The Warsaw Voice, Autumn, 2019

This publication is part of The Warsaw Voice Multimedia Platform in Poland

Balcerowicz Plan 30th anniversary

Mike Pence in Warsaw

Published since 1988

Polish Industrial Market

Autumn 2019 No. 3 (1221)

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EVENT

POLITICS & SOCIETY • Without Precedent 4-10 • Festival of Promises 12-13 • American Vice President in Warsaw 14-15 11 18-19

REAL ESTATE • JLL Summarizes the Situation on Poland's Industrial Market 20-21 • JLL on Polish Business Services Sector 22 • Cushman & Wakefield Marketbeat Report 26-27

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Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

Without Precedent

4

Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz, who in 1989 created a plan for the transition of the Polish economy from a centrally controlled to a free-market system, talks to Juliusz K�osowski and Witold ˚ygulski.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY Bogdan Borusewicz, a former long-time activist of the underground democratic opposition in the Polish People's Republic (PRL), now Deputy Speaker of the Senate, told us in an interview (The Warsaw Voice, Summer 2019) that one of Poland's fundamental assets at the time of the economic transformation was the fact that there was a group of educated Polish economists who knew the reality of the free market economy; how did this team come about?

He probably meant the so-called first Balcerowicz team.

It was formed at the end of the 1970s. At that time I belonged to the vast majority of people in Poland who did not expect the Soviet Union to fall apart during their lifetime or fundamental political changes to take place in our part of Europe. At the same time, I believed that there was a chance to improve the economic system within the framework of prevailing communism. This was to have involved increasing the role of the market, i.e. making the functioning of the economy - at least partially - independent of the authorities, i.e. the ruling Polish United Workers' Party [PZPR, the communist party].

I did not see any chances for democratization of socialism, but I believed that it was possible to extend economic freedom.

I managed to gather a group of people whose publications proved that they thought like me. The first team, established in 1978, comprised 12 people. We all worked on these ideas for free, of course. I thought, however, that if there is even a shadow of a chance, we have to try.

The aim of our project was to try to get the only decisionmaking center at the time - the communist authorities of Poland - interested in our approach to the economy. In August 1980, within just a few weeks, I wrote a synthetic report on our work, in which I presented the necessary directions of reforms and their justification. This report was presented to the public during a press conference organized at the Central School of Planning and Statistics. It caused a sensation, for it turned out that no one in Poland had ever worked on such proposals before.

The conference guests included Waldemar Kuczyƒski, an outstanding oppositionist economist and later advisor to the first non-communist Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki [his government was formed on Sept. 12, 1989]. After more than a decade, he remembered our conference and my existence, and so I found myself in Mazowiecki's office.

After my team’s conference in 1980, over the next two years, during which the Solidarity Trade Union was founded and enjoyed its first triumphs [1980-1981], I was repeatedly invited as an expert to meetings devoted to economic reforms.

At that time there was a great need for a social, unofficial project of economic changes. It turned out that the idea we had worked out was the only one properly developed and grounded.

I remember how representatives of trade unionists from the so-called "Network" - the Solidarity organization of representatives of the largest industrial plants [which were state-owned at the time] knocked on the door of my apartAutumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

5 ment in Warsaw's peripheral district of Bródno. They recognized our project as a project of Solidarity which, could not present reform ideas of its own at that time. I spent the following months presenting the project across Poland.

At the time of the birth and first successes of Solidarity, various organizations that had so far been rather conservative, began to radicalize rapidly. Among them was the Polish Economic Society (PTE), which elected me a vicepresident. The secretary of the PTE at the time was Rafa∏ Krawczyk, an economist with whom I attended an international meeting of economic associations in Brussels on Dec. 12, 1981. Krawczyk, very much a people person, told everyone there that the power to rule in Poland was lying in the street and we only had to bend down and reach for it. Meanwhile, the very next night the communist authorities imposed martial law in Poland, and my terrified Belgian hosts watched as their TV screens showed tanks on the streets of Polish cities. I had no doubts about returning to Poland, but because flights were suspended I did not managed to get back until a few days later, by train. I remember that the taxi driver taking me from the station to my home asked if I was crazy, coming back from the West “to this Bolshevik country.”

That was when I stopped trying to push the reform plans through the communist authorities in Poland, because I thought it was hopeless, and I did not want to deal with them. Even our previous project had previously been considered too radical because we assumed that the ruling communist party would relinquish control over state enterprises - this would mean the end of the nomenklatura system [in which influential posts in government and industry were filled by communist party appointees], one of the most fundamental in the totalitarian system.

However, I continued the seminar. This time, however, we went for fundamental reforms We considered such issues as ways of privatizing state-owned enterprises or the possibility of building and operating an independent central bank. It was all interesting, but none of the team members thought it would ever be useful during our lifetime. Incidentally, my group of specialists at the time included people who later ended up in various political parties as experts. They included Tomasz Gruszecki, a lawyer, later Minister for Privatization in the Jan Olszewski government [1991-1992] and Jerzy Eysymont, an economist, Minister of the Economy in the same government, and earlier in the Jan Krzysztof Bielecki government [1991]. I do not know if Prime Minister Olszewski, a known opponent of liberal economic views, knew that they had been members of my team, but he certainly needed their knowledge.

As a result of our work, an outline of a strategy for radical change emerged. We knew that the such reforms would have to include massive economic liberalization and privatization, that hyperinflation would have to be overcome as soon as possible, If it were not for the fact that we had this strategy and that my team continued working in the 1980, I would never have agreed to the proposal of Prime Minister Mazowiecki to take over leadership of the economic reforms in September 1989. ➨

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

6 You have said many times in interviews that you were reluctant to accept a government post and hesitated for some time; could you tell us what arguments prevailed and why you finally took over as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance?

There were several reasons for this hesitation, and it was not just the tragic economic situation in which Poland found itself at the end of the 1980s. I had sometimes trouble sleeping at the time, making me doubt seriously whether I would be able to oversee the economic transformation of the country. (By the way, when I joined the government, the insomnia vanished.)

When Mazowiecki’s government was formed, my wife and I were packed, preparing to go to the United Kingdom. Ewa had been granted a scholarship there, I was to give a series of lectures. In July and August I prepared very intensely for them, but without much enthusiasm, because very interesting and even exciting changes were starting in Poland.

Suddenly I learned from my close friend and co-worker Stefan Kawalec [later Deputy Minister of Finance in the years 1991-1994] that Kuczyƒski was trying to get in touch with me. Finally, I received a phone call from him and learned that Mazowiecki was looking for “his Ludwig Erhard “ [considered the father of the postwar German economic miracle, Minister of the Economy in the government of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer]. I replied that he should assume this role, and I could be his advisor. But Kuczyƒski asked me to meet with Mazowiecki. It was our first direct contact. He made a very good impression on me, but I said "no" to him.

However, the Prime Minister asked me to think about it.

I called a family meeting at home. Opinions were divided. My wife was against it because she knew very well what it would mean to accept such a mission. I think my cousin's voice prevailed: He told me that if I refused now, I would regret the missed opportunity for the rest of my life.

I finally agreed, but under certain conditions. First of all, I wanted to be responsible not only for finance, but for the whole economy, so I had to become Deputy Prime Minister. Secondly, I had to join the new cabinet with my team. Thirdly, I would have a voice in the staffing of economic ministries. Fourthly, economic change must be comprehensive, and radical, because that is the only way it can succeed. Our earlier analyses had shown that all other scenarios were doomed to failure.

Mazowiecki had no qualms about accepting these conditions. The outline of radical economic changes was already visible in the Prime Minister's policy statement, on which I had worked together with Kuczyƒski and Kawalec.

The most urgent issue was to suppress galloping inflation.

I had never planned a political career, but the situation had changed completely, and I accepted a huge historical responsibility.

What were the basic assumptions and priorities of the Balcerowicz Plan and how did they change in the face of the challenges posed by reality?

We were in a much worse situation than Czechoslovakia or Hungary, to which Poland was often compared. In the second half of 1989, inflation reached over 40 percent per month, while in Czechoslovakia it was only 10 percent and in Hungary 30 percent annually. We had a big problem with huge foreign debt - and Poland was practically bankrupt. It was similar in Hungary, but not in Czechoslovakia.

Vaclav Klaus [then Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, also introducing economic reforms] thus had a much easier task, having two fundamental problems less.

The central issue was to change the political and economic system in such a way that Poland could make up for 300 years of divergence vis a vis the West, especially for almost 45 years of communism.

To do this, two questions had to be answered. First of all, what model should we aim for? Years of analyses gave a clear and unambiguous answer that, first of all, it must be capitalism, but one in which there is a lot of economic freedom and no privileges for the various lobbies. Secondly, the rule of law must prevail, and thirdly, the system of free competition must prevail, with maximum liberalization of the economy. Opening up to the world was also a very important element of our strategy. Taxes should be as low as possible, which in turn required a serious reduction in state expenditure and a radical change in financial policy.

Finally, we needed stable money. What I have mentioned is roughly a description of the system to which we began our journey.

The basic problem was how to move from the complete chaos of the Polish socialist economy to the new system.

Nobody had practical knowledge of how to privatize 90 percent of the state economy quickly, because nobody had ever done this in the world. None of the Western experts had anything to say here, we could not count on any enlightened advice from outside. Other problems were intellectually simpler, such as stifling inflation. We knew where it came from - the uncontrolled printing of money by the government which was otherwise unable to make the expenses it considered necessary. When money is printed without restraint prices gallop.

One of the key questions was: How do we carry out all the changes in a short time? In 1989 we still had many element s of the old system. At the same time, we were preparing fundamental reforms. The burden was, therefore much greater than in any other country in the West. As Minister of Finance, I had to make decisions on issues such as, for example, increasing the price of coffins - they were too low, so there was a shortage of them, but also on issues such as increasing the price of coal, because the mines threatened to stop extracting it.

At the same time, although I avoided this as much as I could, I also had to receive numerous delegations from Western countries asking for explanations on what was happening in Poland and where the new system was heading. Since they were mostly our creditors, we had to present the plan of the transformation. Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund were particularly important, Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz (born 1947) was deputy prime minister and finance minister in the governments of Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jan Krzysztof Bielecki (1989-1991), and later also in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet (1997-2000). Between 1995 and 2000 he was the leader of Freedom Union (UW), then a centrist political party. From 2001 to 2007 he was chairman of the National Bank of Poland (NBP). He twice received The Warsaw Voice’s annual award: Man of the Year in 1990 and Chair of the Year (Chair of Two Decades) in 2008.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

8 not only because these were top financial experts, but also because their approval of the Polish transformation meant that Poland would gain international credibility. This was a fundamental issue for Western governments and markets, and all aid to Poland at that time depended on it.

All of this had to be done during the last 3,5 months of 1989; the reform plan was to formally enter into force on Jan. 1, 1990. I underlined at the time that this was a completely non-extendable deadline and we had to meet it.

There is no greater mobilization than a specific deadline, otherwise everything can melt away. So we were fighting against time.

While there were no problems with the work of my economic team, they began to appear at the level of the entire government. But we had overcome them. Another problem was with the work of the Sejm and Senate in normal mode, it would not have been possible at all. So we changed the way the Sejm worked. I remember that with my former student and later close associate, Jerzy Koêmiƒski [later ambassador of Poland to the United States], we went to the Sejm to talk to old parliamentary officials who had worked in the communist era. We talked about our deadline and asked how things could be organized. As a result, we changed the system of making parliamentary decisions; the Sejm and Senate worked in parallel, and extraordinary committees headed by reformers were set up in both houses. Both committees worked with the members of my team.

When problems arose, I was called upon to clarify them.

Fortunately, not everyone knew then that the Balcerowicz Plan would require great sacrifices from society....

Continuing communism, or the Belarusian variant, would not have involved greater sacrifices? Reasonable comparisons provide a rational assessment. We could have given up radical changes and postponed them until later. But this would have led to a situation in which inflation would rise, the economy would deteriorate, and support for Solidarity, which had been the guarantor of reforms, would also fall. The people of Poland in the final years of the Polish People's Republic were troubled the most by long lines in front of stores and galloping prices.

If we had abandoned rapid reforms, these factors would have lasted for years and they would have been the greatest sacrifices.

People who are afraid of risk are, in fact, the biggest risk-takers. They are unable to assess the alternative route and make a rational decision.

When I undertook my mission in the fall of 1989, I knew that we had a choice between a gradualistic hopeless option and a fast, radical, risky one, but one that would give us opportunities. Chances to put Poland on the path of catching-up with the West.

In retrospect, are there things that you regret, that were unsuccessful, that could have been done better?

Prof. Balcerowicz with Juliusz K∏osowski (right) and Witold ˚ygulski.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY If we want to rationally evaluate something, we just have to compare it sensibly. What results have the countries that followed our path of change, especially the former Soviet republics of the Baltic Sea, achieved? They achieved a rapid growth. How did things go for the countries that adopted the alternative model of economic reforms? Such a path practically meant staying frozen in communism, leaving most of the economy in state hands, with little involvement of the private sector. This is Alexander Lukashenko's road, the road of Belarus. Partial changes wee also possible - I hope that today's Ukraine, where, despite reforms, there is still not enough free market and the rule of law, can break away from this scenario. Even countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, which did not have some of the problems which we had, developed their economies much more slowly than we did.The government's economic team worked miracles, but there were not enough of us to control everything properly and to adapt things to the reform strategy.

For example, we did not manage to keep an eye on the team of Jacek Kuroƒ [former labor minister in the Mazowiecki government] which, driven by good intentions, brought about the adoption of a law on a significant increase in pensions. We could not afford this at the time and it complicated our budgetary situation. The same applied to the law on unemployment benefits, which provided that even people straight out of school would be entitled to unemployment benefits, before taking up their first employment. As a result, we had an explosion in statistical unemployment. Such regulations are not to be found in any developed Western country.

