We recently celebrated another “Entrepreneur’s Day” on June 21. The goal of the 2016 established. (thanks to the efforts of the National Chamber of Commerce, among others) the holiday was to be. Raising public awareness of the importance of the activities of entrepreneurs for the functioning of the country as a whole – not only in economic terms. While working for the establishment of Entrepreneur’s Day, we also hoped that it would contribute to changing the mentality of part of our political class – many of its representatives still seem to treat private business as a necessary evil. In what can be called the image sphere, the “Entrepreneur’s Day” initiative has been successful – state institutions operating in areas related to entrepreneurship have been organizing conferences, workshops, etc. on this day for several years, and on their websites they remind what a great significance for economic development the creativity of Polish entrepreneurs has. What does this appreciation of the role of entrepreneurs look like in practice? The answer may be more media reports of new legal bubbles, unfavorable solutions for business that raise the cost of doing business and impose further burdens. And these are not the only problems. Publicist and President of the Batory Foundation Edwin Bendyk recently recalled alarming data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor international entrepreneurship survey. They show that Poles – although they are quite positive about the possibility of starting a business and their ability to run it – are less and less willing to tie their future to this form of activity. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from 2021. showed that only approx. 3% of Poles say they want to start a company in the next three years (the European average is 13%). 2022 results. have worsened, and it is worth remembering that back in 2018. The percentage of Poles who were considering starting a business was about 10%. Obviously, the events of recent years do not encourage start-ups and reinforce concerns about staying in business. Pandemic, war in Ukraine, economic instability, rising inflation – all of these discourage a significant number of potential entrepreneurs from launching their own business. But the deteriorating environment should provide additional impetus for the government and administration to promote entrepreneurial attitudes and create a friendly and safe environment for start-ups. It’s hard to find signs of this in recent times – especially now, in the pre-election period, when instead of business facilities, politicians are bidding for the amount of social transfers. Entrepreneurship should be taken care of – this is a truism, but in light of disturbing data from international reports, it is worth reminding. We have been able to celebrate “Entrepreneur’s Day” for several years now – it would be good to still have someone to celebrate it with.
Andrzej Arendarski, president of KIG
