September 27, 2004

In Warsaw, Poland, the recently appointed U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe joined Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran, Conference President Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic, Advisory Board Chair Dearborn Mayor Michael A. Guido, and the leadership of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland (AmCham) September 10 for a meeting to discuss international trade, public private partnerships, economic development, metro economies, workforce issues, and the challenges and incentives to doing business in cities.

Cochran opened the meeting by stressing Plusquellic's strong commitment to the business community, and the President's desire to meet with and engage the business community in Poland. Highlighting Conference ties to Poland, Cochran described its early engagement with Poland when he and others served as electoral observers during the 1990 spring elections and led training sessions for approximately 150 newly elected Polish mayors. Additionally, he pointed out that Ashe is the former mayor of Knoxville (TN) and past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Further highlighting the strong connection with Poland, Guido discussed the large community of citizens with Polish background in his city and the value of Ashe's outreach.

Ashe, who serves as Honorary Chairman of AmCham, expressed his enthusiasm for the meeting and for his future work with AmCham, pointed out the importance of having a strong engaged business community in cities, and emphasized the strength of mayors and their responsiveness to changing times.

Expanding on the Ambassador's comments, Plusquellic commented that mayors understand and recognize the importance of their role, which is "constantly evolving to meet changing times." As an example, he described the economic challenges Akron faced during his tenure when four major rubber companies left and, in response, a new economic base had to be identified and developed. "Today Akron is strong in attracting European investment, especially from Germany," he said.

Highlighting Akron's relationship with Dresden and Chemitz in Germany, Plusquellic indicated his objective for this meeting is to look at local business match-ups, dialogue with the business community in Poland, and explore future collaboration.

Max Raczkiewicz, President of AmCham, provided background on the business environment in Poland and welcomed the delegation. Other AmCham representatives included AmCham Executive Director Dorota Dabrowska; Rick Lada, President of Motorola of Poland; Alexander Granowski, VP, WS Atkins; Peter Kay, Partner, KPMG; Robert Adamczyk, WS Atkins; James Kernan, Regional Coordinator, Price Waterhouse Coopers; Dorothy Hansberry-Biegunska, Consultant; Judith Gliniecki, Junior Partner, Piontek, Rymar, Slazak, Wisniewski & Associates; Paul Fogo, Legal Advisor, Miller, Canfield, W. Babicki Wspolnicy; and Tony Housh, AmCham Board member.

After introductory comments, a substantive discussion ensued addressing a variety of issues ranging from infrastructure to the business development challenges facing cities and the business community in Poland.

Raczkiewicz pointed out the limited experience cities have with business development and attracting foreign investment emphasizing that cities have to know how to package themselves and not oversell. . Additionally, he said,"Mentalities have to change. We put people in power who are competent but the local mayors have their hands tied because they have no money".

Explaining that American cities get the lion's share of their revenue from property tax, Guido inquired about the benefits cities in Poland get from business in addition to jobs. Dorothy Hansberry - Biegunska, President of the Board, explained that in Poland "the main benefit is jobs because traditionally in Warsaw 80 percent of taxes paid by Warsaw residents are pumped out to other cities."

Raczkiewicz suggested establishing an exchange program focused on working with the business community to which Cochran responded that the Conference developed " the concept of reaching out many years ago because we recognize we can all learn from each other. It makes sense to expand what we have been doing in this regard."

Plusquellic, receptive to the suggestion of a technical exchange program, provided historical background on such efforts within the Conference and its relationships with Taiwan, the International Conference of Mayors in Jerusalem, and German and French mayors. He also expressed an interest in working with Ashe to explore the opportunity to develop a more formal relationship with mayors and the business community in Poland.

Rick Lada, President of Motorola in Poland, acknowledged that "cities play a highly important role in attracting Motorola and other businesses to Poland." Commenting in agreement, Edgar Fulton, Commercial Counselor, U.S. Commercial Service, said, "Mayors in Poland have more political power than they often exercise. When they do exercise it they can work miracles."

All parties agreed to consider ways to strengthen the relationship between Polish mayors and business and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Among ideas considered were providing speakers, convening a seminar on investment, infrastructure needs, competition, and attracting business to cities.

Also present at the meeting were Edgar D. Fulton, Commercial Counselor, U.S. Commercial Service and Tom Yeager, Vice Consul, U.S. Embassy.