The year is 1978. British Petroleum (BP) is still a state-controlled company. BP launches an advertising campaign to convince British consumers to drink British juices. An unlikely conceit? Very much so.
Here in Poland, oil company PKN Orlen, like many other companies controlled by the Polish state, dabbles in activities that are well beyond the scope of its activities. (PKO Bank Polski promoting historical remembrance of the Accursed Soldiers springs to mind.)
Good thing or bad thing? One of the results of Margaret Thatcher's liberalisation of the British economy is that so much of the British economy is no longer British. Jaguar LandRover? Indian. Rolls-Royce Motors? German. LTI, makers of the iconic black London taxi? Chinese. Cadbury's? American. Bus and train Arriva? German (Deutsche Bahn). Jiffy - makers of the Jiffy bag? Italian. Pilkington Glass? Japanese. British Oxygen? German. ARM - makers of semiconductors and microprocessors? Japanese. Freightliner? American.
Good thing or bad thing? Britons will find out soon enough in the eventuality of a hard no-deal Brexit, when many foreign-owned corporations will leave the UK's shores for somewhere with easier access to the world's most prosperous trading bloc. British stakeholders in these businesses will have little to say should they decide to up roots and move elsewhere.
The year is 1991. Poland is on its knees. Poland is in ruins. The only way is up. But how? The answer then was foreign direct investment. Without the inflow of foreign capital, technology and management know-how, Poland's GDP per capita would be on a par with that of Kazakhstan. In 1991 there was no Polish capital around to fix all the things that were broken in the economy. People's savings had been devastated by inflation that peaked at over 800%.
Foreign money turned the country around. But today? Over the years, Polish business, companies owned by private Polish individuals, have done very well. Determined and energetic, with no inherited wealth to fall back on, Polish entrepreneurs have built strong companies that are resilient and expansive. Many are exporting, some are even investing abroad (Telefonika Kable, for example, bought the British firm JDR Cables, SKB Drivetech of Radomsko bought Webster Drives of Bolton).
In 2004 as Poland joined the EU, around 85% of Polish goods exported to the UK was manufactured by foreign-owned factories in Poland - cars, car parts, white goods, electronics. Today, that percentage had fallen to around 55%, the rest being made by Polish-owned factories. So Poland is getting stronger, more self-reliant, Polish capital is being re-invested in Polish business.
Foreign capital should still be welcome, but foreign technologies more welcome than just plain jobs.
But should PKN Orlen be advertising Polish juices?
Why not? Can't hurt. It can help. Poland is suffering from a glut of apples this season; turning them into juice and selling it at petrol stations is one answer to the apple-farmers' woes. Use state-directed money to tackle a social problem might not be Thatcherite, but it's practical.
My bottom line is this: I love patriots, hate nationalists. What's the difference? Patriots love their country rather than hating others. Nationalism is about raising one's national self-esteem at the expense of other nations, other human beings. Economic patriotism is thinking "what can I do with my money to help the nation's economy?" while economic nationalism is about hurting foreign capital with phoney barriers to business, unfair court rulings, or fiscal treatment. Different, unspoken, rules of the same economic game for outsiders. No, the playing field should be level. As Poland gets richer, Polish firms grow, employ more people, add more value, pay more taxes. But not at the expense of the foreign investor.
This time last year:
Things pass, things go, things remain the same
This time two years ago:
Feels like the U.S.A. again
This time three years ago:
In search of Wałbrzych's Gold Train
This time five years ago:
Warsaw's craft ale revolution kicks off
This time seven years ago:
Poland's president inaugurates Moni's academic year
This time nine years ago:
Autumn evening, central Warsaw
This time ten years ago:
Short-term future of suburban development
This time 11 years ago:
"You'll look funny when you're fifty"
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4 comments:
Maybe they should get LOT in on the act? KLM serves "freshly squeezed apple juice" or what we would call Apple Cider in North America. When I tried it, it was delicious. I'm sure the Poles could do as well or better.
@ DC
Very good point! LOT has even greater leverage when it comes to influencing consumers (especially in export markets), plus - Polish apples are so much better than Dutch ones :-)
A couple of weeks ago I visited Poland for the first time since 1991 - for the 50th birthday of a Pole whom I met when we were students. Poles can still lay on great parties! It was a pleasure to see how well the parts of the country that I visited seem to be doing. The sense of energy and getting things done was really encouraging.
Arriving back in Britain, taking a dirty GWR train, then a replacement bus, another packed to standing train, and a taxi that cost £10 for a couple of miles along pot-holed streets, made me realise what a poor country the UK is becoming.
@WHP:
Warsaw, another large city or a smaller town? Differences still exist across Poland, but they are beginning to flatten out.
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