On June 15, Crédit Agricole CIB Poland Branch was the partner of Coface to organise the annual Country Risk Conference 2010. The conference was addressed to senior managers of large and medium size companies. It is dedicated to the world business risk panorama. Main topics include the current situation in selected markets and perspectives for the nearest future.

The leading theme this year was: "The world is overcoming the crisis, are we ready for new challenges?". The question has been treated from different perspectives by Crédit Agricole Group and Coface specialists, business representatives and independent experts.

In a press conference occasioned by the event, Piotr Kwiatkowski, Senior Country Officer of Crédit Agricole CIB Poland Branch shared his views on the current economic situation of Poland and revealed a bit of Crédit Agricole CIB’s local strategy.

How do you assess Poland’s economic situation? Are we really through the crisis?
Poland, as one of the very few European countries, is faring fairly well through the world economic crisis, maintaining a positive GDPGross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year). GDP is one of the key measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. ratio. In addition to a stable level of internal consumption, this situation is unquestionably due to the high level of investments (including investments in infrastructure, financed with EU aid funds) as well as the high competitiveness of Polish exports resulting, inter alia, from the still low costs of labor.

In this context, what strategy for Crédit Agricole CIB?
In line with its development strategy, Crédit Agricole CIB is specialising, inter alia, in financing major investment projects. Benefiting from its many years’ experience in international business and the network of nearly 50 locations in the world, Crédit Agricole CIB is also very active in export and trade finance.
The global economic crisis, increased risk and uncertainty have unquestionably contributed to the stricter credit policy of banks and their more conservative approach to financing investments. However, bearing in mind the good economic situation of Poland and understanding that the development of these two areas of economy will encourage Poland’s further growth, Crédit Agricole CIB is strategically interested in supporting Polish export and trade, and financing investment projects in such crucial sectors of the economy as road and railway construction, oil and gas, power production and distribution.