Poland must strategically support domestic firms to build national champions that retain economic value and compete internationally.
Building Poland’s National Champions
When evaluating major investments, we should not only focus on who implements them but consider who will accumulate profits, build assets, and increase Poland’s economic capacity for the next 20-30 years. Poland has an opportunity to build its own National Champions who will no longer just be subcontractors for foreign companies on major contracts but will have their own experience and references from megaprojects.
Creating Value Through Large Contracts
Large references are built on substantial contracts. If Polish entrepreneurs cannot access the largest public tenders, if conditions don’t account for Polish contractors’ capabilities and market realities, they cannot develop their potential or build a portfolio enabling bids for major investments, including those abroad.
Retaining Economic Value Within Poland
The stake involves not just experience that enables Polish companies’ growth, but ensuring lasting value from contracts remains in Poland. It matters whether assets, know-how, and reinvestment profits stay in Poland to strengthen its economy, or flow to foreign headquarters with dividends and group fees. Poland loses the development impulse it financed when profits leave the country.
Strategic Procurement Framework
This is about creating conditions where the state responsibly returns to the economic stage and gives Polish companies real development opportunities. EU law, European Commission practice, and European Court of Justice rulings clearly permit strategic approaches to public procurement using criteria beyond the lowest price.
Procurement Challenges
Public tenders are critical given the scale of upcoming projects in Poland. The government’s CPK program assumes total expenditures of 131.7 billion PLN by 2032. The New National Railway Program totals 170 billion PLN (including KPO funds) by 2030, while the National Road Construction Program to 2030 operates with approximately 294.4 billion PLN.
Enabling Domestic Growth
Building Polish champions requires designing tenders that don’t exclude domestic companies with European-scale project capabilities. Every 1 billion PLN of profit retained domestically can create factories, engineering centers, and SME chains for a decade. Every zloty transferred abroad fails to build Polish capabilities or create jobs.
