Edouard Sicat, economic and commercial counselor at the French Embassy in Warsaw, talks to Krzysztof Pawlik.

You came to Poland not long ago. What would you like to achieve during your post and what are the main goals of your mission?
Obviously, my mission has two different sides. One is very governmental and involves further implementation and hopefully permanent improvement of French-Polish bilateral relations in terms of economics and trade. I often-informally-refer to that side of my job as to "the traditional part" because it basically means working in my own field and taking care of all typical embassy issues.

As for the second part of my mission, in simple words, I would say that it is helping French companies in any "Poland-oriented" business issues. We are trying to assist French companies from the earliest stages of their development on the Polish market. We provide help and information on how to settle here, how to open new branches, offices, how to find partners, how to enhance trade, etc. We deal as much with the big corporations as with the small and medium-sized companies. Of course, the corporations, usually present on many foreign markets, require different help and approach than the small and medium-sized firms. Usually. we help the latter in a much more direct way.

Putting it all together, I must say that it really is a very broad-in its aspects-and challenging work. Especially today, once Poland has joined the EU and finally became a part of the single market.

According to the latest statistics, France has again secured the number one position among foreign investors on the Polish market. How long is this leadership going to last?
First of all, I must say that even though we are proud of our leadership, we do not consider being number one as one of our goals.

Certainly, I agree that it proves the great activity of French investors on the Polish market ever since the "big transition" and implementation of privatization in Poland.

To get the whole picture, we should take a closer look at the structure of our investments in Poland, especially in the telecommunications sector. Investments made by France Telekom in TP S.A. and by Vivendi Universal in PTC Era make together as much as one-third of the total French investment stock in Poland.
But we must not forget that our leading position wouldn't be possible without the simple fact that almost all of 30 major French industry and service groups are present and very active in Poland.

What we are currently looking forward to is increasing the number of small and medium-sized companies from France on the Polish market.

What are the main barriers that French companies have to face when investing in Poland?
The often-mentioned Polish bureaucracy is not as huge a barrier as one might suppose: I must admit that France and other "EU-15" countries to some extent share this problem too. Among the major barriers I would rather mention the tax regulations and the decision-making process-often complicated and lacking transparency.

Poland's accession to the EU will certainly strengthen the interest of small and medium-sized companies. Such companies tend to favor the closest markets, but above all those with the stable and well-known EU law and regulations. Poland is no longer perceived as a remote market, like it used to be before joining the EU. We are now within the same single market and doing business in Poland has become a lot easier and safer. In my opinion, this certainly works in favor of small and medium-sized companies. I believe that we won't have to wait long to see its positive effects.