A new video pays tribute to the EBRD’s role in transforming FIAT Auto Poland from a state-owned concern under communism into a successful, export-led private company.
The EBRD was one of the early investors in FIAT Auto Poland when Poland launched its privatisation of state-owned firms in the early 1990s.
“The EBRD’s questions and assessments were much more in-depth than those of our main shareholders,” Czesław Świstak, FIAT Auto Poland’s Director of Administration, Finance and Management Control, says in the video.
“We should say that even though we felt we were being closely watched by the EBRD, it was always specific and reliable and very friendly.”
EBRD's work with FIAT Auto Poland
The CFO of FIAT Auto Poland, Czeslaw Swistak, discusses the company's resurrection after the fall of communism and the role the EBRD has played as both a shareholder and lender. For Mr Swistak, it's as much a personal journey as a corporate one.
The EBRD is this spring publishing a series of articles and videos on the New Europe and its role in the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics in the last quarter century.
2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 10th anniversary of Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joining the EU.
Our Annual Meeting and Business Forum is taking place in Warsaw in May. The Business Forum's theme will be 'Changing Economies, Changing Lives', an opportunity to reflect on these two anniversaries and a quarter of a century of momentous change in the region.
