On May 16, during a meeting of the Council of the National Chamber of Commerce, a letter of intent on cooperation in the area of development of small and medium-sized enterprises was signed. The letter of intent was signed by President of the National Chamber of Commerce Marek Kloczko, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice Tomasz Zjawiony and President of the Industrial Development Agency JSC (ARP) Michal Dabrowski.
The document primarily implies a new distribution of ARP financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, support for investment processes, the financial situation of companies, as well as energy transition activities.
– It’s extremely important that companies in the SME sector get the help they need. Recent years have shown that both the turmoil associated with the coronavirus pandemic and the situation beyond our eastern border have hit the service sector very hard, particularly in the catering, entertainment and retail sectors. The Industrial Development Agency sees the need to support Polish entrepreneurship on many levels, not just financial. It should be remembered that as many as 99.8% of Polish companies qualify as SMEs. That’s nearly two and a half million business entities, shaping Polish GDP. I believe that cooperation with the National Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice will allow us to develop mechanisms aimed at further development of the SME sector in Poland – says Michał Dąbrowski, President of the Industrial Development Agency.
– The National Chamber of Commerce is an association of regional and branch chambers of commerce operating in Poland. We focus our activities on supporting economic policies that will be business-friendly, and our goal is to increase the competitiveness of Polish business also in the international arena. The world and the economy are changing dynamically all the time, so the letter of intent signed today is an important signal to the Polish SME sector that not only do we not change direction, but we clearly specify it in order to respond as accurately as possible to the needs of domestic entrepreneurs – adds Marek Kloczko, President of the National Chamber of Commerce.
– The Katowice Chamber implemented a program to help the SME sector in the Silesian Voivodeship as early as 2020 by establishing the SME Support Center. Initially, we planned to support companies from Katowice and large cities in the region, but it soon became clear that many entrepreneurs from all over Silesia also needed help. By signing the Letter of Intent today, we bring to the agreement our experience and know-how regarding support not only in the financial sphere, but also in the legal, accounting and human resources, and even marketing spheres. I am sure that using our experience and ARP S.A. support tools we will create a unique program for the SME sector in Poland – concludes Tomasz Zjawiony, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice.