Poland Aims To Increase Trade With India As Direct Warsaw-Mumbai Flights Launch

Poland is looking at increased bilateral trade with India with the launch of a direct flight between Warsaw and Mumbai in May 2022 followed by a partnership with Indian IT companies, said Damian Irzyk, Consul General, Consulate General of Poland in Mumbai.

“Indian IT companies such as TCS and Infosys are partnering with Poland in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, Research and Development. I am confident that the commercial relation will grow further with the launch of direct flight service from Mumbai,” Irzyk said.

He was speaking at an interactive meeting on ‘Trade Opportunities between India and Poland’ organised jointly by MVIRDC World Trade Center Mumbai and the All India Association of Industries (AIAI).

“In recent years, there has been tremendous growth in visa applications from Indians to visit Poland, which reflects increasing partnerships in trade, tourism, film production, services, education and other areas of cooperation. Already, Poland is one of the preferred destinations of Bollywood for film production,” MrIrzyk said.

As early as 1933, Poland established its consulate office in Mumbai envisioning a promising outlook for India-Poland business relations.

Vijay Kalantri, Chairman, MVIRDC WTC Mumbai pointed out, “Today, there are 11 Indian IT companies having operation in Poland and of them three were part of our delegation. AIAI was instrumental in establishing Indo-Polish Chamber of Commerce in 2001, which led to remarkable growth in bilateral trade and investment. Bilateral trade has grown from a mere USD 1.5 billion in 2010 to more than USD 4.5 billion last year.”

Kalantri raised hope that the current trade volume can be doubled in the next few years if we exchange business delegations regularly. Highlighting other areas of collaboration, he mentioned, “Food processing, mining technologies, digital technology and defense manufacturing are other areas of collaboration in the industrial sectors."

Recently, the Centre has auctioned several coal blocks for mining, which presents a huge opportunity for Polish companies to partner with Indian miners on mining technology. Apart from this, both countries need to strengthen ties in cultural exchange, tourism and film production. One of the symbols of our cultural ties is the statute of Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan's father, in the historical city of Wroclaw in Poland.

The event was also addressed by Ms. IwonaJabrzyk, Uczelnia ASBIRO, which is a private university established in Poland 20 years ago by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. All the members of the faculty of this University are entrepreneurs or business practitioners.  Ms. Jabrzykled a 33-member business delegation to India and the members of the delegation represent IT, software services, road signage devices, infrastructure, medical devices (including radiology equipment), online education, automobiles, consumer products, amber products and other sectors.

Rupa Naik, Executive Director, MVIRDC WTC Mumbai suggested that WTC Mumbai can collaborate in the area of entrepreneurship and skill development with Uczelnia ASBIRO, the private business University of Poland for entrepreneurs.