POLAND is one of those countries that suffered the greatest losses in the course of the 20th Century. Six million Poles were killed during World War 2 (WW2). As compensation for its Eastern borderlands, it was given the ruined regions of Silesia and Pomerania.
In the public’s mind, the utter tragedy of the last great war overshadows the fact that it was World War 1 that had already left Poland as one of the most destroyed countries in the world; its industries laid in tatters.
Following the second global conflict, Poland was cut off by the “Iron Curtain.” The imposition of Communism by the Soviet Union prevented it from participating in the great economic boom that swept across the West up to the 1970s. As the realities of post-war Poland made it impossible to continue the legacy of its Underground State, the country missed out on experiencing its own version of les trentes glorieuses in France, or the Italian dolce vita.
The great human and economic cost of Poland’s experiences with two totalitarian regimes is irreversible. Therefore, on the anniversary of the outbreak of WW2, we should not focus so much on settling past scores as reflected on the future of our country.
Poland is facing a great task of unlocking its full growth potential. This requires a fresh approach to developing all of its regions. Such revolutionary thinking about ways to harness the potential of regional Poland is present in the Strategic Investment Program implemented together with the government by the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. Under the program, local governments can obtain investment subsidies from the state on an unprecedented scale.
The fall of Poland at the end of the 18th Century meant that it could not draft a strategic plan to develop its provincial regions in the next 100 years. A qualitative change in that respect did not take place until the construction of the Central Industrial Region in the 1930s. However, all that effort was scuppered by the outbreak of the war and then later by the post-war Communist government that punished those regions where anti-Communist partisans were active long after the war ended. Such was the case of Podlasie.
Today—thanks to the ambitious investment policy targeting roads, railways and aviation—Polish regions are increasingly interconnected and can develop uniformly. According to prepandemic data, Poland is visited by about 20 million tourists each year, but its total annual capacity amounts to about 100 million. Thus, tourism presents our economy with a major avenue for growth—albeit, one that is still not fully used.
Even in Poland, few people know that the Ogrodzieniec Castle, which was owned by the Boner family of merchants and bankers, harbored ambitions of competing with the castle of Wawel. The rebuilt castles in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland that are at a par with the Krzyżtopór castle, should serve a globally recognized symbol of Poland taking pride in its history and heritage. The renovation of historic buildings is an excellent way of bringing new life to local communities that feel proud of their roots and get a new source of income through the development of tourism.
In addition to its rich and interesting history, Poland boasts of beautiful, awe-inspiring natural sites. This represents a great opportunity for regions such as Podlasie that were heavily underinvested under Communism. Thanks to the ambitious investment policy, the area may become a newly discovered tourism gem of Poland and of Europe that is eager to get closer to nature. Every region of Poland has such unique potential waiting to be exploited and shown to the rest of the world.
To achieve this, we need to act and make wise decisions on investing in the development of infrastructure, culture and local communities. I believe all of that is ahead of us.