Roman Rewald, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland (AmCham), talks to Ewa Hancock.

■ As the new Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce do you plan to introduce any important changes in the structure or functions of the Chamber?
I don’t believe that I was elected to be Chairman of the Board in order to introduce substantial changes. Mac Raczkiewicz, the previous and original Chairman for the last 14 years has done a splendid job in running the organization and I was supporting his activities for many years as Vice-Chairman. That does not mean that we are not looking for more effective ways of fulfilling our mission and serving our members. As a membership-based organization, AmCham must remain useful to its members and the Board of Directors must keep its vigilant lookout for new ways of improving the Chamber’s activities. And then, of course, there is always the hard job of improving our existing efforts which include the encouragement of even more activities in AmCham Committees, improving the quality of monthly meetings and effective representation of the American community interest in the Rada Przedsiębiorczości (Enterprise Council).

There is one immediate improvement I would like to see, however. This is more individual contact between the Directors and members to keep “our ear to the ground” and improve our understanding of our members’ needs.

■ How does AmCham help American investors?
We pride ourselves on being the business representation of American investors in Poland and pursuing goals and tasks that are in the interest of such investors and also other foreign and Polish investors in this country. The Chamber eagerly pursues actions aimed at improvement of the investment climate in Poland. We also lobby for the legislative changes necessary to improve market economy in this country. Often we speak on behalf of our members whenever they face conditions or obstacles exceeding normal conditions of a competitive market. We assist new investors in finding the more attractive side of Poland for their investments and in overcoming the initial difficulties of newcomers. In this we cooperate with the U.S. Commercial Service and appropriate Polish agencies, including PAIiIZ.

■ What opportunities attract American companies to the Polish market?
The days when American companies invested in Poland because they had someone of Polish descent in management or because they were global companies and could not afford not to be in Poland are over. I believe that now American companies look at Poland and compare the existing market conditions to other countries in Europe. Poland has many attractive features, including an efficient and large labor force, highly educated and skillful specialists, a large market, favorable geographical location and it happens to be one of the most pro-American societies in the world. Poland could do better with the road infrastructure and enforcement of contractual rights. It could also promote itself better.

■ What kind of barriers do American investors have to face in Poland?
Of the many barriers that we used to point to in the past, there is only one that clearly remains intact. This is the problem with enforcement of contractual rights and generally laws in Poland. All other investment barriers have been more or less eradicated and our comments to them relate more to the quality of such eradication than to their existence. In the case of the judicial and law enforcement system, we have substantial objections. As an American Chamber of Commerce we are even ready to be a part of the solution. For instance, with respect to improvement of the judicial structure, we identified the promotion of more oral court process and better organization of judges’ work as areas in which American lawyers and judges could be of assistance.

The other obvious investment barrier is the undeveloped road infrastructure, which not only scares away foreign investors but also constitutes a substantial constraint to a harmonious development of the country. But, all this should be put in the context of the otherwise phenomenal progress that Poland has made since 1991, when our AmCham was created.