We are launching a „Go India” programme – announced the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, Janusz Piechocinski, during his January visit to Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat – one of the twenty-nine states of the Indian Union. A Polish delegation, including Małgorzata Bonikowska, president of the Centre for International Relations and partner in THINKTANK Centre for dialogue and analysis, took part in a 7th international conference Vibrant Gujarat Summit, called an „Asian Davos”. The conference was initiated by Narendra Modi, who served for ten years as the Chief Minister of Gujarat state and since May 2014 has been Prime Minister of India.
Following this nomination, a record number of participants frequented this year’s event: five thousand representatives of business and government administration form over 110 countries, among others: ministers and vice-ministers from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa and United Kingdom; John Kerry, the US Secretary of State; prime ministers of Macedonia and Bhutan; Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations; as well as Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank Group.
In 2014 Poland and India celebrated the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations. Polish Prime Minister met with Indian Prime Minister and several of his cabinet ministers in Gandhinagar. They discussed the possibilities of strengthening economic cooperation, promotion of Polish offer in coal mining and extractive industry, export of agri-food products (particularly apples), as well as technological lines for processing and transfer of Polish environment protection technologies. A Polish-India economic forum also took place during the summit.
India is the second most popular Polish foreign direct investment destination (after Singapore), especially in the processing industry. The biggest is Can Pack – a canning factory, as well as medical dressing materials’ factory belonging to TZMO Group – a producer and deliverer of hygiene and medical products from Toruń, and a Bioton’s facility in Pune. In Hyderabad Polish company Polmor together with an Indian partner established Polmor Steel India Pvt. Ltd. investing in India over 400 million USD.
Indian direct foreign investments to Poland are smaller and account for about 40 million USD. Indian companies have invested mainly in business services centres that serve West European markets. The following Indian companies opened their offices in Poland: Tata Consultancy Services (Warsaw), Infosys BPO (Łodź), HCL Technologies (Cracow), Wipro (Wrocław), MphasiS (Wrocław), ZenSar Technologies (Gdańsk), as well as Sharda Group (cloth and bed lining), Videocon (kinescopes), Escorts (tractors), Eurobatt (household appliances), Essel Propack (packaging), Rishabh Instruments Pvt. Ltd. (85% of shares in „LUMEL” S.A. – a producer of electric appliances) and Uflex (foil packaging in Września).
The trade turnover between Poland and India amounts to nearly 2 billion USD annually, and it grows by several per cent every year. Polish export exceeds 400 million USD, whereas import – 1,3 billion USD. We sell to India mainly electromechanical, chemical and metallurgical products and we buy light industry products, including clothes and accessories, chemical and electromechanical products.
