On September 14, an information and consultation center for Belarusian business opened in Gorzów Wielkopolski. The deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus and the head of the NAM Pavel Latushka spoke at the opening.
One of the issues that was discussed during Pavel Latushka’s trip to Gorzow Wielkopolski in June of this year was establishing connections between local authorities and entrepreneurs on the one hand, and representatives of Belarusian business on the other, in order to inform the latter about support programs and rules of doing business. The idea of creating a single source of information on this issue, as well as an educational and advisory service, was also expressed. This would significantly simplify the activities of Belarusian entrepreneurs and artisans.
And now such an information and consultation center has been created in the Lubuskie Voivodeship. We believe this could become a good example for other regions of Poland. This center will become a place to attract active Belarusians who will strive to start or continue their business in this western province of Poland.
Pavel Latushko began his speech with an excerpt from the novel “Above the Neman” by the outstanding Polish writer, native of Belarus, Eliza Orzeszko. The novel takes place after the suppression of the January 1863 uprising common to Poles and Belarusians. The tsarist authorities persecuted the rebels, fought against local culture and religion, adopted discriminatory legislation against local natives, deprived them of their property and forced them to leave their native lands.
After 160 years, Belarusians again faced a similar problem. About 500 thousand of our citizens are forced to leave their homeland due to repression and persecution, thousands of Belarusians are imprisoned for political reasons, punitive illegitimate authorities are preparing to deprive Belarusians of citizenship and property. Most of the Belarusians who left the country ended up in Poland. They want to legally work, study, pay taxes, develop their business and contribute to the economic development of Poland, which is open to immigrants from Belarus.
Only within the framework of the Poland Business Harbor program, since August 2020, more than 113 thousand visas have been issued to Belarusians. Now we are talking about expanding this visa program to other types of activities besides the IT sector. Already, Belarusian entrepreneurs and artisans are making their contribution to the Polish economy (including in the form of increased tax revenues and the creation of new jobs).
Belarusian business last year set a historical record for new registrations in Poland - the number of newly opened companies in which one of the founders is a legal entity or individual from Belarus has doubled compared to 2021. In total, in Poland at the beginning of 2023, there were 4,980 businesses owned by companies and citizens from Belarus.
At the same time, from January 2022 to the end of June 2023, almost 12 thousand citizens of Belarus registered in Poland as individual entrepreneurs. The total number of Belarusian citizens working in Poland is also growing. In July of this year, 122.7 thousand Belarusians made contributions to the social insurance fund in Poland. Students from Belarus are also among the three largest groups of foreigners studying at universities in Poland.
At the same time, the general situation in Belarus, both in the country as a whole and for Belarusian business in particular, is only getting worse. The number of individual entrepreneurs in Belarus decreased by 4.2% in 2022. Their number decreased over the past year in all regions and the capital. In addition to Belarusian business, foreign capital is also suffering in Belarus.
For example, the Lukashenko regime treats business from Poland, as well as business from other European countries, as business from “unfriendly” states. The number of companies with Polish capital has been steadily decreasing over the past four years(2019 – 345 companies, 2020 – 328, 2021 – 322, 2022 – 303).
The illegitimate Belarusian authorities have prohibited companies with foreign capital, including Polish, from selling stocks and shares in Belarus.
Therefore, capital is leaving Belarus and looking for a safe haven for investment and business development. And the Lubuskie Voivodeship can become such a harbor.