The discussion panel included Olgierd Dziekoński, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Infrastructure; Marek Michalak, president of the Gdańsk Construction Cluster; Tomasz Banasiak, deputy director at the Development and Strategy Department of the Łódź Special Economic Zone; Henryk Bojarowski, sales director at Kingspan and Sławomir Jędrzejewski, senior consultant at Jones Lang LaSalle Poland.

The experts agreed that the future of the sector depends to a large extent on state policies. Minister Dziekonski said the Ministry of Infrastructure has been working on changes in regulations concerning real estate management policies, special planning and the Act on energy-efficient insulation overhaul programmes. Amendments to the Act may generate investment funds to the tune of PLN 1.2 bln. Dziekonski said that the latest forecasts by Euroconstruct (a Construction Forecast Group) show that as much as 7.8% of infrastructure investment in Europe in 2011 is to be built in Poland.
The major element hampering the sector’s development is the difficult access to EU funds which are distributed in an unfavourable for entrepreneurs instalment system. One of the improvements introduced recently in the distribution system by the Ministry of Infrastructure consists in the introduction of advance payments allowing entrepreneurs to obtain even a 100% advance for the implementation of a subsidised project. Additional funding may be obtained in the framework of public-private partnership.
- The era of economic slowdown is a perfect occasion for testing and introduction of new technologies - said Marek Michalak president of the Gdańsk Construction Cluster. - In the cluster we have currently been working on a project of the so-called passive building i.e. a building using only 10% of energy of the total absorbed now by traditionally contracted buildings.