The Challenge of Rapidly Improving Transport Infrastructure in Poland

Abstract

Following many years of underinvestment, renovating and building new transport infrastructure is an important policy priority that would increase labour mobility and improve Poland’s competitiveness. This goal is all the more feasible given that the country is going to benefit from substantial EU structural and cohesion funds over the programming period 2007-13. On top of the limited timeframe for the absorption of EU funds, the European soccer championship that Poland is going to co-host with Ukraine in 2012 imposes an additional time constraint on many investment projects. The country is heavily reliant on road transport but is lacking an efficient high-speed road network. It needs important renovation investments both in the rolling stock and infrastructure network of the railway sector. It also faces the challenges of revitalising maritime transport as well as extending and upgrading airport facilities to cope with the fastest growing air market in Europe. However, many obstacles remain and hinder the implementation of investment plans and thus need to be resolved rapidly. From the macroeconomic perspective, these are related to rising prices of scarce labour and intermediate inputs, while from the microeconomic standpoint the main difficulties lie in the area of the regulatory framework underlying the provision of physical infrastructure. Le defi d'une amelioration rapide des infrastructures de transport en Pologne Apres des annees de sous-investissement, la renovation des infrastructures de transport existantes et la construction d’infrastructures nouvelles representent une importante priorite d’action en vue d’accroitre la mobilite de la main-d’oeuvre et d’ameliorer la competitivite de la Pologne. Cet objectif est d’autant plus realisable que le pays va beneficier d’un volume substantiel de fonds structurels et de fonds de cohesion de l’UE au cours de la periode de programmation 2007-13. Outre que l’utilisation des fonds europeens est soumise a un calendrier restreint, le championnat d’Europe de football que la Pologne organisera conjointement avec l’Ukraine en 2012 impose une contrainte temporaire supplementaire sur de nombreux projets d’investissement. Lourdement tributaire du transport routier, la Pologne est depourvue d’un reseau autoroutier efficace. Dans le secteur ferroviaire, le materiel roulant comme le reseau d’infrastructure necessitent d’importants investissements de renovation. De surcroit, il faut revitaliser les transports maritimes mais aussi agrandir et moderniser les installations aeroportuaires afin de faire face a une croissance du marche des transports aeriens sans equivalent en Europe. Cependant, de nombreux obstacles subsistent et entravent la mise en oeuvre des plans d’investissement ; il faut donc y porter remede sans tarder. Sur un plan macroeconomique, ces freins resident dans la hausse des prix de ressources limitees en main-d’oeuvre et en intrants intermediaires, tandis que d’un point de vue microeconomique, les principales difficultes tiennent au cadre reglementaire qui sous-tend la fourniture d’infrastructures physiques.

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/236343486436

• https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/the-challenge-of-rapidly-improving-transport-infrastructure-in-poland_5kzc3f2v1ghf.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fpaper%2F236343486436&mimeType=pdf

• https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/the-challenge-of-rapidly-improving-transport-infrastructure-in-poland_236343486436,

https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/ecoaaa/640-en.html,

https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:640-en,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/1483665708