Polish development bank ready to finance regional investments
Poland's state-owned development bank BGK is ready to take part in financing infrastructural investments in the Three Seas region. The value of the projects is estimated at EUR 100 bln, PAP was told by BGK CEO Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka.
The Polish-Croatian concept of the Three Seas promotes cooperation of countries situated between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas in the area of infrastructure. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Austria have agreed to cooperate within the format.
The BGK CEO on Tuesday took part in a panel discussion held as part of the Vision for Development Forum in Poland's northern city of Gdynia, devoted to the funding of foreign expansion and exports in the Three Seas countries.
Speaking to PAP afterwards, she explained the idea was to create an international fund that would be financed by the Three Seas countries.
"Development banks from those countries would be the natural main participants in such a fund," Daszyńska-Muzyczka said.
"It's a great challenge because we need to reach an agreement on how such a fund, consisting of 12 representatives, should be constructed and managed," the bank CEO said.
The fund would support infrastructural investments linking the Three Seas countries, such as a railway network that would connect the seaports in Poland, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania.
"This would form a north-south supply chain that would offer the possibility to build logistics routes anew," Daszyńska-Muzyczka explained.
The fund could also seek private investors, not necessarily from the Three Seas region, the chief executive added.
"We're thinking about investments whose total value would reach EUR 100 bln," she noted, adding that the projects would be implemented over a 30 year time frame.
A relevant agreement on establishing such a fund could be signed at the next Three Seas summit to be held in Bucharest on September 17, according to Daszyńska-Muzyczka.