Finally, I did not manage to keep an eye on Artur Balazs, the then Minister of Agriculture, who got through the law on KRUS [the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund, a system of farmers' insurance criticized for years], through the government.

What was the role of foreign advisors in planning and implementing the Polish transformation?

As far as the strategy of market reforms after socialism was concerned, foreign experts did not have any advantage over us because nobody had conducted such a radical reform anywhere before us. Many of them, however, had great competence in the fight against high inflation, which has a universal causes. People such as Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University and the experts of the International Monetary Fund including David Lipton, a colleague of Sachs, were helpful. Sachs also promoted the reduction of Poland’s foreign debt which, as a result of our joint efforts, was reduced by more than 50 percent in 1991.We lacked advisors not on the strategy, but on the specifics. In communism, for example, there were no real banks, only financial institutions supervised by the communist party.

Therefore, we imported to some extent banking experts from abroad, among whom there were many specialists with Polish family roots. One example is Wojciech Kostrzewa, the current head of the Polish Business Council, who came to Poland from a university in Kiel, Germany, when he was still a student. This is how we imported human Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

9 capital, without which the reforms would have been much more difficult. Some of the experts working at that time later settled permanently in Poland.

You mentioned the urgent need to build a real banking system; how did it come about so quickly and efficiently?

In the period of the socialism we had state institutions that granted loans, in the free market system we needed to create commercial banks. Of course, they had to be private.

Since Poland did not yet have the capital to privatize the banking sector at the beginning of the transformation, like all the countries of Central Europe we had to rely on foreign capital. That is why today's strategy of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s government to nationalize banks pinths us on the backward path. In Europe today, we are in third place, after Russia and Belarus, when it comes to the state’s participation in banking.

Speaking of changes in other countries of the former Soviet bloc: What influence did the Balcerowicz Plan have on them?

Soon after the plan was launched, future Russian reformers began to come to Poland, mainly from the environment of Yegor Gaidar, the creator of the Russian transformation at the beginning of the 90’s. The assumptions of the plan were probably also analyzed in the Baltic states, but many local radical reformers were active there. In Slovakia, where Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, a populist and political adventurer reluctant to liberalize, ruled for some time and blocked the reforms, successive liberal team probably also watched our actions with interest.

The Polish transformation was also very carefully observed by international organizations.

All data from later years confirmed that the countries which followed the path of radical changes achieved much greater economic growth than those which sought the mythical “third way.”

Thirty years ago, economic knowledge in Poland was dramatically poor, which was conducive to effective criticism of the Balcerowicz Plan's reforms by the former ruling communists but also by complete economic impostors such as Stanis∏aw Tymiƒski [a businessman of Polish origin from Peru; criticizing the reforms, he got into the second round of the presidential election in the fall of 1990, defeating Tadeusz Mazowiecki and losing only to Lech Wa∏´sa] or Andrzej Lepper [the leader of radically leftwing peasant party Samoobrona (Self-Defense), whose main political slogan was "Balcerowicz must leave"]. Do you think that today's situation is much better in this respect?

First of all, I am not at all sure whether the level of not so much ignorance as negative economic knowledge (which, in my opinion, is much more dangerous than ignorance), was and is significantly higher in Poland than in many Western countries. Secondly, perhaps the legacy of socialism did make Tymiƒski's astonishing but fortunately very

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VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

10 brief political career possible. But I say this with some hesitation: The party called the Labour Party in the United Kingdom is now headed by Jeremy Corbyn, who was, and is still proud to admit this, an admirer of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. This is happening in a country whose society seems to have been educated economically and familiar with capitalism for several centuries.

During the first two years of the reforms we did not see any mass protests. There were not many politicians who, out of conviction or cynicism, tried to raise political capital by criticizing our reforms. Then things started to get more complicated, which in my opinion was an inevitable process: the period when people knew that we were emerging from a serious crisis and that some temporary sacrifices were necessary, had simply passed, it could not last forever. Political rivalry began, in which there were both impostors and people who thought they would win support by criticizing us and putting forward their pie-inthe-sky ideas. It was not good, of course, but it wasn't unusual.

I would also like to add that the second wave of reforms took place between 1997 and 2000, under Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, where I was also in the government as a deputy PM and Finance Minister. The exotic coalition of the Solidarity Electoral Action and the Freedom Union managed to make important systemic changes. We introduced a fundamental pension reform, and education reform (also reversed today).

We also accelerated privatization; if it was not for our efforts at that time, we would probably have had the majority of state participation in banks and steelworks, and angry steelworkers would be demonstrating in Warsaw, demolishing the streets.

Although our interview is about history from 30 years ago, we cannot help but ask how you, the architect of the transformation, see the current state of the Polish economy?

Poland's economic situation is very good but its future looks much worse.

The future cannot be predicted on the basis of current data. In Greece economic indicators were excellent for years, but problems were growing. In Poland the situation is less drastic, but given the economic boom, which we owe primarily to the European Union, we should have a budget surplus but we have a deficit, one of the largest in the European Union. Therefore, we should certainly not spend PLN 50 billion on the 500+ program which, conceived as a project to increase the fertility rate and combat the demographic crisis, has completely failed to meet its declared expectations. It is clear today that the, real goal of 500+ was to buy votes. That PLN 50 billion has to be found, hence the increase in taxes and the public debt in relation to GDP. Equally bad, if not worse, is the increased political control over economy by the ruling party, the nationalization of banks or the energy sector, the creation of a kind of "post-PRL" out of state-owned companies. On top of that, there is the fact that the ruling party fills the positions in these companies with its own people and that funds from state companies go to media that convey aggressive pro-government propaganda on a daily basis. Without these subsidies, a significant proportion of these media would not have been able to survive in market conditions.

Even worse than damage of the economy is the attack on the rule of law.

This qualitatively distinguishes the Law and Justice (PiS) government from all other governments after 1989 and from all European governments, except perhaps the Hungarian cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Democracies persist only if the justice system that is independent of politicians.

Every dictatorship, controls this system, because only then it can intimidate or eliminate the opponents.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - BUSINESS & ECONOMY

11

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More at https://warsawexpo.eu/expo4future/

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

12

Festival of Promises Poland's governing party Law nad Justice (PiS) and the chief opposition grouping KO launched their campaigns for October general elections by presenting policy platforms heavy on economic policy and wage and welfare initiatives.

Law

& Justice claimed a new "Polish version of the welfare state" grounded on talk of solidarity and equal opportunity. The party vows 15% annual increases in minimum wage over the next term and a doubling down on recently introduced pension bonuses.

Campaign tones focus on both the aspirations addressed by welfare spending and successes in implementing programs to date.

Civic coalition, based chiefly on the current lead opposition party Civic Platform (PO), presented a long list of individual program initiatives widely targeting a broad swath of electorates from working Poles to pensioners to select civil servants.

Criticisms of the ruling camp on rule of law or other program shortfalls remain present, but appear to have taken a back seat to the party's own new venture into welfare policy.

The Polish government will seek to hike its minimum wage to PLN 2,600 per month at the start of 2020, to a target of PLN 3,000 by end 2020 and PLN 4,000 by end-2023, leading PiS officials told a September 7 campaign soiree.

The hike should measure "about 15% per year," PM Mateusz Morawiecki said of the rough outline, "to make up for the lost years" under the prior government, he claimed.

PiS also seeks unspecified wage hikes in the public sector, a program outline presented at the event suggested. Teacher wage increases are coming yet in 2019, Morawiecki indicated in his speech to assembled party members. Wage growth in the broader economy should further stem from economic growth and labor market strengthening.

The Polish government will leverage minimum wage hikes to force the pace of modernization in industry, but can stand at the ready with currency tools should the move over-test the nation's firms, Morawiecki suggested in an interview for PAP. "We want firms to have impulse to stop competing based on cheap labor and start [competing] with investments and innovativeness, as is the case in Czech Republic and Western Europe," Morawiecki said of the ruling party's minimum wage hike proposals.

Poland's own currency may help in offsetting negative impact of lost competitiveness, the PM suggested.

"Having an own currency gives every country tools for the scenario of a negative impact of wage increases decoupled from productivity [gains]," he said. "Own currency is the key instrument of economic security."

Minimum wage was at 50-55% and sometimes even above 60% of the average wage back in 1970s and 1980s in the West, and "it was one of the most important mechanisms of building middle class in the Western countries," Morawiecki noted.

New burdens for businesses will be largely offset by numerous pro-business measures, such as lower CIT or lower social security premiums, the PM argued. Also, transformation to a more advanced technology should benefit Polish firms, he suggested.

"I would like to stress that it's in the best interest of Polish firms for our economy to become a technologically advanced economy of high wages as soon as possible," he said.

With prudent policy, minimum wage hikes offer a chance for achieving prosperity, the PM claimed. "Prosperity is a choice, but requires a prudent and responsible economic policy," Morawiecki said.

Central bank NBP governor Adam Glapiƒski expects no negative economic impact of the minimum wage hikes plotted by ruling party, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczyƒski told public radio broadcaster PR1.

"Yesterday I had a chance to speak with the central bank president, who presented me with an initial estimate of the impact of the proposed changes on the economy. Nothing of that sort," Kaczyƒski said asked about potential negative consequences of the planned minimum wage hikes.

Comments follow announcement by ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) of plans to hike the country's minimum wage to PLN 2,600 per month at the start of 2020, to a target of PLN 3,000 by end-2020 and PLN 4,000 by end-2023.

Law and Justice will likely reappoint Morawiecki as PM after the October elections, Jaroslaw Kaczyƒski informed.

"I have no ambition of replacing Mateusz Morawiecki as I would like him to continue to be the head of the government," Kaczyƒski said.

"Mateusz Morawiecki is doing great in international relations and there is no reason to replace him," Kaczyƒski said. "I find the position of party leader entirely sufficient."

KO made a good, though slightly delayed decision choosing Ma∏gorzata Kidawa-B∏oƒska for its Prime Minister nominee, most commentators agreed.

Kidawa-B∏oƒska is perceived as conciliatory, uncontroversial and trust-inspiring, an advantage as compared to Civic Platform leader Grzegorz Schetyna, notorious for getting thumbs down in trust polls. Also, a female PM candidate stands a chance of reaching out to leftist voters, not to mention the fact that the male leadership of the left-wing coalition "Lewica" now looks out of place.

Poland's chief opposition party improved its pending election result by replacing Schetyna with Kidawa-B∏oƒska as a PM candidate, according to 45% of those polled by IBRiS for the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and radio broadcaster RMF FM. Some 57% of women believe the move will help the opposition coalition while only 35% of men agree.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

13 Jaroslaw Kaczyƒski

Civic Platform needs to work quickly on Kidawa-B∏oƒska's name recognition. Surveyed Poles name incumbent Morawiecki as most qualified to be PM over Kidawa-Blonska 38 to 24, followed by leftist leader and MEP Robert Biedron with 14.4%.

Poland's opposition parties have largely divided Senate districts among themselves to avoid competing with one another in the upcoming elections and thus increase their chances against candidates of ruling party.

KO (Civic Platform + Nowoczesna + allies) will appoint candidates in 75 of 100 districts, agrarian Polish Peoples Party (PSL) in 15 and the Left in six.

Chances of opposition parties may be reduced in several districts by opposition-linked independents intending to run there.

Ruling party overshadowed opposition coalition KO's economic policy proposals with its minimum wage hike and welfare spending promises, daily Rzeczpospolita wrote. But those promises will likely deal a blow to Polish entrepreneurs, consequently driving up prices and leading to layoffs as well as boosting illegal employment, the newspaper argued citing unnamed commentators.

The Polish government should make its universal bonus pension benefit an annual requirement and even offer an additional monthly payment to pensioners with monthly benefits at less than 120% of the average pension, Law and Justice proposed.

The so-called '14th monthly pension' would begin in 2021 for individuals with less than 120% of average pension of disability benefit, about PLN 2900 monthly in 2021, some 9095% of total beneficiaries, the program stated.

The program payments will be balanced for individuals within a month's benefit above threshold, the party noted.

Existing benefit programs crafted by the governing party will all be continued.

The Polish government will amend the 2020 draft budget bill to include the pension bonus originally paid as a one-off in 2019, ruling party election staff head Joachim Brudziƒski told public radio PR1. ". . . there will be a budget [bill] amendment, the 13th pension will be preserved," he said.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Roman Zawistowski/PAP

Jakub Kaczmarczyk/PPAP

Ma∏gorzata Kidawa-B∏oƒska

The comment follows similar declarations by top state and PiS officials.

On April 23, President Andrzej Duda signed into law the bill on a one-off PLN 1,100 gross bonus pension payment constituting a part of the PiS fiscal stimulus plan unveiled late February. That payment was made in May. The cost of the bonus was estimated at PLN 10.8 billion to be distributed among over 9.8 million pensioners.

The Polish government will continue to press a broad set of investments across the full spectrum of the power sector to guarantee energy security and EU ecological requirements, Jaroslaw Kaczyƒski, told a regional party election convention.

"We will build up energy sector in all measures," Kaczyƒski told assembled delegates.

Investments in natural gas infrastructure come as "we need certainty that no one will ever be able to turn anything off for us."

Nuclear power will advance towards Poland's first-ever reactor, Kaczyƒski appeared to indicate, referring to it only as "that most modern source which we still do not have." The requirement stems in part for its role in meeting EU climate policy target "that we can't yet handle."

Law and Justice also wants to exclude Warsaw from the Mazowieckie region and will have no problem to come up with a relevant draft bill quickly, deputy PM Jacek Sasin told the public radio of the party program.

The comment comes after Jaroslaw Kaczyƒski said at the party convention in Siedlce that the Mazowieckie region should be split in two by separating a central unit with the capital city of Warsaw.

