A4 highway up to Lviv? The president of the Industrial Development Agency reveals a groundbreaking plan

In the second half of June this year. the agreement on Polish investments as part of the reconstruction of Ukraine should already be ready – the president of the Industrial Development Agency (ARP), Bartłomiej Babuśka, told PAP. He pointed out that the first joint project on the list should be the extension of the A4 highway to Lviv.

March 16 this year the supervisory board of the Industrial Development Agency adopted the company's strategy. The President of ARP, Bartłomiej Babuśka, emphasized in an interview with PAP that one of its important elements is defining the role of the Agency in foreign promotion and international relations, which are to support the Polish economy.

– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs encourages the ARP to participate in an increasing number of foreign missions due to the great potential of the Polish economy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognizes the competences we have to talk to representatives of other countries at various levels about trade and economic cooperation, said the head of the Industrial Development Agency.

Strategic goals and specific benefits for Poland

He pointed out that one of the Agency's strategic activities in the international arena will be to sign an intergovernmental agreement with Ukraine regarding investments as part of the reconstruction of this country.

Babuśka has no doubt that the agreement with Ukraine will be signed. – Now the point is for this agreement to be “calorific” and not – as the Ukrainians say – “worth the value of paper and ink.” We must specify in a concrete way the greatest possible number of benefits for the Polish economy that will arise as a result of the implementation of this agreement – he emphasized.

The President of the Agency reminded that the work is carried out with the participation of the Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, Alona Shkrum, responsible for investment, trade and logistics of the reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as the Council for Cooperation with Ukraine at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister (Chancellery of the Prime Minister), headed by MP Paweł Kowal.

Babuśka noted that the ARP is participating in these talks and work on preparing legal and technical solutions for the Polish reconstruction of Ukraine. The Agency's goal is to create regulations that will facilitate investments and ensure security and predictability for both Polish and Ukrainian partners. The Industrial Development Agency is a member of the Business Organization Council at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and Team Poland for Ukraine.

Work schedule and key infrastructure projects

– Work is currently underway on the assumptions of the contract; it should be ready in the second half of June this year, when the Ukraine Recovery Conference will be held in Gdańsk – announced the president of ARP. This event is planned for June 25-26 this year.

In his opinion, if it was a framework agreement, specific projects would be attached to it as annexes. – Attachment number one will be a list of projects, as agreed with the Ukrainian side, starting with the M10 motorway construction project – said Babuśka. He explained that this is about extending the A4 motorway to Lviv by building an approximately 80-kilometer section of the Krakowiec-Lviv motorway, currently the single-carriageway M10 road.

– This implementation would be a pilot project that would show us how to take part in the reconstruction of Ukraine in a reasonable and wise way, how to eliminate the pathology, and then how to take the next steps. There are plans to build a European-gauge track to Ukraine and a port on the Black Sea, which would be used by Poland, as well as a cargo terminal in central Ukraine, Babuśka said. He pointed out that in Ukraine there is also a lack of refrigerated and frozen warehouses for Polish processed food. – This is another bottleneck in cooperation with Ukraine – he said.

New export prospects and the role of the Agency

As he said, all these plans are guided by the idea of ​​”rebuilding Ukraine through the prism of increasing Polish export capabilities not only to Ukraine, but also to the Middle East.”

In September last year, the president of the Industrial Development Agency said in an interview with PAP that the Department of International Projects was being established at the Industrial Development Agency, and its important goal would be business relations with Ukraine. He then indicated that consideration was given to, among others, a railway connection with Ukraine from Silesia to Odessa, an airport terminal and a Polish port on the Black Sea. The main goal of this department is the expansion of companies from the ARP Capital Group to global markets.

The Industrial Development Agency supports the development of Polish companies by financing investments and assisting in restructuring processes. ARP has assets in 76 companies, including majority stakes in 51 of them; these companies are part of the ARP Group. The main industries in which ARP Group companies operate are: shipbuilding, railway, metal, mining, foundry, packaging, textile, tourism, modernization and machine construction. ARP also supervises 92 companies with State Treasury shareholding.

Anna Bytniewska (PAP)

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