The Polish government is extending its “Business Harbour” (PBH) programme – which has up to now helped Belarusian professionals and businesses seeking to move Poland – to other countries in its eastern neighbourhood, including Ukraine and Russia.
The scheme was established last year amid the protests and repression that followed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed election victory. Since then, Warsaw has given refuge to hundreds of fleeing Belarusians and it is estimated that a tenth of Belarusian ICT specialists have relocated to Poland.
The Business Harbour programme is run by Poland’s development ministry and the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAiH). It has offered an expedited immigration procedure to ICT experts and entrepreneurs along with family members and co-workers.
To encourage companies to relocate to Poland, PAiH also offers a “business concierge” service, which includes legal and investment advice for businesses. Moreover, the scheme seeks to connect foreign entrepreneurs with local investors and institutions, including local authorities.
On Tuesday, the government announced that it would be extending the scheme to also include Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Armenia. The policy is part of the government’s recently announced “Polish Deal” (Polski Ład) economic stimulus package.
Deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz admitted that extending the programme to Russia might come as “something of a surprise” given the “difficult” relations between Warsaw and Moscow, which are “burdened by the aggressive steps of the Russian Federation“.
He noted, however, that relationships and investments could still be built “on the level of interpersonal contacts”.
Justyna Orłowska, the prime minister’s high representative for government technology, said that the Business Harbour programme had so far been a “great success”, with Poland becoming the first-choice country for Belarusian migrants, reports Interia.
According to official figures, 13,565 special visas – which allow for newcomers to work without obtaining a permit and set up their own businesses in Poland – have been issued as part of the scheme. The value of “investment projects conducted or implemented” by PAiH has exceeded €123 million.
There are currently also 200 companies working with the PBH programme to post job offers for newcomers.
Poland has in recent years experienced a wave of immigration unprecedented in its history and among the highest in the European Union. While the majority of arrivals have come from neighbouring Ukraine, the second largest group have been Belarusians.
Poland has extended various forms of humanitarian protection to Belarusians fleeing from the unrest and repression that has followed August’s presidential election, after which Lukashenko claimed victory amid widespread evidence of vote-rigging.
The Polish government has also given strong backing to the Belarusian democratic opposition, whose exiled leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has made two visits to Warsaw to meet with Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
As a result, relations between Warsaw and Minsk have rapidly deteriorated, with Lukashenko accusing Poland of interfering in its neighbour’s affairs and even of seeking to reclaim former territory. Recent months have seen the arrest of prominent figures from Belarus’s ethnic Polish minority.
Main image credit: Pxhere (under public domain)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