Law nad Justice and allies enjoyed a nearly 1 ppt month on month increase in voter support to 42.4%, while opposition coalition suffered an over 4 pps decline to 22.7%, the latest survey by pollster IBRiS for daily Rzeczpospolita showed.

Leftist alliance Lewica gained nearly 2 pps to 13.1%, while the coalition of agrarian Polish Peoples Party (PSL) and antiestablishment grouping Kukiz'15 is down by 1 ppt to 5.6%, with the backing for all other contenders settling below the 5% entry threshold.

Compiled from press and PAP reports

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

14

American Vice President in Mike Pence's visit to Poland, formally dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, was an opportunity to meet with Poland’s president and prime minister and discuss many issues important for current bilateral relations and joint activities in the international arena.

The

U.S. vice president flew to Poland on Sept. 1 to take part in the anniversary commemoration. Mike Pence was deputizing for President Donald Trump, who cancelled his visit due to Hurricane Dorian approaching Florida.

During the ceremony, Pence gave a speech in which he emphasized the steadfastness of the spirit of Poles fighting for freedom in the years 1939-1945, and mentioned the roots, history and present day of PolishAmerican relations based on mutual friendship, respect and community of democratic values.

On the following day of his visit, Sept. 2, Pence spoke with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

The Polish head of state said later that on Sept. 1, Warsaw became a Euro-Atlantic center of diplomacy.

"Many bilateral meetings took place here, President Pence had the opportunity to meet with the president of Ukraine, to discuss important issues related to the future of Ukraine, with all that is so important also for our security and the development of economic cooperation," Duda said.

Referring to the talks with the U.S. vice president, Duda pointed out that they concerned, among other things, energy and military cooperation. He thanked Secretary of Energy Rick Perry for being present in Poland, adding that Perry had "long talks with Minister Piotr Naimski on issues related to current and future energy cooperation.”

"I hope to create more opportunities for development and cooperation with the United States,” the Polish president underlined. He pointed out that "we have further contracts signed for LNG deliveries to Poland; these deliveries are being carried out.”

"I informed the vice president and the secretary that we are currently expanding the gas terminal in ÂwinoujÊcie, that we want it to have a larger capacity than before, so that it can transport 7.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Today, that figure is 5 billion”, declared Duda. "We also hope that we will be able to implement another investment in the form of a floating gas terminal, which will be located in the Tri-City," he added.

The talks also concerned military cooperation and American participation in the modernization of the Polish armed forces. "We talked about our earlier planned increase in defense spending in the coming years, as well as our future plans, because it is no secret that in the coming years we will have to buy more helicopters to

replace the ones we have been using so far," Duda said.

He expressed hope that American companies will take part in these planned tenders. "Everyone knows that in this area the United Sates produces equipment that is certainly at the absolute top globally, and we hope that U.S. companies will present their offers. It is certainly excellent equipment and we would be happy if the Polish armed forces were to use such – the best – equipment,” Duda underlined.

The president pointed out that Poland and the United States are implementing joint programs to purchase Patriot missile systems, which are to be the basis of the Vistula medium-range air defense system, and HIMARS artillery rocket systems.

"We talked about the expansion of the American military presence in Poland. I hope that this year we will be able to sign the final agreements and make the final decisions about the locations. Work is underway on this, we are considering these issues together with representatives of the United States. A whole range of proposals has been presented in this respect; I hope that this year we will come to a final specification of them," Duda said.

Pence said that thanks to the leadership of presidents Trump and Duda, the alliance between the United States and Poland is stronger than ever. "I am happy to report that Poland is approaching meeting the criteria for visafree travel. As I said today, when this process is completed, we are ready to include Poland in the Visa Waiver Program very soon," he said.

Pence pointed out that since October last year Poland has signed three agreements with U.S. companies that will allow the import of more than 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. "President Trump and I are truly grateful for your courageous opposition to the Nord Stream 2 project," he said, adding that "now is the time to be careful and watch carefully for possible intentions, but also for the actions taken by Russia.”

"Unfortunately, over the past few years Russia has been taking actions that no one who respects international law, no one who wants peace in the world, no one who respects the dignity of other nations and states, can pass by indifferently," Duda underlined.

On the same day, after a short meeting, Pence and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed a declaration on the 5G network.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - POLITICS & SOCIETY

15

Warsaw "Taking into account that the safe mobile technology of the fifth generation will be of fundamental importance for both prosperity and national security in the near future, Poland and the United States declare their desire to strengthen cooperation in the field of 5G," reads the document.

5G is expected to offer "a huge range of new applications, including key public services that will benefit our citizens and economies," the officials added in the document. More data will facilitate cross-border services and trade.

The declaration underlines the importance of protecting next-generation communications networks from disruption or manipulation and of ensuring privacy and individual

freedoms for the citizens of Poland, the United States and other countries.

"Poland and the United States point out that this strong and comprehensive approach to 5G network security requires careful and complete evaluation of components and software manufacturers," it states.

It also points to the need for "a thorough assessment of suppliers.� The question is whether "the supplier is controlled by a foreign government without recourse to an independent court; whether the supplier has a transparent ownership structure; and whether the supplier, in its history, has shown ethical corporate conduct and is subject to a legal order that ensures the transparency of companies' operations.�

Radek Pietruszka/PAP

Andrzej Duda and Mike Pence attend a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - BUSINESS & ECONOMY

18

Science Means Development

have been awarded the title of a local government favorable to education. We teach Chinese at five kindergartens and schools. We will have a secondary school with an international baccalaureate. We are building new vocational schools, for which the demand is growing. Once a year we organize a meeting with entrepreneurs to find out what kind of education will be needed in Rzeszów. We plan to continue investing in universities, because science means development. We are constantly improving healthcare, although it is already the best in Poland. We care about safety, build better streets and create attractive greenery. Green areas must be beautiful and that's how it is with us. But most of all, there must be new and good workplaces. Research conducted by FIG ranking companies shows that we have a very good financial situation.

On the domestic market we have the AA Plus grade, which means that cooperation with us is profitable and not risky.

All this enables people in Rzeszów to live really well.

Are you preparing to take over Lubomirski Castle?

There used to be a prison in the old, historical castle, now there is a court. We want to return to history, transform the castle into a cultural institution and create a museum there.

And the District Court in Rzeszów will get new headquarters,

Rzeszów City Office

You have been awarded the Man of the Year title twice and Rzeszów has twice been the winner of the Smart City Forum in Warsaw. For what?

We are trying to introduce transport solutions that have been successfully operating in the world for a long time and are still not in use in Poland. Two years ago we looked into autonomous vehicles in Rotterdam, three months ago we were once again in Lyon, where there are also 12 autonomous passenger buses. Recently, Deputy Mayor Marek Ustrobiƒski went to a Chongqing, 35-million-strong city in China to see how a monorail railway with an urban distance of 100 kilometers has been working perfectly there for the past 15 years. They call it the metro above the ground. There are two lines, one 67 km long that is the longest in the world and transports half a million people a day. It is a very quiet form of transport, with rubber wheels running on a concrete rail. It is collision-free because the railway goes 20 meters above the ground and the stations are at the level of the 6th floor of a shopping gallery. We are planning to place it at six meters in Rzeszów. Such a railway is also eco-friendly, because it is electric. There are also buses and autonomous cars running around the city, for the time being with a driver, but from next year the driver will no longer be needed. The Chinese offered to build us such a system also in our country, because they perceive us as a city with a developing Aviation Valley, a vibrant IT sector and a significant pharmaceutical industry. During this stay we participated in a conference of 80 cities from all over the world that use smart solutions. We were the only one from Poland, as the city with the best solutions of this kind in our country.

There is no doubt that they love you in Rzeszów. You have won the fifth consecutive term of office. And how is it the other way around?

The feeling is mutual. I think about this city 24 hours a day, and sometimes longer. Rzeszów has to grow in the next few years. This city already attracts people from the Bieszczady Mountains, Stalowa Wola, PrzemyÊl, D´bica.

Young people from 160 towns and cities commute to schools. We are going to buy 100 electric buses. We want to serve ¸aƒcut, Strzy˝ów and S´dziszów Ma∏opolski. I care about the region’s inhabitants. I hope that we will exceed the number of 200,000 registered people. We are still connecting the surrounding towns and cities, and other residents want to join us because they see huge potential in Rzeszów. And the city must constantly develop.

Currently, we are in first place in terms of education among the 12 cities associated in the Union of Polish Metropolises, and we were at the end of the list. We have maintained a high score of junior high school exams, we

Maciej Ch∏odnicki

Mayor of Rzeszów Tadeusz Ferenc talks about the city’s dynamic development with the Voice's Barbara Der´gowska.

Autumn 2018, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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19

Rzeszów City Office

Rzeszów City Office

which will be built by the government and local authorities. We attach great importance to the development of culture. Events are organized for the residents every weekend. Last year there were 2,500 of them. The biggest one is the European Stadium of Culture, in which over 100,000 people take part over four days. Every three years we host the World Festival of Polish Folklore Groups. Since last year we have been organizing Senior Month with a colorful parade in September.

Among smaller events that also garner a lot of interest, it is worth mentioning our weekly dances. We have the Artistic Exhibitions Office, the Rzeszów House of Culture, the Photography Gallery.

Rzeszów is famous for its many contacts with other countries. Traces of this can be seen, among other things, in the architecture of the city and also in the rapidly developing Rzeszów Economic Zone, where several hundred companies have already installed themselves and are still growing. Do you do more observing or promoting?

Autumn 2018, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Indeed, we have many contacts with other countries. We look at what is useful for us, and if possible we use it, without long thinking and any accumulation of obstacles. If some things have already been invented in the world and work well, why should we reinvent the wheel? Recently we had a meeting with the City Council of New York and we received a letter from them about strengthening our cooperation, with Rzeszów as a partner city.

We have been to China many times and we liked a lot of projects there.

We are often in France, Sweden, Scotland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Spain, we also attended a conference of 50 cities of the world in Taipei, Taiwan. We cooperate with partner cities in the field of culture, sports, economic exchange and attracting investors. In April this year in Cannes, we received a certificate as the best place to invest in Europe. We promote Rzeszów and Poland everywhere.

VOICE - REAL ESTATE

20

JLL Summarizes the Situation on Poland's Industrial Market Total industrial stock in Poland now stands at 16.9 million sq m. Gross take-up in the first half of 2019 exceeded 1.6 million sq m. In addition, over 1.1 million sq m of new space was delivered to market and 2.2 million sq m is under construction.

R

obust demand has spread all over Poland. Gross takeup exceeded 1.6 million sq m and - interestingly - it was generated by a number of medium-sized contracts instead of spectacular transactions. In turn, net demand, i.e. taking into account new contracts and expansions, was 1.1 million sq m.

"In the first half of the year we observed a decrease in the share of new contracts and expansions in total demand.

However, nearly 350,000 sq m of space was leased as part of renegotiations of existing contracts. One of the factors determining this situation was undoubtedly the expiration of lease agreements signed in 2013-2014, when the market was experiencing a period of intense development" says Tomasz Mika, Head of Industrial Poland, JLL. Logistics operators is the most active tenant segment, followed by retailers and light manufacturing companies.

These three sectors together accounted for almost 80% of net demand recorded in H1 2019.

"Demand for industrial space was visible throughout the country, with the highest tenant activity being recorded in the Warsaw Suburbs, where agreements for a total of 460,000 sq m were signed, followed by Wroc∏aw 276,000 sq m and Central Poland - 216,000 sq m. On markets outside the Big Five, gross demand was 240,000 sq m, of which new agreements accounted for 186,000 sq m. The development of Kielce, Podkarpacie and Bia∏ystok continues apace as developers secure more land for future projects in these areas", says Maciej Kotowski, Research Analyst, JLL. The buoyant condition of Poland’s industrial market was once again confirmed by excellent activity on the construction side.

"During the first two quarters of the year new developments totaled more than 1.1 million sq m, the highest halfyear result in the history of the market. This led to total stock standing at almost 16.9 million sq m.", adds Kotowski.

Central Poland remains the leader in terms of the volume of new supply, where over 250,000 sq m was delivered in the first half of 2019. It was the fastest growing market in Poland with a total stock increasing by over 35% over the last twelve months.

At the end of H1 2019, 2.2 million sq m of space remained under construction, of which the largest markets Upper Silesia, Wroc∏aw, Central Poland, Warsaw and Poznaƒ – accounted for 86% of this number. It is worth not-

ing that developers are bullish about the Polish market, which is confirmed by the volume of space built on a speculative basis - the share of which now totals 45%.

"This is particularly visible in the largest metropolitan areas - over 270,000 sq m was being developed on a speculative basis in Upper Silesia, followed by about 175,000 sq m in Warsaw and Wroc∏aw, and 140,000 sq m in Central Poland. Large speculative investments can also be found in the Tri-City, Szczecin, Krakow and Kujawy", says Mika.

The increase in space developed on a speculative basis has led to a slight increase in the vacancy rate. The aver-

Tomasz Mika, Head of Industrial Poland, JLL. Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - REAL ESTATE

21

age vacancy rate in Poland was 6.3% at the end of H1 (5.7% in Q1). This situation can change quickly, as vacant space is absorbed on a regular basis due to high demand from tenants. A good example of this is Bia∏ystok, where the vacancy rate dropped from 36% to 22% in just one quarter.

In Q1 2019 tenants saw a gradual increase in rents. This slight uptick is still limited, however, by the amount of new supply. An increase was particularly noticeable in Warsaw, Wroc∏aw, Poznaƒ, Szczecin as well as in Opole and in the Lubuskie region. The rents in Warsaw Suburbs increased to EUR 3.8/sq m/month. Warsaw Inner City remains the most expensive market, with headline rents ranging from EUR 4.3 to 5.25/sq m/month. The most attractive rents are offered for big-box units in Central Poland (2.6 - 3.2 EUR/sq m/month).

