Q: You have turned Poland into one of the larger building sites in Europe. From the point of view of our readers, the most interesting issue is prospects for finding a place on this market. Does Poland have a chance of remaining a good place for doing business in the area of infrastructure building and equipment supplies for many years to come? Which of Poland’s most serious infrastructure problems can be solved and when?
A: The Polish government has created a huge market and thanks to implementing an ambitious programme to build national roads, especially motorways, expressways and numerous ring roads, we will create totally new conditions for business activity in Poland. We will ensure cohesion with other European Union countries because our motorways will be running both to the west and to the north via sea ports to Scandinavia. The expressways, which will link the country’s largest business centres, will contribute to improving conditions for business activity. The ring roads are supposed to ensure increased safety for Polish towns and cities, whose residents have suffered as a result of congestion and a deterioration in living conditions.
We have managed to do all that thanks to bold changes to law. Legislative changes is what we started with. And the Ministry of Infrastructure is headed by a lawyer rather than an engineer because we decided that flaws in the legal system were the most significant barriers to infrastructure development in Poland. We changed the special law on roads and drafted a special law on railways but the first law we worked on was the law on public procurement because the public procurement system determines how public money is managed. A bad system provoked situations where the public authorities inviting tenders were forced to select offers which were not at all the best. They were forced to reject good offers with minor language errors or minor mistakes in calculation.

Q: We all remember the example of a bridge in the city of Wrocław.
A: This bridge in Wrocław is the extreme case I quote quite often. It shows how with the full sanction of the law the authority inviting tenders had to reject the most price-competitive offer only because it failed to include the cost of several lamps lighting the bridge in the overall cost of the project. The cost of the second cheapest offer was by over PLN120 million higher. The Polish taxpayer had to pay this large amount of money because there were several lamps missing. This is why we started our efforts with the law on public procurement. We also started working with the minister of the environment and jointly prepared draft amendments to environmental laws. As a result, we now have the guarantee that projects carried out in Poland are fully compatible with European law. It is important because this very ambitious programme is largely funded from EU sources. The Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme is the largest investment programme in Europe. We are responsible for making sure that all of the money set aside for improving transport infrastructure in Poland – not only roads but also railways and airports - is used effectively. We have adjusted structures and changed the way in which the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) is managed, we are making changes to the management systems at the PKP and PLK railway companies and will not waste a single euro.

Q: We already know more or less the scope of projects which can be carried out in Poland within the EU’s current financial framework, that is in the years 2007-2013. The question is: what comes next? What will remain for us to do in the EU’s next financial framework 2014-2020? Are we ready to apply for another batch of funding?
A: At the ministry, we are already working on the projects we would like to finance from the EU’s next budget. We are preparing a list of road and railway projects. We not only want to modernise existing Polish railways but also to build the railways of the 21st century. A feasibility study for a Polish high-speed railway is to be made under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme. But we will not start its construction in this financial period. It will be possible in 2014. The name of the project, Project Y, comes from the shape of this railway line – it will link four of Poland’s largest cities: Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań and Wrocław. The programme has been adopted by the government. Tenders for the feasibility study have already been invited. We are waiting for a decision.

Q: The “Poland 2030” study made by the team of strategic advisers to the prime minister shows clearly that the modernisation of Poland’s basic transport systems will mainly take place in the EU’s next financial period, that is in 2014-2020. Then, we will have problems with completing the road programme, implementing the main railway and airport projects and building a new-generation telecommunications network.
A: But it is now that we are laying foundations for this new network which will popularise broadband Internet. The ministry has already drafted the most important laws that are needed for this purpose. It will really be a turning point. We will begin the construction of the network now and complete it in the next financial period.
The case with roads is somewhat different. In this financial period, we will build motorways and a major part of expressways but we will be continuing the programme in the next period, when the largest number of ring roads will be built.
As regards railways, the projects we are now working on are associated with the UEFA Euro 2012 finals to be hosted by Poland. The modernisation of the R65 line from Gdynia to Warsaw will be very important for passenger traffic during the championship. Another railway line which will be used during the tournament is the one linking Poznań and Warsaw. It is also being modernised. However, the bulk of the railway projects will be carried out in the next financial period.
Analyses which will make it possible for us to take strategic decisions as to the development of air transport should be ready in the near future. One of the questions we have asked is whether it is sensible to develop an intercontinental hub for air traffic in Poland. We will know the answer to this question at the end of the first half of this year.

Q: In the course of two years during your term in office, a mechanism needed to carry out infrastructure projects in all spheres was put in place. Are you confident that we will have enough money for all that? Is financial support from the EU absolutely necessary for us to carry out the projects?
A: Money is what the infrastructure minister cares about the most. I want to stress that thanks to good collaboration within the government we managed to make sure that investment did not slow during the crisis. I think it is one of the bigger achievements of the Donald Tusk government. A year or so ago the government decided to make savings in the budget and my ministry was also affected. I was sharply criticised for allowing the ministry’s budget to be cut by almost PLN10 billion. But at the same time, the government prepared draft changes to the system of funding road projects. And today most of the money for road projects comes from the National Road Fund (KFD). Only several billion zlotys for preparatory and design work and for the purchase of land is provided from the national budget. We acquire most of the money from the National Road Fund through Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK SA).
Why do we get the money through BGK SA? Because the bank takes out loans which are used to finance our road projects. The main lender is the European Investment Bank (EIB). BGK SA also issues bonds. This element of the system had been criticised the most but it turned out to be unusually effective. Thanks to it, we were able to spend PLN18.5 billion zlotys for road projects last year. I think the injection of this money into the Polish economy is an important reason why Poland was the only EU country to register economic growth last year. And the amount of money we received directly from Brussels in EU funding came to PLN3.15 billion. We managed to achieve a large surplus because we carried out 186% of our plan.

Q: The use of the National Road Fund as a way to finance road projects is a very attractive solution, despite views to the contrary voiced by supporters of traditional budget policy. We see it as a pioneering undertaking in the sphere of public investment, with money for the projects sought on the capital market, just as is the case in many countries which have traditionally had market economies. This approach is quite new in our system and it may give us a hint of how we should be looking for money needed to solve many important problems, like for example funding health-care, research and innovation programmes.
A: You are absolutely right. And we are taking measures for the future. We are not only building roads and generating costs but also preparing a new electronic toll collection system for transport businesses. We hope that in 2012 or 2013 receipts from toll will exceed 50% of receipts for the National Road Fund. Then, the National Road Fund will cease to be a problem for public finances because the debt generated by the Fund in the form of loans and bonds will not be counted as public debt.