This is not the first time we meet, Doctor, and a whole range of publications appeared recently in Poland, regarding yourself and the investments you make. Many people surely wonder, in an usual manner, what is the recipe for success like yours.
“There is no substitute for hard work”. I have spoken about it numerous times, that one can have a groundbreaking idea, financial capabilities, but it is difficult to expect positive outcomes when the human factor is lacking.
You live in Poland since you turned seventeen and I know how strong your connection with this country is, how much you care for its good name and prosperity in nearly every aspect of your life.
This is true. I am strongly attached to Poland. My wife is Polish, my children have Polish citizenship, we speak Polish at home.
I always pursue to engage Polish companies into collaboration with my projects, unfortunately it is not easy. While building my plant in Abu Dhabi, Gulf Fluor, I did my best to engage Polish companies. One example could be the construction of two sets of equipment (there are 300 of such at the plant altogether), which could have been made by a Polish company but eventually it was the Norwegian NLI to provide those. As it later turned out, they had only prepared the design that was carried out by the Izotechnik company from Płock.
Why was it so?
The issue was the detailed executive design, the preparation of which was crucial to the construction of the equipment, but which could not have been done by the Polish company. It was designed by Norwegians.
During the last 10 years of your stay in Abu Dhabi you have actively supported the interests of Poland and Polish entrepreneurs. You are one of the founders and, for the last 5 years, a chairman of the Polish Business Group in Abu Dhabi.
Correct. Poland needs such initiatives. Our country has much to offer, there is a lot to be proud of.
Back in 2006, when we established the Polish Business Group and visited chambers of commerce in the Emirates, Poland was mostly associated with Bulgaria and Romania. There was hardly anything widely known about Poland, but it is different now. We must, however, bear in mind that the United Arab Emirates is a peculiar country, where out of 9 million citizens 8 million are foreigners. This enormous rotation of people enforces constant information and advertising efforts, the establishment of new contacts. Currently more and more people recognize Poland and know what is there to find in our country. This fact makes me happy.
What does the activity of the PBG consist in?
The main scope of our activities is the promotion of Poland and Polish businesses in the Emirates, as well as advertising the Emirates in Poland. We are particularly focused on supporting Polish companies, but we are also interested in legislative solutions that are to eliminate obstacles for all the entrepreneurs willing to conduct business relationships and deal with the Emirates. There are not many Polish companies in the United Arab Emirates, roughly 25. There are 3,000 Polish people living in the UAE.
The problem lays in the attitude of Polish companies towards foreign investors, especially the Arab Emirates. What may be the reason?
It is sadly caused by the lack of knowledge and believing in clichés. There still is a deeply rooted amongst people in Poland image of a dim-witted but filthy rich Arab, willing to buy anything and at the price 50-100% higher than normally. 99% of companies, when preparing an offer for the UAE markets, raise their prices only due to this belief that could not be further from reality and market conditions. We are rarely aware, that an Arab in traditional clothing may indeed be a person who received a higher education from the best foreign universities, such as Harvard or Yale, knows the world, is fluent in American and British standards, because the whole world visits his country on a daily basis.
The business culture is different than our conditions, this is why it is so important to learn it. A false approach towards a prospective partner may render even the most lucrative collaboration impossible.
I know that the actions you take are society-oriented, but those are not everything you are involved in. I have learned about your philanthropic activity which, as it turns out, is but occasional and became a solid part of your life.
I am a Rotarian since 1999. In 2005 and 2006 I was a president of the Rotary Club Warszawa City.
Being a Rotarian is, in my belief, a mission and a way of living. It is connected with being unconditionally helpful towards others, but it is teamwork that matters and leads to better results. We carried out numerous missions as well in Poland as abroad and trying to mention them all would be an impossibility. There are several actions dedicated to children, such as providing day care centers with, among many others, equipment for interactive learning. This project, in the framework of which as many as 20 day care centers where equipped by us, aims to prevent social exclusion and level out differences. We purchase medical equipped for hospitals and disabled people, organize first aid trainings for children and teenagers and pursue various other tasks.
The media mostly informs about how much the plant cost and how big your input was. I, however, ask – what is Gulf Fluor?
Thank you for this question.
It is a chemical complex. It consists of five plants on the area of 300,000 square meters that produce sulphuric acid, aluminium fluoride, calcium sulfate and – the most important of all – hydrogen fluoride used in the production of refrigerant gases, Teflon, lithium batteries, computer chips or Uranium enrichment. The complex employs 200 people, all of whom have at least ten years of experience working with hydrogen fluoride. Aluminium fluoride that comes from the Gulf Fluor is a world-class product with the chemical purity of at least 94%, which puts us on the first place when compared to the results of other producers world-wise. Obtaining such low amount of impurities was made possible through investing in the most modern equipment that treats impurities as soon as at the hydrogen fluoride processing stage. Our plant is the first in the Gulf region and one of few in the world. It plays a major role in supplying demands of aluminium producers, who constantly expand their production.
Why did you opt for the united Arab Emirates for this investment?
One of the products is aluminium fluoride, which is the basic component for aluminium production. The aluminium industry is being relocated from western countries to locations with low energy costs, to the GCC countries or Iceland. Let me provide you with an accurate example – the cost of energy used to produce one metric ton of aluminium is between 27% and 30% of its total cost. As of today a metric ton of aluminium costs 1500$, whereas the energy used costs as much as 500$. Companies such as Emal or Dubal (now EGA, Emirates Global Aluminium) spend 200$ for the same amount of energy, which is 300$ less than western countries. EGA produces 2.5 million metric tons of aluminium per year. It is simple math.
Was the country prepared to this project? Is it true, that the national law had to be amended for the sake of construction works?
The United Arab Emirates were not prepared to such a project. It was an enormous challenge. One of the most troublesome spheres consisted of issues connected with environmental protection. In the whole Near East there were no fluoride plants, so there was no experience. The country implemented one of the most strict environmental protection models – the German model.