"The volume of industrial investment transactions concluded between January and June 2019 was EUR 374 million.

This is the best ever H1 performance in terms of investment activity, and was helped by the inflow of Asian capital, especially from South Korea. Continued interest in the Polish market in the upcoming months, is reflected by ongoing transactions involving both individual objects and real estate portfolios", says Tomasz Puch, Head of Office and Industrial Investment, JLL. The largest investment transactions concluded in H1 include the acquisition of Amazon in Wroc∏aw and Eurocash in Konin by Hines/Mirae from Blackstone for EUR 130 million, Zalando Lounge distribution center by Hines/IGIS AM from Hillwood (for EUR 85 million) and Castorama in Stryków by Tritax from Panattoni (for EUR 55 million).

Prime warehouse yields stand at 6.25% (with a downward trend of below 6%), while exceptional, long leased assets trade at sub 5.00% and Warsaw inner city projects at around 5.50%.

Maciej Kotowski, Research Analyst, JLL.

Tomasz Puch, Head of Office and Industrial Investment, JLL.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - REAL ESTATE

22

JLL on Polish Business Services Sector The business services sector already occupies three million sq m of office space across Poland, and JLL expect further increases in the near future.

A

dvisory firm JLL summarizes the activity of companies from the business services sector on Poland's key office markets in H1 2019.

"In the first half of 2019, tenants from the business services sector leased almost 190,000 sq m of office space, which was a quarter of the total office demand in Poland. The sector's influence is even greater on major markets outside Warsaw (Kraków, Wroc∏aw, Tricity, Poznaƒ, Katowice, ¸ódê, Lublin, Szczecin), where almost every second square meter has been leased by a company from this industry", says Mateusz Polkowski, Head of Research and Consulting, JLL. Two of the three largest lease transactions concluded in H1 2019 were signed in Kraków - Sabre leased 16,000 sq m at Tischnera Office, and Ailleron leased 8,600 sq m of space in Podium Park B. In Gdaƒsk, Nordea has signed a contract for 10,800 sq m in the Olivia Star office building.

According to ABSL, the business services sector currently employs around 307,000 people, which could increase to 336,000 by Q1 2020.This development, of course, has a direct impact on the office market.

"We estimate that business services centres already occupy a total of about three million sq m across Poland, and taking into account the activity of companies from this industry in recent years, we can expect an increase in this volume in the next few months", says Polkowski.

According to data by JLL, Kraków has the highest share (58%) of the services sector in the occupied office space.

¸ódê is second with 53%, with Wroc∏aw once again third with 49%.

"The ambitious business plans of the business services sector confirm Poland's high investment attractiveness. They are also an important premise for developers and investment funds’ decision-making, who are planning to develop their office portfolio on the Polish market. Many tenants from this industry consider expanding in office projects where they are already located. They are also establishing new centres in new locations, which in turn leads to an ever faster increase in the supply of modern office space in regional cities", says Jakub Sylwestrowicz, Head of Tenant Representation, JLL. The rapid development of the business service sector leads not only to strong demand, but also to a change in the functionality and features of modern office spaces and the workplaces themselves.

Competition for talents, the change in employees' needs, the range of generations and personalities within teams pose new challenges for companies when it comes to the selection and organization of office space. The flexibility of space and - which may seem surprising - the emotions and experiences associated with it is becoming increasingly important. So companies from the business services sector which hire thousands of employees are becoming a precursor for this shift in the office space market.

Mateusz Polkowski, Head of Research and Consulting, JLL

Jakub Sylwestrowicz, Head of Tenant Representation, JLL Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - TOURISM & LEISURE

23

From Town to Hillsides You are one of 200 young leaders who initiated the generational change in local governments in Poland. What is your story?

Earlier, when I ran for mayor for the first time, there were only 40 young people. After the last elections, there were five times more of us. I am glad that I was re-elected in 2018. It was the first re-election in Duszniki-Zdrój. I come from Duszniki and I have always loved this town. As a teenager I was president of the Youth City Council, which ran social activities and even published its own newspaper.

We revived vacant premises and turned them into art galleries. The All Signs of Art event was very popular not only among young artists. We also organized international youth exchanges and managed a large budget. We wrote projects, found sponsors, and the municipal grant did not exceed 10 percent. Such were the beginnings of my work for the local government.

And the history of Duszniki-Zdrój? To what extent does it help to develop the town?

Duszniki-Zdrój does not have a long Polish history, because before World War II it was Bad Reinerz in Germany, but it has a very important and interesting history. First of all, it is connected with sports. It was an Olympic preparation center in Germany, with nine ski jumping hills, three toboggan runs, ice rings for speed and figure skating.

Other important functions of the town were related to spa features, tourism and culture. It was a very fashionable spa in the world. Doctors recommended that the 16-year-old Fryderyk Chopin be treated here, and the young composer played two charity concerts during his stay. For 74 years we have had the world's oldest piano festival in DusznikiZdrój to commemorate this event.

One important part of our town is Zieleniec, which this year celebrates its 300th anniversary. Today’s modern Ski Arena with 30 ski lifts was once such a poor village that the inhabitants wanted to move out because they were unable to survive. Fortunately, a hostel was built, followed by an access road now called the Sudeten Highway, and it revived this highest located village in the Sudetes. But a ski station was not established there until Polish times. Today it is an integral part of Duszniki-Zdrój and one of the most popular places in Poland for skiers. Zieleniec is also an attractive climate station located at an altitude of 1000 m above sea level with numerous mountain trails. Athletes representing many different sports come here to practice and get fitter.

Due to the alpine climate in Zieleniec, groups from national teams of Poland and other countries train here.

Investments in sports infrastructure have been a priority for the town's administrators for at least 20 years. New spaces for downhill and cross-country skiing are constantly being created. We cooperate in this respect with the Czech Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Szymon Kozub

Mayor of Duszniki-Zdrój Piotr Lewandowski talks with the Voice's Barbara Der´gowska about the town's and region's development plans.

Republic, our neighbors across the border, and thanks to joint EU projects we have prepared 120 kilometers of cross-country trails. We are also the organizer of DolnoÊlàski car rally, and in winter we organize dog sled races. We have a full-size sports hall and a professional speed roller-skating track in Duszniki. Since last year we can boast the most modern biathlon center in Poland: the Duszniki Arena.

That's right, the former Jamrozowa Polana, mainly a training site for biathlon athletes, became a world-class center after its modernization in 2017. What has been the outcome?

This modernization was very important for the city. We expanded the biathlon routes, improved the snowmaking system and replaced the shooting range with an electronic one. A new building was also built, its lower floors featuring space for scooters, snowmobiles, equipment service points and weapon storage, and on the remaining few floors there are offices, meeting rooms, catering facilities, a media room and many other useful premises. This building is multifunctional and designed to be used all year round, for example for events, training courses, concerts, etc. Besides, this sports facility can also be used for professional events. Of course, we organize all the

➨

VOICE - TOURISM & LEISURE

24 biggest Polish biathlon competitions and we have a lot of experience in this. The arena is managed by the Municipal Center of Culture and Sport, which organizes sports events and other typically commercial events. This year, for example, there will be the Winter Biathlon European Championships for foresters with about 1,000 competitors. But the Duszniki Arena can also be rented by amateur clubs or individuals, and this is what happens.

We rent biathlon rifles and have qualified staff with permits to organize shooting sessions or competitions for amateurs. The biggest success of the Duszniki Arena so far was the organization of the Winter Biathlon European Championship in January 2017, which was watched live on TV by about 2 million spectators. This was excellent promotion for Duszniki-ZdrĂłj in the world. My goal is for the Duszniki Arena to obtain the highest A-class license and to get to organize World Cup competitions. I will apply for this next year, so that such a competition can be organized here within the next six years.

Duszniki residents take advantage of these sports and tourist attractions of the region, providing a wide range of services to guests coming here. Does the catering and accommodation on offer keep pace with the rapid development of infrastructure?

In the development plans of the commune we definitely focus on the tourist value of this region, and the residents adjust professionally to this. New hotels, guesthouses and restaurants are being built all the time. The offer is prepared for all kinds of tourists, with different needs and spending power. There are hostels and apartments, but a five-star hotel in Zieleniec with full spa facilities is also being built.

Thanks to this, we are opening up to a new category of customers.

Do the town's development plans include offers for prospective investors?

Right now we have investment offers in three categories. The first one is targeted at housing developers.

About 300 apartments can be built in a picturesque place next to the historical Market Square. The second proposal is investment in a thermal hotel and swimming pool spa complex. We have drilled a hole there to a depth of about 1.7 km and found water with a temperature of 56 degrees Celsius. The third project is a new ski resort with

all the accompanying infrastructure. There will be perfectly prepared ski slopes of all difficulty levels as well as a toboggan run and a winter fun park for children.

Zieleniec is still expanding and is already popular not just in winter. It is a climatic station operating all year round.

We are also planning to build a gondola lift that will connect the city center with the slopes. A multi-story car park at the gondola lift’s starting station will eliminate traffic and the station itself will become a car-free zone. This investment will affect the development of the entire region, not only the town.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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Marketbeat Report Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield has published the full version of its Marketbeat report on the Polish industrial market in the first half of 2019.

The

market remains in very good health, with warehouse supply setting a new high in H1 2019, robust occupier activity and low vacancy rates.

At the end of June 2019, Poland’s total industrial stock reached 16.89 million sq m, up by 18% year-on-year and up by 7% compared to the end of 2018. The industrial market has been on a strong growth trajectory for over five years, driven largely by the nation’s buoyant economy, further improvements to its transport infrastructure and the expansion of e-commerce.

“This growth has continued both on the core warehouse markets such as Warsaw, Upper Silesia, Central Poland, Poznaƒ and Wroc∏aw, accounting for 81% of Poland’s total supply, and on smaller regional markets that are seeing their potential grow thanks to the development of expressways and motorways, and easier access to labour. Brand new locations are also emerging on Poland’s logistics map. These include Cz´stochowa, located by the A1 motorway, as well as Kielce, by the S7

expressway, and Legnica, near the S3 expressway, which are seeing development activity pick up. Other potential locations considered by developers include Gorzów Wielkopolski and Radom,” said report author Adrian Semaan, Consultant, Industrial and Logistics Agency, Cushman & Wakefield.

Warehouse supply set a new high in the first half of 2019, with a total of 1.09 million sq m built across 47 projects, the strongest new supply ever recorded in the first six months of a year. Nearly 70% of that total was completed on five markets: Central Poland (23%), Warsaw suburbs (14%), Tricity (11%), Wroc∏aw (11%) and Szczecin (9%). In addition, Olsztynek saw the completion of a large-scale project Hillwood BTS Zalando Lounge (121,000 sq m).

Developer activity remains very robust. In Q2 2019, developers broke ground on projects totalling 680,000 sq m, and at the end of June 2019 there was 2.24 million sq m under construction across 70 projects.

Approximately 75% of that total is underway on the fol-

Adrian Semaan, Consultant, Industrial and Logistics Agency, Cushman & Wakefield

Joanna Sinkiewicz, Partner, Head of the Industrial and Logistics Agency, Cushman & Wakefield Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - REAL ESTATE lowing four core markets: Upper Silesia (26% of the development pipeline), Warsaw (18%), Wroc∏aw (16%), and Central Poland (16%). Of the smaller regional markets, Eastern Poland witnessed a considerable increase in development activity, with more than 60,000 sq m of new completions in H1 2019 and another 120,000 sq m in the pipeline.

The ratio of vacant stock remained at a healthy rate of 5.6% at the end of June 2019, up by 1.6 pp compared with the same period in 2018. The highest vacancy rate was reported in Warsaw Inner City (13%), where most of available space is in warehouse and office schemes aged more than ten years. Vacancy rates on other markets ranged between 2% in Wroc∏aw and 7.5% in Poznaƒ. There was no vacant space in Szczecin and Western Poland. The limited volume of available space and healthy demand are encouraging developers to break ground on speculative projects, albeit only on Poland’s five core markets. In other regions, new spaces are being built under pre-lets.

Total leasing activity amounted to more than 1.8 million sq m, marking the second-highest take-up recorded in the first six months of a year but representing a 14% decrease on the same period in 2018. This was largely due to a paucity of large leases for 20,000–60,000 sq m and a dearth of BTS projects for upwards of 100,000 sq m, which were recorded a year earlier. Of all the regions, Wroc∏aw and Warsaw suburbs are featuring prominently on the radar of tenants while Upper Silesia and Central Poland, seeing fewer large-scale BTS completions, are witnessing subdued occupier activity. Net take-up, i.e. new leases and expansions, accounted for a total of 66% of the leasing volume, while renegotiations made up the remaining 34%. As in the previous year, demand was largely driven by logistics operators with a 36% share in the leasing volume. Other leading sectors included light

Zalando Lounge in Olsztynek

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

27 manufacturing (13%), retailers (10%), FMCG (6%), automotive (6%), e-commerce (6%), food (4%) and courier services (3%).

Base rents stand at EUR 2.50-3.80/sq m/month across most industrial markets in Poland. Effective rents, inclusive of financial incentives offered to tenants such as rent-free periods and financial contributions, range between EUR 2.10-3.20/sq m/month, the lowest being in Poznaƒ and Central Poland, and in some locations in Warsaw suburbs. Developers are increasing their rent expectations on most industrial markets due to rising land prices in prime locations and costs of construction services. On the other hand, tenants continue to enjoy the upper hand in negotiations on the markets with relatively high vacancy rates or strong developer competition.

