Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

Thanks terri, I appreciate your honest response but can you please elaborate a little further that what kind of racism and etc?? Thank you

Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

Thank you so much..... Your words really made my day. We faced a lot of problems (specially corruption problems) when we opened setup in Kiev and Tbilisi. We are now keeping only retail outlets in these 2 cities and moving the warehousing and distribution to Warsaw. From the customs officials to the tax authorities, everyone gave us a very tough time in Ukraine and Georgia. I hope Warsaw will be different.

I really appreciate your input....

Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

Thanks for the info, I am sure it would be manageable, in Tbilisi we could not clear the containers without bribing the customs official, same goes with Ukraine. Eventually we started incorporating it into our costing as additional expenses. The best thing is that it did not stop at that point. Once they know the container is delivered at the warehouse, then the tax authorities will come and threaten you that you have under invoiced your goods, so you have to bribe them also...... It was a nightmare in short.

Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

@kaprys: Yes, the law firm we are working through, is going to take care of employee's for us.

@Lyzko: You have no idea my friend...... we later came to know that all the trouble we were facing in Tbilisi was because of our Azerbaijani competitor who was extremely influential / well connected and leader of the trading mafia. He had contacts in the govt. and used them against us.

Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

Thanks for the honest input........ In Georgia and Ukraine, it was very easy for them to ask for bribe because they were telling this to our translators...lol. We don't speak Russian or the local language. In Poland at least English is spoken widely, that is also one of the reason to move here because language is the biggest hurdle in this former soviet union region.

We are planning to be in Warsaw and I hope it should be OK (as you said) if something goes wrong then we always have an option of moving the business to the Economic Free Zone..................appreciate your feedback friend!!! Thanks

Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

Guys Guys Guys................

I think we have slipped away from the original topic of Corruption at the Govt and competitor level and got to corruption at bars and pubs level.

For us the main idea of conducting business in Poland is that Your country is in such a strategic location (Central Europe) that distribution of goods to Europe and the CIS countries is very easy. You guys are bordering with Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech, Germany & Lithuania.... what else does one wish for other then that?

Its a heaven for Manufacturers who wants to just sit there with 20,000 sq meter warehouse and distribute the goods in all the neighboring countries.

You people are amazing....... never compare your beautiful country and your system with America or any other country. America has its own huge problems, we do have a setup in Los Angeles, Karachi, Dubai, Nairobi, Colombo, Lagos, KL and now opening in Central Europe. So I had a chance to live in all these countries for certain time.

God bless you all and God bless your beautiful country!!!

Work / Business in Poland - should I expect some dirty tricks? [26]

@cms neuf...... Thanks, see the problem in CIS countries is that the govt is corrupt so the corruption is cascaded down till the lower level. They know that if we report, the money will go to higher authorities pockets, why not settle here? If the govt is not corrupt then the lower level staff is very careful for getting caught.

@kaprys..... I am absolutely in agreement with you. If we were OK with the bribing then there was no need for us to move to Europe but for a legal work with complete documentation, why bribe?? I am not importing drugs or any illegal stuff.......why bribe?? We did our working before deciding to come here and guess what? Poland is far much better than other European countries when it comes to corruption. My fear was that just like in Tbilisi I don't find a competitor here who uses dirty tricks to fail us. We are manufacturers and most of our competition are traders, we have far better prices then a trader and can be a threat to our competition, so just want to be careful. Though most of our goods will be for re-export from Warsaw but still the local industry as well is huge in Poland and we will be definitely looking into selling inside the country.

My respects to all of you for participating in this thread and sharing your honest opinions.

God bless you all!!!