"Rzeczpospolita" daily published the first article in a series of articles related to the "Business Without Borders" ("Biznes bez granic") project. Each Wednesday, throughout the next 6 weeks, Citi Handlowy experts will share their knowledge and experience on corporate banking solutions for businesses facing the challenge of expanding the scale of their operation and going global. In the first part of the series we can read about international expansion of Polish companies

According to Citi surveys, within two years to come 39 percent of Polish companies are planning international expansion. One in five companies considers this its most significant strategic challenge to be faced within the next two years. According to the survey, companies that enter new markets need advice and services by banks that allow them finance management from anywhere in the world. Up until the present moment, Polish companies doing business abroad have been mostly using international payments and FX. However, next year, as part of their further expansion, they are planning to use e.g. credit lines and factoring.
In an extensive interview for "Rzeczpospolita", Czesław Piasek, Managing Director and Head of the Global Transaction Services Division at Citi Handlowy says: "Polish companies seek expansion possibilities in new markets and there are several reasons behind that. Firstly, an ever more stabilized situation in Polish and European market reinforces confidence that people have not had for several years. Secondly, the situation is that, on the one hand, banks seek possibilities of providing added value to companies being their clients, and, on the other hand, these companies seek new markets to increase their revenues. I cannot help but get the impression that a certain era when the companies were striving solely at boosted operational efficiency, through cost structure improvement or process centralization, has come to an end. Now, they also have to search for revenue growth possibilities and, from that perspective, the year 2014 will be a breakthrough for corporate banking, and in particular for transactional banking, where we have a quite large product commoditization and banks will try to extend the scope of cooperation with companies in that area", says Czesław Piasek, adding the following: Our companies, which we provide services to under the Emerging Market Champions program, most frequently aim at markets that they know well, i.e. firstly, those located not far off, such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, and when it comes to those more distant countries e.g. United Kingdom. However, ever more frequently more exotic destinations, such as India or Dubai are selected. Hence, we want to create an initiative that will facilitate the development of Polish companies in Dubai and it is supposed to be the door to the market encompassing 2.5 billion consumers, as Dubai is where both the Middle East and Africa conduct trade operations. That is why Dubai offers companies an opportunity to enter more oriental markets, with assistance from global banks, such as Citi Handlowy.

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