“Total leasing hit more than 1.8 million sq m, marking the second-highest take-up recorded in the first six months of a year. E-commerce, automotive, home appliances and food sectors generate stable demand for new warehouse and industrial space. Strong demand is also coming from logistics and courier firms which are expanding their distribution networks to process the growing volume of shipments for e-commerce. Supply also hit a record high with a total of 1.09 million sq m completed across 47 projects. Of all the regions, Wroc∏aw and Warsaw suburbs are becoming focal points of occupier activity. Product diversification is accelerating with developers delivering a broad range of projects, from big-box warehouses (particularly on the largest markets) through to Small Business Units in urban areas, or special schemes such as production and crossdocking facilities. Overall, we expect the current trends to continue and, going forward, to see more busy months on the Polish industrial market,” said Joanna Sinkiewicz, Partner, Head of the Industrial and Logistics Agency, Cushman & Wakefield.

VOICE - CAR REVIEW

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A Car for the Boss For those in managerial positions, a company car is not only a work tool, it is also a “business card.”

It can testify not just to the financial condition and prestige of the company but also to the taste and preferences of the owner.

Among the many cars offered on the market there are models that are ideally suited to serve as sleek cars for middle managers. They are mostly in the midsize (D) segment, although recently more and more of the midsize models - lower class in appearance and equipment level - aspire to the role of a “company limousine,” especially since their users do not have their own drivers and most often drive their own cars.

Not only German brands German brands are the leading European manufacturers in the midsize segment. The Audi A4, BMW3 or Mercedes C for years have been associated with luxury cars. The Volkswagen Passat or Arteon, which is still one of the most popular company cars, and also the Opel Insignia and Ford Mondeo frequently found in company fleets, are not lagging behind.

Admittedly, German brands are the most numerous in this group, but other European makes are not far behind. The French have the Renault Talisman and Peugeot 508, and the Italians offer the Alfa Romeo Giulia. Far-Eastern brands include the Lexus IS, Mazda 6, Toyota Avensis, Kia Optima or Stinger, Hyundai i40. The midsize range is complemented by models such as the Skoda Octavia and Superb and the Volvo S60.

Similarities and differences What do these models have in common and what sets them apart? What is common to all of them is that they belong to the D segment, i.e. the midsize class. Actually, in this case the boundary is quite fluid, because due to its size the Skoda Superb is also classified as part of the upper midsize segment, and the Octavia model as the lower midsize class. Until recently, things were much simpler, as there was one class: the midsize segment. But the bodies of the new cars that were previously in the lower segments are getting bigger, the equipment is getting richer and the engines are getting stronger, hence the difficulty with classifying them. The visual differences between the models are becoming so blurred that only people interested in a given car can tell the difference right away.

Different dimensions and bodies The external dimensions of the body are close to… five meters, which until recently was reserved for executive-class cars. Most cars are offered in a four-door version of the sedan body, less frequently in a five-door liftback (tiltable tailgate with rear window). Occasionally, company cars are used as the boss's business car, mostly because of the user's preference for an active lifestyle. Cars with estate car bodies are no less visually attractive than sedans, and the possibilities of transporting sports equipment, for example, is incomparably greater.

Today, virtually every mid-range model is available in a station

wagon version. Interestingly enough, this also applies to the "noble" premium brands.

Not always spacious always comfortable Some models, like the new Skoda Superb, offer cabin space and trunk volume like a luxury class limousine. Other models, like the Lexus IS, however, do not spoil the rear seat passengers, to put it mildly. Well, anyone can choose what they prefer. The standard comfort equipment in all models is rich and includes electronic air conditioning, full electric windows and exterior mirrors, onboard computers, audio-CD systems, multifunction steering wheels and seats, and a wide range of electronic systems for driver assistance and comfort.

The quality of the finishing materials is very high. More and more often, leather and wooden or aluminum inlays are used in interior design. Almost anything can be ordered as an option: from leather upholstery, heated and ventilated seats, four-zone distribution air conditioning, sensors and reversing cameras with 360-degree view, to bi-xenon or laser headlights and satellite navigation systems.

Safety as an absolute priority Safety is ensured by ABS and ASR systems, practically already in ESP standard, front and side cushions, air curtains, knee drivers, active headrests, not to mention pyrotechnic safety belts with tensioners or body structures with reinforcements and controlled crush zones. In the field of collision protection, there has even been a revolution. Safety components that were fitted in luxury cars a few years ago are now available in all mid-range cars. The results of Euro NCAP crash tests carried out a decade ago and the awarding of five stars to the first models in this segment, the Renault Laguna and Mercedes C, confirmed automotive companies’ commitment to passenger safety. Today most models offer maximum passenger protection of five stars, and the battle for safety is beginning to move into the field of... pedestrian protection.

Powerful engines as an option In this class, engine power starts from a minimum of 120 horsepower. Most models are equipped with gasoline engines with powers ranging from 150 hp to over 200 hp and engine Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - CAR REVIEW capacities ranging from 1.6 l to over 3.0 l. A visible trend is the "downsizing" technology, which is used for engines with small turbocharging displacement. In the Fiat, Toyota and Volkswagen corporations, these engines are used to power not only small cars but also midsize and upper class models (!).

Each brand offers three to four gasoline units (including turbocharged ones) and at least one diesel engine of the turbocharged Common Rail type. Some makes, such as Audi, have a dozen or so gasoline and diesel engines (!). Not much less is offered by BMW, Fiat, Ford, Renault, Mercedes, Volvo and VW. In recent years, offered ranges have also included hybrid and electric powered vehicles. The completely "electric" Tesla 3 is now entering the Polish market. Sign of the times?

Sports versions and different drives Most makes have at least one high-performance model.

Audi labels its sports models as S and RS, BMW as M, Lexus as F, Volvo as R, Renault as GT, and Mercedes as AMG. These models are intended for fans of sports driving, and their power and performance will satisfy even the most demanding drivers. On most models, power is transferred to the front, and less frequently to the rear. All-wheel drive is optional for Alfa Romeo, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Volvo vehicles. Six-speed manual transmissions and automatic transmissions with seven, eight or nine gears are still widely used, with the possibility of sequential operation, of course, controlled manually by means of the gear lever or handles under the steering wheel. Some premium brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Lexus have always used rear-wheel drive. It has even become the benchmark and symbol of "real" luxury limousines. It seems that despite the higher production costs, rear-wheel drive systems are still included in the price…

Brand image While it is possible to compare equipment, quality of finish, active and passive safety systems and drive units, it is the most difficult to compare these cars in terms of image. Several brands have been working on their image for over a hundred years, and even if the Kia Optima or Stinger were super comfortable and had everything as standard and the price was exceptionally attractive, they would still be perceived as a car that is only just fighting for its image as a luxury car when compared to premium makes like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus or Volvo. Maybe in a while? Who knows? Admittedly, one of the elements deciding about the purchase of a company limousine is the brand name, which for many managers remains a determinant of their company's position, but especially in times of crisis, price plays an increasingly important role, and this is an opportunity for new brands.

Which model a business chooses for a company car depends mainly on its financial condition and market position. But that’s not all. There are bosses who decide for themselves. It is their taste, preferences or knowledge that determines what kind of car they drive. And this is bound to affect the opinions of others; as the proverb says, “Fine feathers make fine birds.”

Story and photo by Bartosz Grzybiƒski Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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Alfa Romeo Giulia: Limousine with Sports DNA The Giulia premiered in 2015. The body line of this four-door sedan evokes the best designs of Alfa Romeo - the brand with the distinctive "Cuore Sportivo" (sports heart) radiator air intake. The body's dynamic silhouette, with its narrow front lights and rear lamps, is still attractive. The passenger cabin was made with great care and with quality finishing materials such as leather, carbon fiber and wood. The dashboard is typical of the Alfa Romeo: two round clocks and the most important buttons on the steering wheel, even Start/Stop engine ignition button. No doubt the driver is the most important element in this car! The interface actually consists of two knobs that regulate the Alfa DNA selector (driving mode selection: Dynamic, Normal, All weather) and the infotainment system.

The model uses gasoline and diesel engines. The weakest gasoline version of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Business has capacity of 2 liters and 200 hp. The Veloce AWD Q4 version of the same capacity already offers 280 hp, but the brand also has a real sporting beast: the Quadrifoglio with a 510 hp, V6/2.9 l engine (!). The engine was developed in collaboration with Ferrari and provides a truly sporting experience - reaching 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds. The available versions include a 2.2-liter diesel engine.

The JTDM range from 160 hp in the basic Giulia version to 190 hp in the Super version and 210 hp in the Veloce version. The

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VOICE - CAR REVIEW

30

drive is transmitted to rear one or both axles (in versions marked Q4) via a sequential eight-step automatic transmission. The cheapest Alfa Romeo (Giulia Business) costs less than zl. 130,000, the most expensive version (Quadrifoglio) costs less than zl.

390,000.

Volvo S60: Scandinavian Style and Safety The Volvo S60 made its market debut in 2001. The current, second-generation car has been available since 2010. Despite the fact that the car retains a large surface area, it has a more dynamic and sporty design. Typical styling elements include the distinctive inverted T-shaped headlamps (Thor's hammer) as well as the cooler grille and sporty-looking air intake. The side line is more dynamic in the second generation thanks to the falling roof line and the rising rear window line. The interior refers to the body of the car with its “austerity.” The dashboard is easy to read and its main element is a large nine-inch touchscreen, located vertically in the middle panel, which supports the most important driving functions.

Volvo has been a synonym for safety for years. The S60 has an extensive City Safety system that not only avoids collisions with the preceding car but also actively protects pedestrians.

drive of all models is transmitted via an eight-speed Geartronic sequential automatic transmission. The cheapest version of the S60 T4 FWD with Momentum Pro basic equipment costs zl.

165,000. The most expensive, hybrid T8 AWD Polestar Engineered model – zl. 290,000.

Volkswagen Arteon: Artistic Vision of Volkswagen Technology The Arteon was first launched in 2017. It already has the word "Art" in its name and really stands out from other models in the segment in terms of its body design. The side line resembles a coupe car - with a sloping, curved roof, additionally emphasized by a chrome-plated window frame. The distinctive features of this car

Volvo only installs the new 2-liter Drive-E gasoline engines with different power ratings on the S60. The basic T4 unit has 190 hp power output and front axle drive. The T5 has 250 hp and one or both axle drive (AWD). The T6 has 310 hp and four-wheel drive. The most powerful Hybrid Plug - in the T8 AWD Polestar Engineered version (with factory-optimized performance) has power of 318 hp and an additional 87 hp generated by the electric motor. Acceleration to 100 km/h takes 4.4 seconds (!). The Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - CAR REVIEW

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include the front part of the body, which uses LED daytime running lights, and a chrome-plated radiator grille. The elegant silhouette of this liftback (the tailgate opens with the rear window) features side doors without classic window frames. The interior is very richly equipped, all the elements being related to driving comfort and traveler safety, and the quality of the finishing materials and their fit can serve as a model. The classic driver's cockpit is not only elegant but also clear and intuitive to operate.

Turbocharged gasoline and diesel engines are used to power these cars. The gasoline engines with a capacity of 2 l have different power - from 190 hp in the 2.0 version of the TSI R-Line, through the TSI / 200 hp 2.0 version, to 272 hp in the 2.0 version of the TSI R - Line 4 Motion (with drive for both axles). The diesel units are 2.0 TDI SCR 190 hp and 2.0 TDI SCR Bi-Turbo 4 - Motion 240 hp. The drive is transmitted to the front axle or both axles in the 4 Motion versions via dual clutch DSG automatic transmissions. The cheapest 2.0 TSI /200KM DSG version costs about zl. 155,000, the most expensive is the Arteon 2.0 TSI/ 272KM R-Line 4 Motion for zl. 215,000.

Peugeot 508: Lion's Claw and Futuristic Design The Peugeot 508 debuted in 2010. Last year saw the first show of the second generation of this car. The silhouette of the five-door liftback (interestingly, the first car with such bodywork in the history of the brand) has an exceptionally pleasing shape. The front lights are attention-grabbing, in richer versions made in LED technology. They consist of three square LEDs and a new lamp shade Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

which has taken on a sharper shape. The grille has been enlarged and a large emblem with a lion has appeared in the middle.

While the silhouette of the body does not shock, the car’s interior, and especially the driver’s cockpit, can surprise many. This applies mainly to people who have not come into contact with the new Peugeot models. The dashboard, named i-Cocpit after the manufacturer, is very futuristic. Its main elements include a panel of 12.3-inch virtual clocks placed far up toward the windshield, a multimedia touchscreen and a small, multifunctional steering wheel with an unusual flattened top and bottom shape. Ergonomics, technology and... style have become paramount for designers!

The equipment with all the elements influencing comfort and safety is complete.

The range includes a PureTech gasoline unit with a capacity of 1.6 liters and power of 180 or 225 hp, as well as two BlueHDI turbodiesels - the weaker 1.5 l with 130 hp and the stronger 2.0 l with 160 or 180 hp. The six-speed manual transmission is only available in the 1.5 l/130 hp diesel version. In the other versions, the drive to the front axle is transmitted via an eight-stage automatic transmission. The cheapest BlueHDI 1.5 l/130 hp model in the basic Active equipment version costs about zl. 125,000. The top-range BlueHDI 2.0 l/180 hp in the GT equipment version is more than zl. 180,000.

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Harlem Gospel Choir to Sing Prince’s Hits at Roma Theater I

nspirational power of music, the strongest black vocals and a very enthusiastic spectacle. The world famous Harlem Gospel Choir will give a concert at the Roma Musical Theater in Warsaw on November 25 with a repertoire created in tribute to one of the greatest figures of popular music - Prince.

Warsaw audiences will hear for the first time such hits of one of the world’s most innovative composers and vocalists as "Purple Rain", "Kiss", "Raspberry Beret", "Little Red Corvette", "Let's Go Crazy", "When Doves Cry " and many others, in new arrangements. The artists will also perform soul, jazz and blues classics of Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder.

