11th edition of Polish Infrastructure & Construction

On March 3, at The Westin Warsaw hotel, we had the pleasure of organizing the 11th edition of the “Polish Infrastructure and Construction” conference. The invited experts discussed the most current issues during an all-day series of debates divided into three thematic discussion panels and two presentations. The highlight of the event was the evening gala of “Infrastructure and Construction Diamonds”, honoring the most outstanding entities in the industries. The conference was organized under the honorary patronage of the Ministry of Infrastructure.

The event was inaugurated by a speech of our special guest – dr Libor Lochman, Executive Director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER). The speaker introduced the concept of “green mobility”. It is the foundation of the so-called Green Deal, which is a set of political initiatives proposed by the European Commission, whose overarching goal is to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. Rail, as the greenest means of transportation, is to play a major role in this plan. This is a huge challenge, because the current share of road transportation is 75%, and emissions of harmful substances are still increasing. The intention of the European Commission is to transfer a significant part of road transportation to rail. The first actions taken in this direction are increasing the density and capacity of railway networks, modernizing rolling stock, and integrating train control systems.

After the speech we smoothly moved on to the first discussion panel, moderated by Jan Styliński – President of the Board of the Polish Association of Construction Industry Employers. The panelists included: Marta Midloch – Partner, attorney-at-law, co-head of infrastructure projects practice, WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr; Hubert Nowak – President of the Polish Public Procurement Office; Adam Poliński – Director of the Infrastructure Department, UNIBEP SA; Tadeusz Sobotnik – Director of the Strategy Department, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe SA; Paweł Średniawa – President of the Management Board, PBDI SA; Bartosz Tokarski – Deputy Director of the Strategic Client Insurance Bureau, EIB SA; Tomasz Żuchowski – Acting General Director for National Roads and Motorways. The first topic raised was public-private partnerships. According to the panelists, there are still no large projects using this formula. Local authorities implement only small projects for fear of high costs and risk. There are still no examples “from above”, i.e. large implementations involving cooperation between companies and major institutions, especially since this framework gained a solid legal basis in 2018. This amendment was very well received by the industry, but frequent changes of law are still a big problem. Market fluctuation is another challenge that prevents real investment planning in the long run. In response to these challenges, all panelists unanimously called for the partnership to lead to the implementation of common goals and for all partners to see it as an advantage, not a zero-sum game. Finally, each of the speakers briefly talked about their dreams concerning the future of the industry. The most frequently used words were: partnership, efficiency, stability, and win-win.