Infrastructure
The Polish infrastructure at the beginning of its journey An interview with Konrad Jaskóła, President of the Board of Polimex-Mostostal SA
How would you assess the level of advancement in infrastructure projects in Poland? As far as infrastructure investments are concerned, we are, so to speak, at the beginning of our journey. We have actually been given a chance to create an infrastructure which is modern when compared to the infrastructure which was emerging in Western European countries decades ago. However, the national roads being created for EURO 2012 constitute only 5% of all the roads in Poland. Several thousand kilometres of expressways, and also provincial, district, and municipal roads, are still to be built and modernised, and also the freeway construction project is to be finally implemented. Also the necessary modernisation of the railroad infrastructure constitutes another huge challenge, which has not been covered by an investment project on the road investment scale so far. In this respect, a properly prepared, coherent plan for railroad infrastructure modernisation which would anticipate the increase in expenditure for investments in this sector would be most welcome. A re the current tender procedures and regulations favourable to the growth of the investment implementation rate? In Poland, public procurement law is one of the most modern of its kind in Europe, but we make use of it only to a limited extent. Recently, we have started noting with satisfaction the examples confirming that officials assess complex issues concerning road investment implementation in a similar manner to how contractors do. It is also worth mentioning that paying undue attention to the lowest-price criterion in tenders may have a negative impact on the work implementation rate. Recently we had such two examples on the construction sites of two sections of the Stryków-Konotopa A2 road, implemented by a Chinese consortium. I believe that the construction of roads and freeways has good prospects within the
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framework of public-private partnership. The completion of sections of freeways A1 and A2 constitutes a good example of this, since the majority of tasks have been performed in an exceptionally short period of time, even ahead of the schedule. I’m glad that promising examples like this influence the planning of other investments – such as the construction of the Eastern section of the A2 freeway, which will probably also be carried out within the public-private partnership formula. Having these issues in mind, we are increasing the opportunities for the timely implementation of the projects already launched, as well as the future ones. Do you notice any alarming signals which may stop the fast-moving Polish road construction works? We’ve got good regulations, more and more efficient contracting authorities, and big executive potential among Polish engineering-construction companies. One significant issue, namely the method for further infrastructure investments financing, remains to be solved. In the years to come, the level of outlays in road investments will depend both on the public finance condition, as well as the new EU budget for the years 2014-2020. It’s crucial that the Government should generate additional funds for road construction. As far as the new EU budget is concerned, I hope that we will manage to keep the high level of outlays for the so-called Cohesion Policy, the biggest beneficiary of which is Poland. Because of this, our country is going to gain new opportunities for railroad and road infrastructure development financing. It is also worth mentioning that the Government will not withdraw from the road investments, but, in some cases just postpone them, which means that at the appropriate time they will be implemented to serve the next generations for decades. D oes this mean that the years to come will bring the implementation of other
infrastructure contracts for construction sector companies such as Polimex - Mostostal? Our annual income from infrastructure projects realisation amounts to several hundred million zlotys. We are continually developing this activity by taking part in further tenders and signing new, significant contracts. What’s more, we are actively searching for a market for our products and services, in this sector outside the country. We have also created a foreign department for this purpose, the tasks of which include monitoring road construction investments outside Poland, both those already realised and the planned ones. For contracts outside the country, we take into account the possibility of creating consortia with local entities, we do not exclude purchasing companies with a good equipment base outside the country. Interesting road construction programmes are being offered by Romania and Bulgaria, and also the situations in the Balkans, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan seem promising. However, we are careful about looking to the East. Railroad infrastructure modernisation plans are implemented by such countries as Norway, where the estimated expenditure is counted in billions of euro. We have already signed the first contract there and we hope for more. We are also considering a EU co-financed railroad contract in Romania and participation in the construction of the Trans-Balkan Railway. Thank you for the interview.