The seminar was held on the 3rd of December 2015 at the AUT City Campus.
The main purpose of this first meeting was to give the audience some general statistics regarding Poland such as its size and population, as well as basic data and figures regarding Polish economy and international trading. The seminar was opened by the President of POLANZ Tomek Glowacki who after short introduction gave floor to the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland HE Mr Zbigniew Gniatkowski. The Ambassador gave a general overview of the relationship between Poland and New Zealand pointing out that the two countries have very good, close ties going back in history. He informed us of several political visits which took place this year: in April Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament David Carter, along with a group of parliamentarians, paid an official visit to Poland, and later in June minister Nathan Guy went to Warsaw to discuss business opportunities. The Ambassador concluded by saying:
“We are like minded nations, sharing the same values, although in very distant places of the globe”.
The next speaker was Mr Marek Kijewski, Economic Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Canberra who emphasised the main advantages of trading with Poland: stable economic situation, strong market growth, size of internal market and unlimited access to the EU Market. He also pointed out the strong human resources base that Poland can offer:
- 20 million of talented young people, who speak foreign languages with English as the most popular.
- 2 million university students, over 400 000 graduates every year, 460 higher education institutions.