The Harlem Gospel Choir is one of the United States' most prominent gospel choirs. The company comprises 40 of the best singers and musicians from Harlem and the New York Tri-State area For over two decades they have toured the globe thrilling audiences singing contemporary gospel with a touch of jazz and blues Harlem Gospel Choir have performed alongside superstars such as Bono, Diana Ross, The Gorillaz, Andre Rieu, Pharrell Williams and most recently with Traditional Music Orchestra, Lang Lang and at the 2018 Grammy Award Show with Sam Smith. They have performed for three presidents (President Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela), two Popes (Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI).

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

33

Rock-and-Roll Takes Stage at Syrena S

yrena Theater in Warsaw has recently put on stage a jukebox musical Rock of Ages built around classic rock anthems from the 1980s, especially from the famous glam metal bands of that decade.

Written by Chris D'Arienzo, directed

by Jacek Miko¸aczak, choreographed by Jaroslaw Staniek with music arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp, the musical features songs of such iconic bands as Styx, Twisted Sister, Poison and Europe.

The story is set in 1987 at the West Hollywood club, the Bourbon Room, the vibrant heart of the Sunset Strip and the essence of rock and roll music. When Sherrie, a small-town girl who wants to make it as an actress, arrives in town, she bumps into Drew, a Bourbon Room busboy with dreams of rock and roll stardom.

Drew convinces the club’s manager Dennis to hire Sherrie, and the stage seems set for their romance.

Meanwhile, the bar is set to be demolished and Dennis convinces rock star Stacee Jaxx, lead singer of megaband Arsenal, to play the band’s last show there, hopeful that the money raised will stop the building from being pulled down.

The musical’s score features favorite ‘80s rock songs including We Built This City, The Final Countdown, Here I Go Again, Can’t Fight this Feeling and I Want To Know What Love Is, played by a live band.

Rock of Ages opened April 7, 2009 on Broadway and played more than 2,300 performances earning five Tony Award nominations including Best Musical.

Warsaw cast includes Barbara Garstka and Dominika Guzek as

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Sherrie, Karol Drozd and Rafa∏ Szatan as Drew and Damian Aleksander and Tomasz Steciuk as Dennis.

34

Scented Sounds Pierre Guguen, the founder of L’Orchestre Parfum brand, who has recently launched a range of musical fragrances at Quality Missala perfumery in Warsaw, spoke to The Warsaw Voice.

You are a musician with a degree in marketing. How did you come up with the idea of establishing a perfume brand?

Music was the starting point and guided all the development of L’Orchestre Parfum. I have been experimenting with the different possibilities between music and perfume for more than seven years now and I have the feeling that these two arts obey the same laws. Perfume and music are invisible and ephemeral. They live for an instant through the air

and vanish. Both have this unique ability to create emotions. Sometimes they resurrect or create new memories.

After playing perfumed concerts in different cities in the world for a few years I understood that every perfume has its own rhythm, tone and vibration. This led me to question new possibilities: What if you could wear a song? Listen to a perfume? What is the real fragrance of music? These three questions triggered L’Orchestre Parfum.

I finally got my answers in the most beautiful Parisian music makers’ ateliers smelling guitars’ woods and trombones’ coppers. I wanted these five musical fragrances to be an olfactive alchemy between these two worlds: Music instrument raw materials melted with sublime perfume ingredients.

Then, I wanted these five olfactive souvenirs to become

35 ‘real’ music. I gave ‘carte blanche’ to five virtuosos asking them to translate each perfume in music. I am so proud of these five musical pieces, they are amazing and really enhance these perfume’s aura. This way L’Orchestre Parfum was born. A collaboration between artisans, perfumers and musicians.

What are “musical fragrances”, how can music be translated into a fragrance? Do these two arts meet in ingredients or perhaps packaging?

I feel that music and perfume are the same language. I had to think and compose pieces made of notes and chords. This is how you can turn music into fragrance both ways. Musician and perfumer speak the same language.

Was it difficult to find perfumers able to turn music into fragrant incarnations? How do you work with them?

Yes indeed, because this exercise was totally new in perfumery. I had to find perfumers who could understand the project’s essence and not be afraid of taking risks. The fragrances were created by two great perfumers, AnneSophie Behaghel and Amélie Bourgeois. The challenge was to reveal new facets of the most beautiful perfume ingredients thanks to music. For instance, enhance the clean, metallic facet of a rose by mixing it with the copper of a trombone. Or give a new vibration to Néroli thanks to flamenco guitar cedar woods. We have been working hard to get these five musical fragrances but it was so much fun and creatively speaking ‘refreshing’ to explore these new possibilities. It was like composing new exciting songs with a music band, when you feel something really special is coming out of these human exchanges.

What are the particular stages of creation of your musical perfumes? Does this process differ from other perfume brands?

The process is very unique and different from how other brands work. We elaborate our musical fragrances the way a band elaborates a new song which makes it very unique. My experience as a musician and perfume developer helps me to find the balance between these two arts.

My job is to seek inspiration, transmit it to the artists and give them all the space and freedom to express it themselves. This is our alchemy, and as for all alchemy, there are some secrets that can’t be told.

Your brand is more than just about a unique product that fills a gap in the market. You also have your own “perfume music band” and stage very special live polysensory shows. What is the public response to this project?

L’Orchestre Parfum is composed of five amazing virtuosos who turned fragrances into musical compositions. They all shared a special intimate feeling with the fragrance I proposed to them. In order to share this experience with the public, I asked them to play a live polysensory show as a band to launch the project and they accepted. That was fantastic.

The reaction of the audience was so amazing that we decided to keep on touring as a band in the most beautiful perfumeries in the world. Unfortunately, agendas and logistics don’t allow us to bring all the orchestra on tour but we have the luck to have Adrien Demont, an amazing designer with us who draws live while we share the music and fragrances.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

We did a tour in London last November and will propose the same experience in September across five countries. This amazing polysensory tour will start in Warsaw, and will take place from Brussels to Moscow. Music, perfume and drawing will be connected.

There are five fragrances in your range, how would you describe them?

All our musical fragrances are unique and very authentic because they recreate an emotion that I lived and will never forget. My aim is to give life again to these memories thanks to a new polysensory approach. The best way to discover them is to put the music on, close your eyes, and smell the fragrance.

Your concept combines three of your passions – music, perfumes and travelling. What is their sequence in the creation process, which comes first? A new place, a fragrance or a composition?

I decide to create a new fragrance only when I feel these three elements connected. For example, when I am at a concert and that I can get a strong olfactive signal in my mind because of a detail or something that maybe other people wouldn’t perceive. A strong emotion that runs in all my body. This is how it starts.

Why did you decide to sponsor the “Démos” social project?

Because I feel that music changed my life and I think that it brings happiness. I am convinced companies have a role to play and must bring positive effects around them. Even fragrance companies. I decided to put my energy on helping Démos social project.

Démos allows children, aged 8 - 12, without access to music education, to learn music and I think it is a fantastic project. After three-year program, half of these young virtuosos enter a music conservatory. Music can open doors, and create new possibilities. I feel that Démos and la Philarmonie give real keys to these young children and being part of that project is a true honor and a privilege.

We are currently working with Démos on a polysensory project that must remain confidential for now but we will tell you more soon.

36

What’s New on Warsaw’s Theater Billboards The

stage at 8 Marsza∏kowska Street in Warsaw, where one of Poland’s most avant-garde theaters - TR Warszawa operates, is one of the few theater stages in the Polish capital that survived the second World War and is still used for artistic purposes. The 80th anniversary of founding the Marsza∏kowska 8 stage, which falls in 2019, is an opportunity to look at the role this place has played in the history of the Polish theater.

The Marsza∏kowska stage was inaugurated in January, 1939 with the premiere of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. During the German occupation of Poland, the stage was taken over by the Deutsches Theater, playing operettas for the German audience. After the war, several theater groups operated at this address until the beginning of the 21st century, when Grzegorz Jarzyna's theater group started acting there under the name TR Warszawa. Since then, the stage has been a birthplace for a whole generation of artists who shaped the face of the contemporary Polish and European theater.

To mark the 80th jubilee, TR Warszawa organised in September a special concert of the greatest musical hits featured in TR Warszawa’s productions of recent seasons Though TR Warszawa is no musical theater, music plays an important role in their performances, with a full range of music genres and styles from punk and hip-hop to operetta hits and contemporary opera.

From October, the audience of TR Warszawa will be able to see a new version of the Puppenhaus. Treatment by Magda Fertacz, directed by J´drzej Piaskowski. The performance is an attempt to look at the problem of betrayal and collaboration from the perspective of personal memory. The script was inspired by the true story of Maria Malicka, an outstanding pre-war actress, for whom the Marsza∏kowska 8 stage was built. The artist, accused of collaborating with Germans during the WWII, was banned from acting in Warsaw after the war. (Performances on Oct. 23-24,26) The Dramatyczny Theater has already started a new season with premieres on all its three stages. A play titled The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman, named by the New York Times as one of

the most important plays in recent decades, opened on September 20 at Na Woli Stage. It tells the story of members of a theater group who hold a series of meetings with residents of Laramie, a town which witnessed a homophobic assassination of a student. The artists not only documented the course of the investigation for over a year but also the attitudes of the small community towards the events.

A week later, the new season was inaugurated by the Holoubka stage with the premiere of Turandot, a play about the eternal battle of the sexes, in which the director Ondrej Spis̆ák masterfully uses theatrical conventions, including commedia dell’arte and and even circus forms.

The third stage of the Dramatyczny Theater - Przodownik is staging Grochów, based on a short story by Andrzej Stasiuk and directed by Agnieszka Gliƒska. The play shows how the death of a friend becomes for the protagonist the beginning of an inner journey through the worlds they have been together.

The Powszechny Theater has opened the new season, with Damascus 2045, a dystopian performance based on

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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Nobilium will be the musical version of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, translated by prominent Polish poet Konstanty Ildefons Ga∏czyƒski with the music of Leszek Mo˝d˝er and directed by Anna SrokaHryƒ (performances Oct. 10,15, 16,17).

Omar Abusaada

the history of the ongoing war in Syria, written by Mohammad Al Attar, and directed by Omar Abusaada. It is a story „from the future” about what is happening to the collective memory after a years-long political and humanitarian crisis, when national identity is being built up over and over again on the ruins of the old order.

The premiere show of Capri - The Island of Fugitives, directed by Krystian Lupa, is scheduled at Powszechny Theater for October 12. Work in progress took place in June and heralded an epic story in which the birth of fascism and war becomes a reference for modern fears.

Last but not least, the Collegium Nobilium Theater, run by the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, has announced two new diploma performances of the 4th year students.

In the first one, Arrangements with Saints, i.e. Talking Images, by Agata Duda-Gracz, twenty lives of the saints were combined into a narrative confronting legends through the prose of life. The characters, known mainly from sacred images, tell the audience their stories that had led them to sainthood. Agata Duda-Gracz looks at them from today's perspective, while basing the whole performance on the poetry of ritual and holiday.

The second performance of the new season at Collegium Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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Janusz Biskowski

Musical Summer in Lower Silesia: Three of Poland’s Oldest Festivals

H

enryk Wieniawski was one of the most eminent Polish violinists and composers and his music has been resounding in Szczawno-Zdrój every year for 54 years. To commemorate the artist's stay and concerts in 1855 and 1857 in this charming Lower Silesian health resort, International Henryk Wieniawski Festivals are held there. At the same time, you can listen to other works written for the violin by Polish and European composers from different periods.

Musicians also willingly take advantage of the artistic achievements of Józef Wieniawski, Henryk's brother, and Irena Wieniawska Poldowski, the daughter of the festival's patron. This year the star of the festival was young Sara Dragan, a very talented Polish violinist, winner of many prestigious competitions around the world. Together with the Lower Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, she played Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto in D major Op. 77.

The inaugural concert was performed by outstanding Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, who was accompanied by the Poznaƒ Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. The artists

performed, among other works, Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor. An additional attraction of this year's festival was the opportunity to listen to a concert performed on an original violin that once belonged to Henryk Wieniawski himself. It was played by the current owner, Ilya Grubert, a professor at the Amsterdam Conservatory. hen Fryderyk Chopin came to Bad Reinerz, a fashionable German spa town, for treatment and was persuaded to give two charity concerts, he did not expect that the time would come when his compositions would resound here every year. The Fryderyk Chopin International Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój is the oldest piano festival in the world. Every year, leading pianists from all over the world come to the spa to play where Chopin himself once played. This year the festival was held for the 74th time.

“Recently, many great talents have appeared in world piano playing,” says Piotr Paleczny, the festival’s long-time artistic director. “True to tradition, these exceptional artists simply had to be at our festival. We heard such Duszniki debutants as Lucas Duo and Arthur Jussen, Alexander

W

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T

Marek Grotowski

Yasuko Furumi

Barbara Der´gowska

Kantorrov, Yasuko Furumi, Behzod Abduraimov, Aristo Sham, the Meccore String Quartet, George Harliono and Eva Gevorgyan. This is an exceptionally strong group of young artists, gifted with great talent and extraordinary artistic personalities. Polish pianism was represented by outstanding artists: Janusz Olejniczak, Tomasz Ritter, Joanna Marcinkowska and El˝bieta KaraÊ-Krasztel. As usual, brilliant Korean violinist SooBeen Lee, who had prepared her performance with Marcin Sikorski, delighted the audience.”

his summer, Stanis∏aw Moniuszko's music was heard in Kudowa-Zdrój for the 57th time. This year's International Moniuszko Festival took place in the year of the 200th anniversary of the birth of this great composer, popularly called the father of Polish national opera. On this occasion, the festival abounded in particularly attractive opera performances, chamber concerts, vocal recitals and fringe events. Among the festival’s great events was the inaugural performance by the Warsaw Chamber Opera, which presented two previously unknown operas by Moniuszko: Swiss Hut and Overnight in the Apennines to a libretto by Count Alexander Fredro.

