President: We want Polish space market activity to account for 3% of global turnover

The president emphasised that the most important thing was for Poland to participate in the conquest of space. "Conquest of space always means a technological race" - said Andrzej Duda. He added that this would be an extremely difficult competition.

"We want highly developed economy for Poland, we want to produce highly processed goods, we want to be an innovative economy. The space industry and everything associated with it should be an extremely important part of it" - said Andrzej Duda during the conference "Technologies of the Future. Space Industry" held at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.

The president pointed out that the conquest of space poses "the most advanced challenges" for the market. "I am proud to see Polish research institutes, Polish research and development units, Polish companies that are not only ambitious but, above all, very successful in this race" - he emphasised.

President Duda expressed his satisfaction that Poland has been a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2012, that we have the Polish Space Agency and the Polish space strategy. He emphasised that it was extremely necessary for our country to combine science with business. "These R&D activities with what Polish entrepreneurs are able to achieve, and thus also promote Poland in foreign markets" - he said.

He stressed that such projects should be "developed as much as possible". "We have an ambitious goal - in accordance with our space strategy, we want Polish activity to account for 3 percent of the existing trade in this global space market. I hope that this goal will be achieved" - he said.

Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology Jadwiga Emilewicz, who attended the conference, reminded that our tradition in the field of space policy goes "very far back".

"One could say that the first strategy for space policy was written by Nicolaus Copernicus 475 years ago, when he published +De revolutionibus orbium coelestium+ .45 years ago the first Polish research instrument was on Copernicus 500, and 40 years ago the first Pole took part in a space mission" - she reminded.

Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology noted that although the Polish contribution to space exploration was large, the awareness of Poland`s presence in space still seemed insufficient.

"There are over 80 Polish-produced research instruments, manufactured and developed by Polish researchers, in the Solar System, which means that there is a Polish flag on almost every planet" - she pointed out.

According to Emilewicz, "the global turnover in the space sector is estimated at over 330 billion dollars", and the proportion of these expenditures is still growing.

Therefore, she said, investing in the space sector is something that "we are taking very seriously, as an element of the Strategy for Responsible Development, so that the Polish economy can become less imitative and more innovative".

Emilewicz pointed out that today it would be difficult to find a more innovative sector than the space industry. "We hope that we can also actively participate in these changes, this transformation. That is why we have prepared a space policy strategy (...) We assume that by the year 2030 the Polish space sector will account for 3% of the global space sector turnover" - she said.

According to the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology, our country is investing in the space sector. "When Poland joined the ESA, there were no more than 60 business entities that referred to themselves as representatives of the space sector. Today, there are over such 300 entities" - she reminded.

Emilewicz said that the challenges facing the industry included clarifying the development directions in the context of the changing approach to space policy in the European Commission. "The EC is making the space policy a very important instrument, probably one of the financially richest in the next financial perspective" - she noted. (PAP)

author: Magdalena Jarco

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