On November 9th ABSL Poland, in partnership with Bloomberg BNA, has held the second edition of ABSL International Conference. This year’s event took place in London, the bustling centre of Europe’s economic power – and the spot was in accordance with the topic of the conference: Europe after Brexit: Shifts in the Balance of Business?
As the Brexit vote has shaken the status quo in Europe’s economy, it is the prime time to fully engage in the discussion of what could happen next. ABSL Poland aims to show that the Central and Eastern Europe region can be a valuable contender – not to become the replacement, but to be the support and partner for London’s City.
Over the past decade, the region has started to shine, with Poland being the leader of change, as the country boasting a strong economy, a wide talent pool and incredible potential for development. “Poland has moved from being the back-office destination to becoming a middle-office go-to spot on the business map of Europe. We believe that the current situation might help us gain exposure for that,” says Jacek Levernes, President of ABSL Poland.
A thorough look
To illustrate the CEE region’s claims, ABSL, in cooperation with Deloitte, Hays and JLL has released a report entitled Europe’s Business Services Destinations. A journey across 10 countries and 20 cities, focusing on 20 most desirable destinations for business services. The entire report is available to read and download here. It is the first such publication, showing the snapshot of the locations while not differentiating among on-shore, near-shore and off-shore destinations, providing a complex and thorough look into the often unfairly overlooked spots. “Out of the countries, which were selected based on the most jobs created in the sector over the last 10 years, six lie in the Central and Eastern Europe, showing the prowess of the region and its economic strength,” claims Wojciech Poplawski, VP of ABSL Poland and Managing Director of Accenture.
The guest list for the Conference consisted of leaders of politics of the Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development and Finance Mateusz Morawiecki, Claudiu Vrinceanu, Romanian Secretary of State, Minister of Economy, Commerce and Relations with the Business Environment, Karel Kucera, CEO of CzechInvest, and Ambassador Jacqueline Minor, Head of the EU Delegation to the UK. With them, business tycoons of international companies – such as Rupert Harrison, Chief Macro-Strategist at BlackRock, Andrew Benito, Senior European Economist at Goldman Sachs, or Elias van Herwaarden, Director Global Location Strategies at Deloitte, discussed the impact of the Brexit vote on European economy and the influence and possibilities it has for the CEE region.
Onward to Central and Eastern Europe
The discussion at the Conference has shown the vast interest in the Central and Eastern European region. The speakers expressed the appreciation for its ambition to deliver high-quality engineering processes and product development for the fintech sector and highlighted the importance of building the bridge between business and engineering, which can be achieved more easily with the joint efforts of ABSL Poland and its sister organisations in Romania and the Czech Republic.
The business world is changing rapidly nowadays, due to the large-scale political changes and macroeconomics, and most of all due to the technological boom. The markets are changing, and the ways of conducting processes and operating corporations on a global scale must change as well. In the face of the tremors rolling through the continent and the world now, the Central and Eastern European countries and cities give the chance to develop a brand-new development model – while keeping the status quo intact.
Full report can be read and downloaded here.