China-Poland cooperation on high-tech advancing under BRI, expert says
The cooperation between China and Poland under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is making steady progress with China's high-tech investment projects in Poland increasing year by year, an expert told Xinhua.
Bartosz Biskupski, General Director of TCL Research Europe, said in a recent interview that following the continuous advancement and further development of the BRI, China's investment in Poland has achieved a significant transformation -- it is not only more diversified, but also more focused on high-tech projects.
Chinese companies such as TCL, Huawei, and ByteDance (who owns Tiktok app) have been putting lots of capital and technology in Poland, especially in the research and development area, Biskupski said.
Biskupski believed that Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to three European countries will further promote cooperation between China and Europe.
"I hope that within the Belt and Road framework, there will be more cooperation in the high-tech field between China and Europe and between China and Poland in particular," he said.
After observing and investigating several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, TCL, one of the top three global TV brands and leading consumer electronics company finally decided to unveil its Research & Development (R&D) Center in Poland in September 2018.
Poland, the largest country in this region in terms of economic scale and population, has cultivated many talented people, especially in the fields related to artificial intelligence, such as mathematics and computer science, Biskupski added.
The TCL Research Europe was granted the "PAIH Awards" in the "Modern technologies" category last year by the Polish Investment and Trade Agency. The award recognized TCL's cooperation in the high-tech field with Poland.
"Although this award was given to TCL, it was actually an endorsement of the whole Chinese capital investment in high-tech area in this country," Biskupski said.
"There is huge cooperation potential for both sides," he said, voicing his belief that it will achieve a win-win result.
The TCL Research Europe focuses on research and development in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing and big data analytics. Through cooperation with Polish universities as well as by means of inviting top researchers and strengthening the transformation of technological achievements, it also has impact on research on relevant industries.
At the opening ceremony of the center in 2018, Polish Deputy Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology Tadeusz Koscinski said that the Polish government encourages and supports Chinese companies to set up R&D centers in Poland, as they are beneficial for the country.
"Polish economy needs to be transformed towards innovation. The establishment of this center will help develop artificial intelligence products and enhance Poland's capabilities to develop high-tech products," Koscinski said.