Distinguished Polish artists performed, including great soprano Joanna Moskowicz and great actress Aleksandra NieÊpielak. The Musicae Antique Collegium Varsoviense Orchestra playing historical instruments was conducted by Stanis∏aw Rybarczyk, the festival's artistic director. The next event of the festival was the premiere of Moniuszko's operetta, considered lost: The Ideal, or the New Preciosa. The performance was staged in the Spa Park at the Pod Blachà Theater. The festival at the Zdrojowy Theater also featured vocal recitals by great Polish singers: Marcelina Beucher and Regina ˚urakowskaWunderlich. Another interesting event was the presentation of Moniuszko's songs in original language versions.

A concert by Piotr ¸ykowski, countertenor, and Piotr Zaleski on guitar, offered a new look at the compositions of the festival's patron in the context of Franz Schubert's songs.

Barbara Der´gowska

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Children’s Movies on Tour

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

41 A fun-packed film festival for kids kicked off in Poland late September treating audiences across the country to 154 of the best children’s movies recently made, in addition to music concerts, creative workshops and meetings with filmmakers and child actors.

In

the week of Sept. 21-29, the Sixth Kids Kino International Film Festival (MFF Kino Dzieci - in Polish), designed for kids aged 4-12, came to 22 Polish cities and towns with screenings held at over 20 theaters.

This year’s event opened with the screening of an animation The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily, directed by Lorenzo Mattotti, which had its premiere at this year's Cannes festival.

A total of nine feature-length movies had been selected for the festival’s main competition and all nine were screened with English subtitles at all the festival venues. Six of them were shown in Poland for the first time.

The competition entries included such animations as Jacob, Mimmi and The Talking Dogs, made in cut-out technique and directed by Edmunds Jansons; Solan and Ludvig - Mission to the Moon by Rasmus A. Sivertsen from Norway as well as feature films - Romy’s Salon, based on the novel by Tamara Bos, directed by Mischa Kamp or My Extraordinary Summer with Tess, a German-Dutch full-length debut of Steven Wouterlood, featured at Berlinale 2019.

Other films shown in the main competition were Operation Shadowman, a classic children's detective story directed by Grethe Boe,; Racetime - a Canadian animation based on the movie The Dog Who Stopped the War, directed by Benoît Godbout; Cattle Hill - a Norwegian animation directed by

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Lise I. Osvoll and Pettson and Findus - Findus Moves Out, a German production directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi, Warsaw and Wroclaw audiences could also see seven new films of exceptional genre and stylistic diversity in the film discovery competition, including A First Farewell directed by Lina Wong, winner of the Crystal Bear Award in the Generation Kplus section at Berlinale 2019 and named the best film at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2018.

Young viewers of Kids Kino FF 2019 were also introduced to the Italian cinema thanks to the festival’s national section Ciao Italia.

To pay tribute to the creator of Polish cinema for young viewers, Stanislaw J´dryka, who died this year, the organisers added a film retrospective section to the programme to show his best movies.

Another new section that appeared this year - The best films from the history of Kids Film Festival with the selection of the favourites of all festival editions The Kino Dzieci festival is organized by the New Horizons Association, an NGO that promotes film education.

42 The healing power of music The first season of the new stage of the Warsaw Chamber Opera Opera (WOK) - Basen Artystyczny (Artistic Pool) was inaugurated with an artistic event, unique on a global scale. On September 14, a musical Interrupted Silence premiered there - a touching story about the deaf people whose world starts to be penetrated by sound.

The author of the libretto which tells the true stories of patients cured of deafness is the world-famous otolaryngologist Professor Henryk Skar˝yƒski - the founder of the World Hearing Center (WHC) in Kajetany near Warsaw, where the world’s majority of hearing-enhancing operations are performed, and where Polish patients have access to the latest technologies as the first or the only ones on the globe.

New Model Army comes from Bradford, United Kingdom and was born in 1980. The band members are Justin Sullivan, the frontman and songwriter, Nelson, Ricky Warwick and Ed Alleyne-Johnson. Their musical style is mainly considered Pop, Punk, Rock, Indie, UK Post-Punk, New Wave and gothic rock.

The authors of such songs as "Vagabonds", "51st State" and "Small Town England", they have already sold over one and a half million records, although their singles have never hit the charts. "No Rest For The Wicked" and "Thunder and Consolation" are considered the best albums in the New Model Army’s discography, and their performances are acclaimed for perfected arrangements. In 2010, the group celebrated their thirtieth anniversary The band’s last album “From Here” was recorded in early 2019 on the tiny Norwegian island of Giske at the beautiful Ocean Sound Recordings studio and reflects the spectacular isolation of that environment yet has profound messages for the world we all live in and the times we are experiencing.

Skarzynski’s pioneering operations have restored to the world of sound many musically talented patients of WHC who, thanks to surgery and rehabilitation, not only can develop hearing and speech, but also pursue their musical passions. The musical illustrates how the latest scientific and music research achievements have been incorporated in the whole therapy process.

The music for the Interrupted Silence was written by an outstanding Polish composer and arranger Krzesimir D´bski. The musical is directed by an acclaimed stagedirector, Micha∏ Znaniecki while the sets were designed by Luigi Scoglio. Apart from professional artists, the musical features Skar˝yƒski’s patient artists.

Upcoming performances: November 17, 18, 19 WOK Basen Artystyczny, 6.Konopnicka St., Warsaw

The most romantic Italian music duo returns to Poland An Italian pop music duo Al Bano and Romina Power, accompanied by an orchestra, will perform at Warsaw’s

New Model Army to play at five Polish venues Post-punk favorites New Model Army will stage five concerts in Poland in October as part of their international tour promoting a brand new album. The band will make a stop at Warsaw’s Proxima club on October 16.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

43 Torwar arena on November 11 as part of their “Romantic Tour” around Poland. Their last year’s two Polish concerts sold out within minutes.

Formed in 1975 by then-married couple Albano Carrisi and Romina Power, the duo was highly successful in Italy and mainland Europe throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s. Their best known international hits include "Felicita", "Sharazan", "Tu, soltanto tu (Mi hai fatto innamorare)", "Ci sara", "Sempre sempre", and "Liberta!".

The duo primarily recorded in Italian but have also released a great number of records in Spanish and French.

They participated twice in Eurovision Song Contest and performed five times at San Remo Music Festival, winning in 1984 with the song "Ci sara". The couple also shot seven films, based on their songs, between 1967 and 1984. The two separated and divorced in 1999, but reunited professionally in 2013.

Chris de Burgh to bring three anniversary gigs to Poland

last composition achieved No. 1 status in 47 countries and has now sold over 8 million copies. To this day, it remains one of the most played songs on the planet.

De Burgh signed his first contract with A&M Records in 1974. His debut album “Far Beyond These Castle Walls,” was released in 1975, followed by his second record in the same year, “Spanish Train and Other Stories” and an extensive concert tour which established his fan base.

"The Gateway" released in 1982 turned out to be a great breakthrough in his career reaching number 30 in the UK charts and number 43 in the US, thanks to the single "Don't Pay the Ferryman."

The musician had an across-the-board success with the ballad "The Lady in Red" in late 1986. The single became a number one hit in the UK (number three in America) and its accompanying album, “Into the Light,” reached number two in the UK (number 25 in the US).

The follow-up recording “Flying Colours,” entered the British charts at number one upon its 1988 release. Today it is the singer’s best-selling album.

In 1995, the artist recorded the album in collaboration with the "Beautiful Dreams" symphony orchestra. It includes de Burgh’s most popular compositions. Over the years, the musician remained very active touring around the world.

Between 1996 and 2009 he released five albums, all with new songs.

Italian pop star to sing in Warsaw Eros Ramazzotti, a best-selling Italian singer and songwriter with a distinctive voice and a wide-ranging pop and rock style will perform at the Torwar arena in Warsaw on October 20 as part of his 2019 world tour promoting his new album “Vita ce n’?”, which entered the Italian album chart at number 1. The Warsaw audience will have the opportunity to enjoy also his greatest hits of the last three decades.

Ramazzotti is popular in most European countries, and throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Since 1984, the

Warsaw will be one of the three Polish cities the legendary Irish singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh will visit in November as part of his Classic Albums Tour 2019 to celebrate his 70th birthday as well as two of his most loved albums - Into the Light and Moonfleet.

Both records encompass 36 tracks and a combined running time of 122 minutes of music, which the artist will perform in concert with a full band.

This will be his third visit to Poland in his 30-years long career which has resulted in 18 albums with sales approaching 50 million worldwide and more than 2,500 live concerts around the globe.

The Warsaw audience will hear during the November 24 concert such favorites as "Don't Pay the Ferryman", "Spanish Train", "Patricia the Stripper", "High on Emotion", "A Spaceman Came Traveling" and "The Lady in Red." The Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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44 artist has released 11 studio albums, one EP, three compilation albums, three live albums, and 37 singles. He has sold over 60 million records in his 30-year career. His repertoire includes duets with artists such as Cher, Tina Turner, Andrea Bocelli, Joe Cocker, Julio Iglesias and Luciano Pavarotti.

Ramazzotti began his recording career in the early 1980s in association with the DDD label. He made his commercial debut in 1982 with the one-off single “Ad un Amico,” (To a Friend) His big break came in 1984 when he won Newcomer of the Year at the Sanremo Music Festival with his song “Terra Promessa” (Promised Land), which later became a great hit and led to his release of his full-length album debut, “Cuori Agitati“ (Restless Hearts) in 1985.

His second album, “Nuovi eroi“ (New Heroes) in 1986, which proved to be an even bigger success, was followed

by“In certi momenti“ (Some Moments) in 1987. With the release of each album, his popularity soared, and he soon became an international star.

In 1991 Ramazzotti made his first world tour. In 1993 he took his career to the next level with “Tutte Storie“ (All Stories), the first of his albums to be released in Spanish (as Todo Historias) as well as Italian.

In 1994 he signed a BMG International record contract, another pivotal step in building his international fan base.

Many of Ramazzotti’s subsequent albums, such as “9“ (2003),“Calma Apparente“ (2005; Apparent Calm), and“E2“ (2007) topped the international charts. Later notable recordings included “Noi“ (2012; We) and “Perfetto“ (2015; Perfect).

Best of Student Theater

Arts from Ukraine and “Pinocchio’s Machine (You Are Not One of Us)” brought by Theatre Academy in Rome Sofia Amendolea.

Poland will be represented by the students of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Cracow who will put on stage a play “What’s eating Gilbert Grape.”

The festival program will feature a number of accompanying events including theater workshops.

The ITSelF festival, one of the largest and most prestigious events of its kind in the world, has been organized every second year since 2002 by the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theater Academy in Warsaw with support of Warsaw City Hall and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

In previous years, the festival was attended by over 50 theater schools from different countries, drawing thousands of visitors from across the globe.

Theater school students from 11 countries will stage their performances during the tenth ITSelF International Theater School Festival in Warsaw October 3 - 8.

Among the plays that have qualified for the main festival competition are “Romeo and Juliet” brought by the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts Kr. Sarafov from Bulgaria, “Process” staged by the Soore Art University from Tehran, Iran or “Paderewski! Paderewski! Paderewski!” performed by the students of the University of New Mexico from USA. August Everding School from Germany will bring to Warsaw a performance titled “Close up,” while Russian State Institute of Performing Arts will show “Our class.”

Other competition entries include “The way to fairytale” staged by I.P Kotlyarevsky Kharkiv National University of

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Korean Masterpieces on Show at the National Museum The National Museum in Warsaw has put together, in partnership with the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, the largest presentation of Korean art in Poland to date.

An exhibition titled “Splendour and Finesse. Spirit and Substance in Korean Art” will open on October 11 and will be on view till January 12, 2020.

The project celebrating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Korea, is envisioned as a response to the “Polish Art:An Unduring Spirit” exhibition staged in Seoul in 2015.

The Warsaw exhibition features artefacts spanning millennia, from pre-

history all the way to the end of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897).

Comprising Buddhist sculptures, scroll paintings, fine ceramics and exquisite textiles, alongside works of metal, lacquer and stone, enabling viewers to experience the wealth of Korea’s artistic tradition and Far Eastern beauty.

The objects showed at the exhibition come from the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, which houses the greatest collection of artefacts from the region. The exhibition strives to show a different side of Korea - generally associated with modern technology and popular culture in Poland - as a country with a long history going back to antiquity and a tradition of excellent art.

China Symphony Orchestra tours Poland China Symphony Orchestra will give a concert at Warsaw’s Palladium Theater on January 3, as part of its 2019/2020 concert tour around Poland. A total of over 50 Chinese artists will perform on one stage The orchestra is made up of worldrenowned and accomplished musicians who have won prizes both nationally and internationally. The concert will feature outstanding Chinese opera singers Chaoran Zuo, Erni Deng, Linhao Qin, Yang Liu and Yuexin Liu, who have performed on the most prestigious international stages in Asia and Europe.

The program includes a vast repertoire of traditional classical music, combined with Neapolitan songs as well as opera and operetta arias, including several special Chinese arias specially arranged for the orchestra.

In China, instrumental ensembles have been known for a long time, however, large orchestras have been founded only in the last few decades.

thanks to the meeting of East and West cultures.

The concert will also show the rich tradition of Chinese music which varies greatly between

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

provinces, featuring many trends and traditions ranging from unique ethnic art to innovative contemporary stylizations. It will also be an opportunity to hear traditional Chinese instruments, including hulusi or cucurbit flute popular among ethnic minorities living in the province of Yunnan.

