Poland, a dynamic country emerging unscathed from the crisis

Director of Financial and Business Affairs of the OECD since August 2021.

As the world begins to recover from the pandemic, financial markets will play a crucial role, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital to invest and innovate. The role of these markets is essential not only to get out of the crisis, but also from the point of view of the challenges of the future, which are undoubtedly the digital revolution and ecological transformation.

Poland’s strength lies in part in the dynamism of its capital market. Poland is home to one of the largest stock markets in Central and Eastern Europe (54% of the total stock market capitalization). In addition, it is the only member state of the European Union that is among the ten countries with the highest number of new companies entering the stock market in the last ten years. In 2018, Poland advanced to the category of developed countries. As in other advanced European markets, the participation of institutional investors is significant, with 35% of the market capitalization in their hands. With the creation of the NewConnect market, Poland also pioneered access to the capital market for small and medium-sized enterprises. The second trading floor of its kind in Europe accounts for 20% of all European small and medium-sized companies that are listed on the stock market! In terms of management, the Warsaw Stock Exchange updated its code of good practice in 2021 to include ESG issues such as climate protection and sustainability.

Recovery from the crisis is an opportunity to give new impetus to the development of the entire business ecosystem in general. The development of the financial markets in 2020 is cause for optimism, as Poland’s share of the turnover related to the entry of new companies on the Central and Eastern European stock exchanges has become very significant, with companies already present on the Warsaw Stock Exchange are beginning to seek financing on the capital markets more actively. This should be seen as a sign of the vitality and resilience of the Polish stock market.

The existing infrastructure is an excellent platform to strengthen the financial market so that it is more competitive globally and can offer companies services in accordance with international best practices, such as the G20 / OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

Market development is also part of European integration. Poland has already taken many steps in this direction, including the adoption of a strategy for financial markets in 2019. Throughout this process, we must not lose sight of the main function of any financial market, which is to enable the most efficient use of resources at our disposal and thus increase the prosperity of society as a whole. The low-carbon digital economy is at the center of all these enormous challenges facing financial markets, whose strong development should foster a future where integration, ecology and the ability to withstand crises are increasingly present in Europe

Mathilde Mesnard

Texto publicado en “Everything That Matters” [Todo Aquello que es Realmente Importante] and in the world press in the framework of the project “Opowiadamy Polskę światu” [Explicamos Polonia al mundo].