Conference: “Lower Silesia – Poland – Asia. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow”

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Nearly one hundred and twenty representatives of the world of business and science participated in the conference. Poland’s Ambassadors to Asia, as well as Asia’s Ambassadors in Poland, heads of large corporations and scientists dealing with Polish-Asian relations presented topics related to Asia, wanting to learn about the mutual needs and possibilities for cooperation between academic, economic and public administration circles.

Lower Silesia’s capital was visited, among others, by the Ambassadors of Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and representatives from India and Saudi Arabia. The event was attended remotely by Jarosław Szczepankiewicz, Chargé d'affaires from the Polish Embassy in Manila in the Philippines, Adam Burakowski, the Polish Ambassador in New Delhi, as well as Jakub Sławek, Charge d'affaires from the Polish Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Rafał Owczarek, head of PAIH’s office in Manila, pointed out to the conference participants the opportunities in the Philippines for Polish entrepreneurs operating in the water and sewage technology sector, the mining technology and financial technology industries.

The Philippines is considered to be one of the richest countries in the world in terms of mineral resources. In 2019, the country produced about 15 million tons of coal. Despite this, the Philippines remains a net importer of coal - around 75% of consumption comes from countries such as Indonesia, South Africa and Australia. The reason for this is the fact that the coal mined in this country is considered to be sub-bituminous (low-quality) coal, hence the need to import better types of coal from abroad or the adoption of modern technologies allowing to improve the quality of the raw material - said Owczarek.

PAIH’s office in Manila has identified four areas where there are opportunities for expansion for Polish mining technologies. This includes the possibility of coal processing technologies that improve its quality. Another area of possible partnership is the introduction of clean coal technologies (i.e. circulating fluidized bed combustion) to ensure the use of Philippine coal with minimal negative impact on the environment. Technologies using low-quality coal, which do not have alternative markets, were also considered an attractive business opportunity. Moreover, the vast experience of Silesia in the management of post-mining dumps and reclamation of post-mining areas was emphasized, and these solutions refer to post-mining waste dumps, i.e. Heaps of mining waste, which are still an unsolved problem in the Philippines.

The next part of the conference was attended by representatives of the embassies of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and J.E. Mr. Nguyen Hung, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, J.E. Ms Nargiz Gurbanova, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Bachrom Babajew, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan, S.K. Ray, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of India.

The meeting ended with a discussion on cooperation between Poland and China at local government level, based on the example of Lower Silesia.

The conference "Lower Silesia - Poland - Asia. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow" was organized under the patronage of the University of Wrocław, Wrocław University of Economics and Opole University of Technology. The honorary patron of the event was the Marshal of the Lower Silesia Province, Cezary Przybylski.