MEB represented on Central and Eastern European markets

Represented by its CEO Guillaume Rose, Monaco Economic Board (MEB) attended the 32nd Karpacz Forum in Poland, a major Eastern European business meeting, at the invitation of Monaco’s Ambassador to Germany, Austria and Poland.

Now rapidly growing markets, Central and Eastern European countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and above all Germany through its eastern state) are showing an impressive capacity for creativity that has been given a boost by the war taking place on their borders.

Launched 1992 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this business forum has taken on another dimension since it started being held in the Polish resort of Karpacz where locals dub it the “Davos of the East” 

H.E. Mr Lorenzo Ravano, Monaco’s Ambassador to Germany, Austria and Poland was the driving force behind the project to include the Principality’s association of entrepreneurs among the guests invited. As he said: “It would be a pity if Monaco stayed away from such an important forum where sectors strong in the Principality, like digital, renewable energy and tourism, are the topic of most of the discussions”.

Guillaume Rose therefore accepted to be on several panels such as “Can we afford not to turn to renewable energies?” alongside several eminent experts notably the Operations Director of General Electric, there to explain the American-Japanese nuclear power plant with all the latest technology being built in Poland.

During another session entitled “How to make the tourism sector more competitive following the crises it has just been through?” Guillaume Rose had the opportunity to present Monaco to the experts gathered, citing in particular the Principality’s impressive reboot after Covid.

On the sidelines of the conferences, he made numerous contacts with local stakeholders and investor entities in the region, notably those from Germany’s Brandenburg region who were there as neighbours and regulars of the event.

Again, at the instigation of H.E. Mr Lorenzo Ravano a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ was signed between a German entrepreneurs association based in Berlin, BWA (Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade), and the MEB.

This commitment will help forge closer ties between German-run companies, at home and abroad, and Monaco companies interested in trading within the German-speaking sphere of influence.

Finally, it was thanks to the social skills of Monaco’s Consul in Warsaw, Maître Tomasz Wardynski, that several meetings were set up including one with the General Manager of Digital Poland who made a note of the possibilities for cooperation between companies from the two associations. The latter mainly comprises innovative startups often financed by American investors from Silicon Valley (who also met at Karpacz).

Under the joint aegis of Monaco’s Ambassador, his diplomatic colleague Andrea Colombo-Pastorelli, and the Consul, a Trade Mission to Warsaw is being planned for 2024, along the lines of that led by MEB Chairman Michel Dotta in 2010. Contacts have already been established in Karpacz, notably with the dynamic Franco-Polish Chamber of Commerce and a number of associations of entrepreneurs.

Could the sun rise in the east also in business terms for 2024? MEB will try to find answers to this question.