RABOBANK POLAND
Bright future
Rapid progress
At Rabobank Polska's 10th anniversary celebrations, Rik van Slingelandt was in for a very
pleasant surprise.The President of the Polish Central Bank, Leszek Balcerowicz, presented
him with Poland's award for outstanding contribution to the Polish banking system.This is
only the fourth time this prestigious award has been made.The most recent recipiënt was
Jean-Claude Trichet, now President of the European Central Bank.
tend to be quite traditional in their eon-
sumer choices. What we can do as
Rabobank Polska is support financial
efficiencies for our domestie clients
through expanding our service offering.'
Although Poland still has to make up
ground in terms of average EU prosperity,
the future is looking bright. This in spite
of very high unemployment I 8%) and
average per capita earnings at only 40%
of the EU mean. 'Transformation came
with a price tag,' Ledworowski agrees.
'Other EU countries had 50 years to go
through the restructuring and transfor
mation of their economies, evolving them
through industrial, services and now tech-
nological "revolutions". We are doing it
all at the sanie time. Although productivi-
ty is growing by an average 10% a year,
our jobless rate is cause for real concern.
The main problem is that people's skill
sets could not be evolved at the same
pace. Education is the kev. In the past
decade, the number of university entrants
has doubled. More and more of our
young people, especially young women,
are studying abroad. And these opportu-
nities can only increase once we are part
of the EU.'
Most forecasters are indicating develop-
ment for Poland along the lines of Spain
following that country's accession to the
EU. If that is the case, then the hard work
and focus by Poles will start to pay off as
the country moves ahead as part of the
EU. It is a real achievement in a very
short time. There's just one problem for
Rabobank Polska -getting into 'country
banking'. 'This is certainly an ideal coun
try for the concept,' confirms Van
Zadelhoff. 'The problem is finding the
right partner. If Poland progresses as well
and as rapidly as Spain, then this is cer
tainly the right time. Another 10 years
and anv acquisition would be much too
expensive. We're working on it...' H
Rob van Zadelhoff - further consolidation in the retail market
force our position as the top F&A bank,
specifically in the Food sector. We are
doing that consistently and systematical-
ly, also through proactively positioning
and marketing our value-added products
and instruments.' Rabobank Polska
organizes cliënt conferences and work
shops aimed specifically at raising aware-
ness of these products and how they can
be applied effectively. 'Looking ahead,'
says Van Zadelhoff, 'there will be grow
ing demand for our services, especially
now Poland is joining the FiU. The
marketplace will change once trade
boundaries are eliminated. Our clients
will certainly see increased competition in
their own sector. However, our sense
here, and subsequently our approach to
the market, is that our clients should not
really be worried about that competition
hut rather focus on building their domes
tie market position. We foresee further
consolidation in the domestie market,
also to ease local competition. Imported
products will continue to be more expen
sive. You can't generalize, but Poles do
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