world.
Poland also benefited from billions of euros. In EU aid, Both before and after joining the bloc in 2004 and gaining access to its huge single market.
Above all, there was broad consensus across the country’s political stances that Poland’s long-term goal is to join the EU.
“The Poles knew where they were going,” Pientkowski said. “Poland has downloaded the competition system, rules and even some cultural norms that the Western world has developed over 500 years.”
Although repressive, communism helped break down old social barriers and opened higher education to factory and agricultural workers who had previously had no chance. The post-communist higher education boom meant that half of young people now have degrees.
“For example, young Polish people are better educated than young Germans,” says Piatkowski, but they earn half as much as Germans. This is an “unbeatable combination” in attracting investors, he said.
Success with electric buses
Solaris, founded in 1996 in Poznan by Krzysztof Olszewski, is one of Europe’s leading electric bus manufacturers with a market share of approximately 15%. The story illustrates one of the hallmarks of Poland’s success: entrepreneurship: the willingness to take risks and build something new.
Olszewski, who was trained as an engineer under the Communist government, opened an auto repair shop and repaired Polish cars using spare parts from West Germany. Katarzyna Szarzek, an economist at the Poznań University of Economics and Business, said authorities allowed small independent workshops like his to operate while most companies were nationalized. “These were enclaves of private entrepreneurship,” she said.
In 1996, Olszewski founded a subsidiary of the German bus company Neoplan and began production for the Polish market.
“Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004 has given us confidence and access to a large and open European market with free movement of goods, services and people,” said Mateusz Figaszewski, Head of Institutional Affairs.
Then a risky decision was made to start producing electric buses in 2011, at a time when very few companies in Europe were experimenting with the technology. Figaszewski said large Western companies have more to lose if the switch to electric cars doesn’t work out. “This was an opportunity to achieve technological leadership ahead of the market,” he said.
Aging remains a challenge
Challenges remain for Poland. As the birthrate declines and the population ages, the number of workers who can support retirees will decrease. Average wages are lower than the EU average. Small businesses are thriving, but few have become global brands.
Poznan Mayor Jacek Jaszkowiak sees domestic innovation as the third wave of Poland’s post-socialist economic development. In the first wave, foreign countries opened factories in Poland in the early 1990s and took advantage of the skilled local population.
Around the turn of the millennium, he said, Western companies introduced more sophisticated departments such as finance, IT and engineering.
“Now is the time to start such sophisticated activities here,” Jaszkowiak said, adding that one of his main priorities is investing in the university.
“There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of innovation and technological progress,” added Poznan economist Szarzek. “But we continue to climb the value-added ladder. We are no longer just a spare parts supplier.”
Scherzek’s students argue that more needs to be done to reduce urban-rural inequality, provide affordable housing, and support young people starting families. They argue that Poles need to admit immigrants who: millions of Ukrainians People fleeing Russia’s invasion in 2022 are contributing to economic development amid an aging population.
“Poland has a very dynamic economy and there are so many development opportunities, so of course I will stay,” said Kazimierz Farak, 27, one of Šarzec’s graduate students. “Poland is promising”
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Mr. McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany.
