I spent a couple of days with my colleagues at the British Embassy in Poland during the visit of Lord Green, Minister for Trade and Investment, to discuss commercial opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe and also to launch the “Emerging Europe” brand.
With Poland and Romania the 6th and the 7th largest countries in EU respectively, there is a strong case to be made to British businesses, particularly SMEs, that overseas operations can easily be hosted in continental Europe with many concomitant benefits: similar or same legislation, familiar accounting practices, a cohort of already established British businesses, good command of English, and, not least, an active Eastern European diaspora in key sectors in the UK.
In the context, it was therefore interesting to find out that both countries offer business opportunities in similar sectors such as energy, infrastructure, services or healthcare. So it would make sense for British companies to look at the regional offer and consider clusters of potential investment or export within the Central and Eastern Europe. This also means that the British embassies in the region will aim to work more closely to tap into the commercial offer in the CEE countries and also to engage better with like-minded stakeholders such as the national or regional chambers of commerce.
This approach opens up, I believe, a fresh and exciting opportunity for us, members of the British embassies in the region and in particular for communicators like me. I look forward to welcoming commercial diplomacy projects in 2012 and to interacting further with colleagues from Poland and the region. Which reminds me to stress that Polish hospitality is superb, a strength that can be added to any business pitch about local market opportunities.