This information comes from the assessment conducted in country for the Poland report, which was published in 1999.
Poland has a strong overall legal, institutional, and "market" framework for commercial activity when compared to the baseline established for the CLIR reports. A few interesting patterns emerged from the results detailed in the report that are worth noting. First, as expected, the "Framework Law" dimension is stronger, in relative terms, than any other dimension of this analysis (Implementing Institutions, Supporting Institutions, and Market).
Poland has received a significant amount of technical support in developing framework laws for bankruptcy, collateral, and FDI. The high results achieved in company and contract law may be attributable, in part, to the survival of Poland's prewar jurisprudence and practice in these areas.
Except in the case of company, the results for implementing institutions ranked second highest among the four dimensions of this analysis. Overall, inadequate institutional capacity in the “Implementing Institutions” dimension was a common theme across all subject-matter areas. In general terms, Poland's implementing institutions are viewed as overly bureaucratic, inefficient, and, in the worst cases, arbitrary. Corruption, while it exists, was reported to be a relatively minor impediment to day-to-day commercial activity. Except perhaps in the area of bankruptcy, end users reported that they were more likely to work through the bureaucratic channels of the implementing institution than to circumvent them through self-help or avoidance. Areas of particular overall weakness were found in the commercial courts of general jurisdiction, and in the area of international trade, with customs administration and regulation.
Micro- and small-sized trading firms, important contributors to Poland's economic rebirth since the early 1990s, have been viewed by Polish society with a degree of suspicion as this sector has been a focal point for criminal and quasi-criminal activities. This lingering suspicion against entrepreneurial activity seems to be receding steadily.
