POLISH ROAD NETWORK EMERGING FROM DECADES OF CRIPPLING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KRAKOW 000014 SBU SIPDIS COMMERCE FOR HILLARY SMITH, STATE FOR TOM YEAGER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EINV ELTN ELAB ENRG SENV SUBJECT: POLISH ROAD NETWORK EMERGING FROM DECADES OF CRIPPLING NEGLECT SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED Subject: Polish Road Network Emerging from Decades of Crippling Neglect ¶1. (U) Summary: Government and private sector analysts now hold that, after two decades of failed policies and mismanagement, the Tusk administration is making real progress towards developing a modern highway network, overcoming a major stumbling block which stunts investment and hinders Poland from meeting its economic potential. Even the global economic crisis shows little sign of retarding the development, and may in fact add impetus to government efforts to spend EU funds and stimulate the economy. End summary. A Country of Two Lane Roads Paved with . . . ¶2. (U) While U.S. business has made sizable investments in Poland (an estimated $15 billion since 1990),a major barrier to such investment is the neglected state of infrastructure, in particular roads. Road infrastructure in Poland is woefully underdeveloped. In 2005 Poland only had a total of 510 miles of limited access, divided, multiple-lane motorways and divided, multiple-lane expressways; in comparison, the Czech Republic, one-fourth the size of Poland, has 660 miles of such roads, and in Belarus, a single motorway, from the Polish border to the Russian one, totals 370 miles. Clifford Chance, a major multinational law firm, identified in a February 2009 report to clients that infrastructure, and in particular roads, was the most important barrier to business in Poland. ¶3. (SBU) Poland's accession to the EU and the upcoming Euro 2012 soccer championships in Poland and Ukraine have provided significant motivation and external funding for rapid improvement of roads. 121 billion Polish zloty (35 billion USD),half of which comes from the EU, is budgeted for road investment up to 2012, but skepticism remains over whether Poland can absorb these funds and build the planned roads. A major US company held the concessions for road building throughout much of the last decade. They abandoned the project in 2004, complaining that the government lacked the ability to design, procure, or execute major infrastructure projects. Adding to the lack of coordination, each affected locality could block their part of a national project such as a highway. Polish Road Construction Finally on the Right Track ¶4. (SBU) In meetings with regional directors of General Directorates for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) in Krakow and Wroclaw in December 2008 both directors pointed to concrete progress made in road construction since the new government has been in office in late 2007. 170 miles of motorways and expressways have been opened since that point. A further 340 miles of such roads are under construction and contracts have been concluded for 475 more miles, of which 250 miles are motorways. They explained progress as a result not only of EU money and pressure from Euro 2012, but also of concrete legislative and political changes. ¶5. (U) The Tusk government has pushed through several pieces of legislation to streamline the construction process. One important piece of legislation was the introduction of the so-called special road law in September 2008, enacted with the goal of shortening the pre-construction process by up to one year. The law, drafted by the Ministry of Infrastructure, combined two existing laws on the location of roads and building permits, provides the governmental bodies with incentives (read fines) to make quick decisions, and limits appeals and protests. The legislation also strengthens the eminent domain mechanism, which has already been used to acquire all the land in an important corridor on the A4 motorway between Krakow and Tarnow and will enable the long-delayed project to be completed by 2012. ¶6. (SBU) Another important change is the amendment to the public tender law, introduced in September 2008, to allow the government more flexibility in administering tenders and limit the ability of losing parties to protest awards. Previous problems included late notification of tenders, technical specifications favoring one bidder, disqualifications of bidders on trivial technicalities, and the potential for endless appeals and protests by losing bidders. This is widely cited as a problem in all government procurement and infrastructure development. The change in tender law has resulted in greater competition and a faster award process - currently 32 tenders are open and a further 35 in the final stages of preparation. While it took three years for the 1994 project to expand the A1 motorway from Gdansk to Lodz to award a tender, and eight years from that point to reach a concession agreement and begin construction (construction that is still not scheduled to be completed until 2012 according to GDDKiA),this government moved a 2007 project to expand the A1 from Lodz to Katowice from KRAKOW 00000014 002 OF 002 pre-qualification of bidders through awarding of a tender to signing of a concession agreement in eighteen months, and the concession agreement reached in January 2009 will go to construction in four months and be completed within 5 yrs. Aleksander Granowski, the Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Infrastructure Committee and Vice-President of WS Atkins-Poland, on February 5, characterized the government's decision to award this contract using a concession-based scheme as "brave", considering that the hesitancy of previous governments delayed the project by several years. ¶7. (SBU) Beyond legislative changes, political changes have also had an important impact. Poland's EU membership has increased road funding by ten-fold, according to Andrzej Kollbek, Deputy Director of the Malopolska GDDKiA in Krakow. And the increased professionalism in government road agencies is exemplified by Robert Radon, now Director of GDDKiA Wroclaw, who came to the government from the private sector and proclaimed that he "would not have taken [his] job" if not for his belief that this government will succeed in eliminating decade-long bureaucratic inaction. While not political, even the world economic crisis seems fortuitous in this limited case; Jacek Gryga, Director of Malopolska GDDKiA, stated that the crisis has actually resulted in increased participation in tenders and lower costs. Government officials frequently cited labor shortages as impediments to road development, Experts Impressed ¶8. (SBU) Sobieski Institute infrastructure expert Dr Krystyna Bobinska and Institute Chairman Pawel Szalamacha in a January 22 meeting seconded the government assessment that progress is being made and gave credit to the government for its efforts to hasten road infrastructure development. They also noted the legislative changes to the eminent domain law and the tender process, and ascribed "a great deal of recent progress" to those changes. Granowski also praised the government's positive efforts in road construction, noting the importance of the issue to American companies working or considering work in Poland. Dr. Bobinska also added her belief that the economic crisis won't slow road construction. Mr. Szalamacha believes the government will manage to double the existing amount of motorways and triple the amount of express roads by 2012. Mission Accomplished? ¶9. (SBU) While the progress is impressive, the experts were careful to ensure their praise was not too fulsome. Szalamacha noted that the government's current construction goals are still too high, even after a significant downward revision. Granowski noted that current progress will not be sufficient to make up for the delays of years past and to absorb all of the allocated EU funds. Experts and government officials alike believe Poland's decision to fully adopt the EU's Natura 2000 environmental program when acceding to the EU was "overzealous" and will continue to hinder construction. Adjusting to this program is cited by the Ministry of Regional Development (responsible for disbursing EU funds) as the reason EU-funded projects were stalled for most of 2008 (only about PLN 1 billion or USD 290 million was spent in 2008). Granowski sees the amended eminent domain law as a vast improvement, but believes it is being ineffectually used. He also feels the public tender reforms are an improvement, but the process is still too heavily price-based, raising concerns that long-term road quality will suffer. ¶10. (SBU) Comment: The Tusk Administration, while it will not meet its initially high road construction goals, has finally broken the major roadblocks that have stalled road infrastructure development in Poland for decades. While the GoP, particularly the Minister of Infrastructure, are still criticized for inadequate progress, if they can build on these initial breakthroughs they can bolster the PO Government's business friendly credentials. The financial crisis has helped the process, not only in lowering project costs but in putting pressure on the political process to expedite the expenditure of EU funds and create jobs. If the government can maintain this momentum, Poland will overcome a long-term impediment to investment and help itself get through the current economic downturn. End comment. HALL