The Danish-Polish Chamber of Commerce has operated in Poland since 1994. Its main task is to represent Danish investors in Poland through supporting the business activities of the chamber's members and through promotion of Danish/Polish foreign cooperation.

The chamber organizes networking, seminars, business mixers and workshops that help its members exchange experiences, and give new investors an opportunity to get acquainted with the conditions of running a business in Poland. All Chamber members are presented on the Chamber's website. For broader issues and events, the Chamber has close cooperation with similar Nordic organizations.

The chamber was founded on the basis of the Danish Business Club, which was an informal organization. The chamber's head, Henrik Jelert, says that the chamber "has members in all areas of Polish business."

Many companies with Danish origins have successfully found a place in the Polish market. These include such brands as Maersk, Ecco, Danfoss, House of Prince, Carlsberg, Lego and Cottonfield. Many Danish investment projects can be found in ecology, agriculture-related industries and farm produce processing.

"We have members all across the broad Polish market," says Jelert. "I can't say that Denmark has specialized in one thing or another. We're a growing organization, and Poland is becoming more and more obvious as a business partner for many Danish companies."
In Jelert's opinion, after Poland enters the European Union, the possibilities of cooperation between the two countries will be much greater. "First of all exchange of goods will become a lot easier. The same goes for the exchange of labor, because the Danish market will be open to Poles. I imagine that the registration of a company will become more in line with what Danish companies already know and have experienced in the EU, and they will be more comfortable. Thanks to this, more companies will be interested in coming to Poland."

Poland's inclusion in EU structures opens new prospects for the development of cooperation between Poland and Denmark. The chamber is already preparing for these imminent changes. "I think we will have to support Poland's accession to the EU in any way we can. In the last months before accession, we will organize meetings, debates and events devoted to enlargement-both for the enthusiasts and the opponents of the EU. Apart from these issues, we will continue doing what we successfully did last year. We want to use the resources of our members to teach each other. We know that there are differences between Poles and Danes, and we want to bring our members to a higher level of understanding of this. But without pointing fingers at who is better or worse, realizing that there are differences and we can all use them for our common good."

The chamber will organize meetings with representatives of Polish business and politics, discussing the most important issues related to Poland, including local law and bureaucracy.

"Most Danish businesspeople find it very, very hard to understand some of the issues surrounding corruption. There is a need for an open discussion... so maybe we can also help Poland become a more transparent country," concludes Jelert.

5 Starościńska St., 02-516 Warsaw
tel. (48 22) 849 74 14, fax (48 22) 646 49 30
dpcc@dpcc.pl
www.dpcc.pl