Interview: China's rebound to unlock great potential for China-Poland cooperation, says Polish business leader

WARSAW, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China's robust economic recovery will bring about enormous potential for China-Poland business cooperation, chief of PTAK Warsaw Expo, the largest fair and convention center in Central and Eastern Europe, has said.

Present at the 18th China Expo Forum for International Cooperation (CEFCO 2023) held in Shaoxing in east China's Zhejiang Province this week, Tomasz Szypula, president of board of the expo and also president of the National Federation of Entrepreneur, said before departure that he feels very excited about this trip, and that the most important thing is to "refresh contacts with friends, colleagues, and partners."

"This is the opportunity to restart our relations with the Chinese entrepreneurs, business partners and agents cooperating with us, and bring the exhibitors which are interested in (business) expansion in the European Union back to Poland," he told Xinhua in an interview.

The expo center he manages covers an area of 500,000 square meters and consists of six halls.

"The PTAK Warsaw Expo can be a perfect platform for promoting and for exhibiting the new products, new technology, new knowledge and new thinking," he said.

"Before the (COVID-19) pandemic, we were organizing about 40 events in a year, and almost each was very rich in Chinese exhibitors. Right now, in 2023, we are organizing more than 50 events. We expect and wish the Chinese exhibitors will be back (to the European Union) and very successful," he said.

On China's first quarter economic data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the day of the interview, Szypula was impressed by the 4.5 percent growth, which beats previous forecasts by many institutions.

Noting China's fast-growing economy, Szypula said, "Everybody knows China is a leader of developing economy, and for Poland, the best partners are the strongest partners."

"As you know, Poland and China have strategic partnership. So this is very important for B2B (business-to-business) relations, between Polish entrepreneurs and Chinese entrepreneurs ... The Chinese market, Chinese economy is growing up rapidly. The same is in our country," he said.

Szypula said that China's optimization of COVID-19 prevention and control measures is crucial for the resumption of business activities, as "the heart of the business is the meetings with the people."

As a senior expert in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) industry, Szypula is no stranger to all China's four major exhibitions that help strengthen trade and promote services -- the China International Import Expo held each year in Shanghai, the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) in Guangzhou, the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, and the China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou.

"These places are the greatest, the biggest venues on the world which provide very fruitful trade fair events," he said. "In my opinion, these are one of the most important places for the promotion of Chinese economy, Chinese business and Chinese culture."