The Context Based Industrial Policy in Poland—The Experience of the Polish SME Support Measures under the EU Program

Abstract

Most of the SME support projects in Poland are implemented under the international assistance program, such as the Phare program of the EU. The Polish Foundation for Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion and Development (hereafter the SME Fund) was established to coordinate the SME support projects of the Phare. Actual technical supports to SMEs are mainly provided by a variety of local business organizations at the provincial level, which were voluntarily established with or without foreign assistance. Chambers of Commerce and Industry or Regional Development Agencies are the example of these organizations. When the SME Fund selects the business organizations that shall implement specific SME support projects with grant or subsidies, the fund usually offers public tenders. Those organizations that submit the most attractive proposals to the fund would be the successful bidders.

The benefit of public tendering is that the SME Fund could find out the most experienced and talented business organizations to implement the projects. The operational budget of the SME Fund is rather limited and shall be largely reduced in the near future by the EU. Therefore, it is necessary for the fund to concentrate their assistance to those organization that are highly efficient and would be capable to continue their services even without the Phare assistance. The problem of public tendering, however, is that weak and inexperienced business organizations shall continue to face a difficulty to implement the Phare projects. If SMEs are unfortunately located in the province that does not have capable business organizations, these enterprises would have no opportunities to receive any assistance of the Phare program Usually the strong and experienced business organizations are not located in poor regions, where the local SMEs might severely need the Phare assistance. This problem is partly coped with by the SME Fund. When the fund offers public tenders, it makes special attention to those regions where no local organizations have ever implemented the Phare projects. The cooperation between the strong and the week organizations is, moreover, actively encouraged by the SME Fund.