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Polish bridge players totally dominated the World Youth Championships

Diamonds are the Girl’s Best Friends…

But

also clubs, hearts and spades, as proved Joanna Zalewska from Warsaw, who has just won the Joan Gerard Youth Award for the best U26 woman bridge player. Where did it happen? In Croatia, last August, during the 6th World Youth Championship in Opatija. Each of the attending players, NPCs, coaches, WBF championship officials and members of the staff can nominate one Junior, one Youngster, one Girl to receive the Joan Gerard Youth Award. No one can nominate players from his own country. Diamonds were our U-26 women team’s friends, as when Joanna got A,K,Q,J,8,4 in spades, her partner, Zosia Ba∏dysz, picked up a singleton there, but

World Champions are: Tomasz Kie∏basa, Kacper Kopka, Jakub Bazyluk and Krzysztof Cichy (nonplaying captain is Marek Markowski)

A,K,Q,9,7,3,2 in diamonds, where Joasia had 10,6. They made a slam!

Polish players dominated the whole event, as we won also in U-26

Individual (Marcin Sobczak), U-21 Individual (1. Krzysztof Cichy, 2.

Patryk Patreuha), U-21 Triathlon (1.

Kacper Kopka, 2. Krzysztof Cichy, 3. Tomasz Kie∏basa) and U-16 Triathlon (1. Kacper Kuflowski, 2.

Micha∏ Stasik). Bridge triathlon included a teams, a pairs and an individual event.

Not enough? Let’s go on: our team U-21 won the gold medal! Our gold World Champions are: Tomasz Kie∏basa, Kacper Kopka, Jakub Bazyluk and Krzysztof Cichy (nonplaying captain is Marek Markowski). Want more? Here you are: silver U-16 went to Franek Kurlit, Kacper Kuflowski, ¸ucja Ciborowska, Konrad Ciborowski, ¸ukasz Kasperczyk and Micha∏ Stasik with their coach Marcin Kuflowski.

It starts to look like a register, so let’s change a little. The kids (sorry, young ladies and gentlemen) are simply great! I met some of them, so let me tell you that they not only play bridge. Tomek Kie∏basa at the age of 15 already was a student (won all the school olympics ) - theoretically, as he has just passed the secondary school exams and starts IT-mathematics studies. KrzyÊ Cichy - logistics and media administration, Kacper Kopka (he has it under his skin, as his father is a bridge coach) hopes to be a profi, but for the time-being aims at SGH (Warsaw School of Economics) and Jakub Bazyluk will study math (first ecology, for a while). Joanna Zalewska (final exams this year) not only got a silver from last year Women Teams Championship in China and this year Award, but also is a two times world Champion in Dance and plans to become a jetpilot. Good luck, crossing our fingers!

All the kids are modest, friendly and optimistic. For some of them the first bridge teacher was Piotr Dybicz from Staszic secondary school in Warsaw. He claims that “the tourna-

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - EVENT

47

U-16 Silver Medalists: Franek Kurlit, Kacper Kuflowski, ¸ucja Ciborowska, Konrad Ciborowski, ¸ukasz Kasperczyk and Micha∏ Stasik with their coach Marcin Kuflowski (left)

ment was very tough, with very strong teams from China and European top players, but Polish young players were very well prepared and in the highest spirit”.

I must admit that bridge is a real booster for school kids. As Agata Kowal’s from Cracow test results prove, children who play bridge after one year of playing dominate all others in all subjects. Why is it so? Because bridge helps develop many skills and you even do not notice it. What skills, you can ask.

The team spirit, responsibility, cooperation, logic thinking, planning, decision making under the pressure of time, adaptability to constantly changing conditions, stress resistance, consistency. All together it is good, isn’t it?

Do not worry that the kids only play bridge, sitting days and nights at a table. They don’t. Of course, they spend a lot of time training, but they also travel a lot (yes, bridge tournaments), take part in summer and winter bridge camps, have side hobbies. During a camp they play, I admit (I saw it last summer), but they also play volleyball, basketball, football, they swim, have many excursions. One particular thing is that for example tennis players and swimmers often recall with anger that when they were very young parents made them train and even forced

them to wake up (too) early to practice. With bridge it is different. They crave for it. They talk about it a lot, they are happy to play! I have seen a 6-7-8 years old kids from Mirka Stachura’s group (Mi∏kowice), who after 40 boards were disappointed that is it over! Good start, although a bit early, maybe leading to results of Micha∏ Klukowski, the youngest World Champion ever, also from Poland. Now he is 23, but the story goes that started at 4. Where does it lead? Maybe to the top list, where Poles dominate? Last Spingold, where 98 teams entered the tourn ament in Las Vegas, had an almost all-Polish final: team Blass included three Polish-born players

All-Polish podium in U-21 Triathlon: Krzysztof Cichy (silver), Kacper Kopka (gold) and Tomasz Kie∏basa (bronze) (Jacek Kalita, Jacek Pszczo∏a, Micha∏ Nowosadzki), while Zimmermann lined up with three Poles (Piotr GawryÊ, Micha∏ Klukowski and Krzysztof Martens). Notwithstanding their current allegiances, by birth, we had seven Poles, seven French, four Americans, two Dutch, two Canadians, one Norwegian and one Swiss in the semifinals, a “pretty diversified and cosmopolitan bunch” as IBPA bulletin states.

As you see, there are no boundaries in bridge, no age limits, no education limits, no country limits.

Only grand slam in no trumps is the limit. Try it, learn it, play - bridge is open to everybody!

Ma∏gorzata Maruszkin

U-21 Gold Medalists in pairs competition Tomasz Kie∏basa and Kacper Kopka

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

VOICE - GREAT GEAR

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Avant-Garde Weapon Against Wrinkles

New York from Sapphire Collection by Widian / AJ Arabia a new oriental-woody perfume for women and men, is a tribute to "city that never sleeps".

With hints of bright citrus, spicy florals, and musky woods it positively vibrates with the extraordinary energy of the Big Apple.

Its top notes are bergamot, yellow mandarin, pink pepper, lavender, coriander and juniper; middle notes are geranium, orris, rose, akigalawood, jasmine, patchouli and caramel; base notes are haitian vetiver, white musk, white amber, ambergris, olibanum, tonka bean and tobacco.

Hydrogen-Rich Water at Hand The FRAME D5 device by an Italian skincare brand Frame Cosmetics is a smart BPA-free bottle specially designed to easily convert mineral into hydrogen-supplemented water. Once the device is charged, via usb cable, you can fill it up with still mineral or boiled tap water.

Within five minutes your water will be hydrogenated.

The device can be powered by a power adapter, computer or mobile power pack, convenient for use at home or on the go. www.missala.pl

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Compiled by Marzena Robinson

The Scent of Urban Jungle

Inhibit High Definition Patches from luxury beauty brand Natura BissĂŠ are innovative trans epidermal patches able to markedly improve the penetration of active ingredients into skin.

Made with Octamioxyl and conotoxin to inhibit the facial distortions that are most likely to cause fine lines and wrinkles, they also feature copper and collagen peptides to plump up, tighten and firm the skin.

Designed for different areas of the face, this advanced beauty tool is made with micro-needles which penetrate the skin where they then dissolve. Completely painless, they are a non-invasive treatment for those who prefer not to use microinjections as well as for those who wish to enhance their benefits.

An essential solution for achieving both immediate and long-term results.

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Olympus 10X42 PRO

The smart plug PP-W162 is a current socket controlled by a mobile application. Just connect them to the power supply and Wi-Fi network in your home to gain new possibilities.

After installing the SmartDGM application on a smartphone (Android or iOS) and configuring it, the user gains full control over the devices connected to the socket - for example, lamps, air conditioners, audio equipment or kitchen equipment. A very useful feature is the measurement of energy consumption, so we can control the energy costs of our home devices. In addition, we can create automation and scenarios based on the time schedule or weather to which our application has access.

The socket can be managed remotely from anywhere in the world, even during a holiday trip or on the way home from work.

MiVue™ M760D Dual cams use Sony’s premium STARVIS™ CMOS and are equipped with F1.6 large aperture. Through Mio’s professional image adjustment, the colours are saturated without distortion. Under the dim lights of the starry sky, every detail is displayed more accurately in comparison to be seen with the eye. One-button emergency recording lock file can be easily activated. Main device has a builtin GPS positioning system - able to calibrate time automatically and record cruising tracks.

Camera has also a built-in WiFi with point-to-point transmission function. Dash cam can be easily connected to mobile phone to get liveview, downloading and sharing videos.

Ricoh D8600 Ricoh's super-sized Interactive Whiteboard D8600 is the perfect presentation tool for conferences, seminars, exhibitions and board meetings. With its stunning 4K display and multi-touch sensing providing a more immersive experience, your audience will be spellbound. The D8600 is ready in an instant. And, with its intuitive touchscreen simplifying operation, you can focus on your presentation and collaboration with onsite and remote members.precise cut-outs for speakers and sensors.

Autumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

Compiled by Bartosz Grzybiƒski

Smart Plug

by SmartDGM

Designed for nature lovers, PRO binoculars feature multiple lenses and prisms that deliver crystal-clear, ultra-bright, high-resolution images even in low light. Advanced coating technologies ensure excellent transmission across the entire field of view and give a realistic image with more natural colors. The classic OM-D design and ergonomic controls ensure maximum comfort and stability even during hours of observation.

VOICE - IN BRIEF

50 regarding screen size and embedded memory capacity: In the second quarter of 2019 already over 58% of devices sold in Poland had a screen diagonal of at least 6 inches, and 21% were equipped with at least 128 GB of memory," notes Marek Kujda, IDC analyst.

Toshiba Returns to Poland

10 Years of Bosch eBike Systems Bosch eBike Systems was founded in 2009 as a startup within the Bosch Group. Its development was possible thanks to support in the company and the use of battery technology from wireless power tools as well as electric motors, electronics and sensors used in the automotive sector. From the very beginning, the group has focused on global development. In 2014 the company opened its own branches in North America and Asia, following its launch on European markets. Since 2017 the company has also been active in the Japanese market.

Today Bosch eBike Systems is one of the leading manufacturers of e-bike drives in the premium segment. More than 70 wellknown bicycle brands trust "e-powered by Bosch" products.

"Ten years ago, we started with a handful of employees who believed in electric bicycles and were enthusiastic and committed to the development of the project. But none of us expected this to be a success story," says Claus Fleischer, CEO of Bosch eBike Systems.

Slight Increase in Smartphone Sales in Q2 2019 According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), in the second quarter of 2019 there was a minimal increase in smartphone sales in Poland. Nearly 2.2 million devices were delivered to the market, which means an increase in sales by 0.9% as compared to the same quarter of 2018. For comparison, global smartphone sales decreased to 333.2 million units, i.e. by 2.3% compared to the second quarter of 2018.

"The Polish market has become a mature market, hence the year-on-year increase in smartphone sales is already small. On the other hand, customer expectations are growing, for example

Toshiba, a pioneer in the notebook segment, is returning to global markets under a new brand name, DynaBook.

Toshiba mobile computers with the DynaBook logo will also be present in Poland, thanks to NTT System’s distribution. Already in the last days of August, the Polish manufacturer and distributor of computer hardware expanded its notebook portfolio to include DynaBook models from well-known families: Satellite Pro, Portage and Tecra (the same names were once used in the Toshiba range).

"Toshiba was a market legend for mobile solutions, synonymous with high quality, performance and reliability, yet at the same time offering aesthetics and competitive pricing. That's what DynaBook's hardware is like, so we expect it to be appreciated in our market very soon," says Bartosz Rumak, product manager at NTT System. "Among business users, the most popular are the Protage Z30 and Tecra A50. For the most demanding customers, there are the Tecra X40 and Portage X30 models," adds Rumak.

Vienna House Andel’s ¸ódê Celebrates Jubilee

ment and cultural center and houses 277 rooms and suites, the Delight restaurant offering fusion cuisine with strong regional accents, Oscar's Bar with a Mariusz Waras m-city mural, and the SkyFLY Bar on the top floor of the building, where guests can enjoy a panorama of the city. ¸ódê can also be admired from the glass swimming pool in a converted 19th-century fire-fighting water tank. It is part of the SkySPAce SPA and Fitness Center which, apart from the swimming pool, a gym and a fitness room, also features saunas and exclusive treatments.

"I am glad that we managed to create a place where our guests have felt at home for 10 years, a place that is at the same time an artistic space, a venue for meetings and for relaxation,” Anna Olszyƒska, the hotel’s director, proudly emphasizes.

Another Increase in Porsche Sales in Poland For the first time in the history of Porsche, sports car deliveries to Poland exceeded 1,000 units in the first half of 2019. Buyers received 1,049 vehicles.

The strongest sales impulse was provided by the new Macan, which found 501 buyers (+73.4%). The make’s results in Poland are in line with the global trend. In the first half of the year, Porsche increased its deliveries worldwide by 2%, to 133,484 cars, and the leaders of the ranking list of the most popular model series are the Macan and Cayenne SUVs. "On a global scale, Poland not only follows this positive trend, but also stands out and is one of the leaders in terms of growth - this year over 18% more Porsche cars were registered in Poland compared to the first half of 2018. We are glad that more and more Polish fans of sports motoring decide to make their dreams come true by buying a Porsche car,” says Wojciech Grzegorski, Porsche brand director in Poland.

Compiled by Bartosz Grzybiƒski

In August 2019, the Vienna House Andel's ¸ódê hotel celebrated its 10th anniversary. The hotel welcomed its first guests on May 15, 2009. The hotel is part of one of the largest and most valued revitalization projects in Europe. It combines historical architecture with modern trends in design. The building is located right next to the Manufaktura entertainAutumn 2019, The Warsaw Voice magazine Limited Edition

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