A National Strategy for Poland
As the dust settles after Poland’s parliamentary elections, many are thrilled that a new era is dawning, and many others are wallowing in disappointment
While some see the past eight years of rule by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party as a regrettable blip in our country’s history, others are questioning the very foundations of our democratic system. But regardless of one’s position on the political spectrum, all should be able to agree that Poland needs a coherent national vision and strategy that transcends the shifting tides of politics.
As the Polish founder of a technology company, I view Poland’s opportunities through the eyes of an entrepreneur. Yet as the son of a plumber who attended an ordinary public school, I also see things through the lens of someone who owes his success to Poland. Today, I see a country that needs a strategy for the long haul – not just for the next four or eight years, but for the next 25. That means pursuing policies and investments that will ensure Poland’s continued prosperity and resilience, while also giving everyone an equal opportunity to succeed.
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What should this look like? For starters, we should make it a national goal to become one of the world’s ten wealthiest countries (in per capita terms) by 2050. That may sound audacious, but it is achievable. Poland’s GDP per capita has increased tenfold in the last 30 years. The task now is to repeat that history, especially after the recent election, which had the highest voter turnout in our modern history – around 74%, which was 12 percentage points higher than the historic 1989 election that led to the peaceful fall of communism in Poland and Europe. Setting such a goal also has the advantage of transcending political divisions, thus providing a lodestar for every subsequent government.
To succeed, we must take a hard look at our strengths and weaknesses – at the assets we can leverage, and the hurdles we must overcome. Our biggest strength is clearly our human capital. Poland boasts some of the best software engineers in the world, reflected in our impressive performance in international competitions and our contributions to breakthroughs like ChatGPT (ten of OpenAI’s first 50 employees being Polish. Moreover, in the International Olympiad in Informatics, a prestigious computer-science competition, Poland currently ranks second after China, a country with 37 times more people. If software-engineering talent is the new oil, Poland is Saudi Arabia.
Poland also has a world-class education system, as demonstrated by our top-ten placement in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment rankings, which scores the average teenager’s math, science, and reading competency. Since we already have a system that works, we should now make computer programming a fundamental skill that every student learns.
To help foster this excellence nationally, I have launched “Programming = Our Second Language,” an initiative that is now being rolled out in Polish schools. The aim is to make Poland the first country to achieve universal proficiency in basic programming for all students.
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But, while necessary, such civil-society efforts are not sufficient. We must press all political parties to support investments in scaling up better education nationwide. Fortunately, this is one the areas where there is still common ground.
That brings us to some of the hurdles. Though Poland’s education system ranks highly, we are the fourth most challenging place to do business in Europe. Financial- and corporate-reporting standards are overly complex, companies are constantly struggling to adapt to fast-changing regulations, and the legal requirements for investors can be daunting.
Cutting some of this red tape can and should be another area of common ground for parties from across the political spectrum. Even with our challenging business environment, the Polish tech scene is thriving and remains one of the most dynamic in Europe. My own company is one of more than more than 37,000 Polish technology enterprises employing half a million engineers and IT experts. With an even more attractive investment climate, we could bring more foreign investment and substantially increase our rates of growth and new-business creation.
Looking ahead, Poles must come together to unlock even more of our technology sector’s enormous potential. We can do so by making Poland an easier place to do business, and by taking full advantage of our world-leading education system and latent tech talent. Now that war has returned to the continent, success in implementing such a strategy matters not only for Poland, but for Europe.
A strong Polish economy on the technological cutting edge can make a profound contribution to regional stability and prosperity. Poland has the potential to become one of the world’s ten wealthiest economies. But to get there, we will need a shared vision and the political will to achieve it. Let’s get to work.
Miron Mironiuk is Founder and CEO of Cosmose AI
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