Finance minister announces new investment scheme for Polish firms
Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski has revealed a new plan for supporting Polish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which involves channelling private funds to investments in innovative businesses.
"We're talking about billions of zlotys which will be invested in innovative Polish companies, primarily small and medium-sized ones," Domanski told the private television channel TVN24 on Friday, adding that the scheme will be called 'Innovate Poland.'
He went on to say that banks are often not willing to finance SMEs, which he called a gap in financing.
"We'll be using French solutions here, the so-called Tibi plan," Domanski continued. "On the one hand we'll have a few financial institutions, but on the other hand there will also be private investors who will build funds together to finance small and medium-sized Polish innovative companies.
"We need to act to raise the Polish economy to an even higher level of development," Domanski said.
The Tibi Initiative, named after Philippe Tibi, a French professor of economics, is France's strategic plan aimed to finance the development of local technology companies. The initiative seeks to involve large financial institutions, such as insurance companies, pension plans and large corporations, to invest in innovative SMEs.
Four institutions have already declared interest in the programme and pledged PLN 4 billion (EUR 940 mln) in initial funding. They include the government-run Polish Development Fund (PFR), state development bank BGK, state-controlled insurer PZU and the European Investment Fund, which is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group.
"We're creating a platform that links and strengthens the already existing investment initiatives," Domanski said.
"The PLN 4 billion will create an impulse to launch the first projects within the programme. Thanks to the leverage effect and involvement of further investors, the total value of the investment will reach between PLN 8 billion and PLN 10 billion (EUR 1.89-2.36 bln)," he added. (PAP)
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