Administrating institution: Ministry of Finance

Credits granted by the Polish Government financing export of goods and services from the Republic of Poland.

According to the OECD Arrangement (Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits), governmental credits financing export from Poland may be granted on commercial terms or on preferential terms as tied aid credits. There is a list of developing countries eligible for tied aid published by the OECD Secretariat (depending on GNI per capita). The financial terms of a tied aid credit such as repayment term, interest rate, grace period ensure minimum 35% concessionality level (minimum 50% in case of Least Developed Countries). In practice it means preferential terms compared to market terms, lower interest rate, longer grace period and repayment terms. Tied aid policies should provide needed external resources to countries, sectors or projects with little or no access to market financing.

Projects financed within tied aid mainly refer to environmental or health protection, modernization, work safety or living conditions improvement, development of rural areas, education and contribute to improvement of economic or social situation in the borrower country.

Tied aid shall not be extended to public or private projects that normally should be financially or commercially viable if financed on market or Arrangement terms. Credit agreement's conditions and projects are notified to OECD. Further proceeding depends on the results of the OECD procedure.

The Arrangement does not apply to exports of military equipment and agricultural commodities. As far as these kinds of exports are concerned the creditor country has more freedom in setting financial terms of a credit.

The provisions on extending the Polish governmental credits to other governments are outlined in the Act of 14 April 2000 on international agreements. The first step is an official application of a potential borrower's government to the government of the Republic of Poland.
Next, the Inter-ministerial Committee on Intergovernmental Credit Cooperation (appointed pursuant to the Ordinance of the Ministry of Finance, Official Journal of the Ministry of Finance dated September 20, 2019, item 97) gives opinion on the above mentioned application.

In case of positive opinion of the Committee, preparation of the negotiations of the credit agreement is conducted including setting terms of the credit and wording of the intergovernmental agreement. At this stage the scope of deliveries planned to be financed under the credit is agreed according to the requirements of the borrower.

Selection of the contracts financed under the Polish governmental credits

The contracts to be financed under the credit agreement must be accepted by the authorities of both sides according to appropriate procedure outlined in the signed intergovernmental credit agreement. The selection of contracts and Polish entrepreneurs by the borrower for realization of the project to be financed under the credit shall comply with applicable laws in borrower’s country.

Next, the Polish side verifies if concluded contracts are in accordance with intergovernmental credit agreement. On the Polish side, the contracts should be concluded by the entrepreneurs with their seat on the territory of the Republic of Poland. Moreover, in order to ensure efficient and reliable execution of contracts, financed with the Polish governmental credit, Polish entrepreneurs should fulfil the following conditions:

• present documents that all due taxes and social security fees have been paid;
• prove that they achieved positive financial balance over the last three years and present financial reports for this period;
• conduct economic activity on the territory of the Republic of Poland for minimum three years;
• be experienced in execution of projects in a given sector, confirmed with reference letters;
• must acknowledge and sign two exporter statements on:
  • principles of execution of an individual contract within the government credit agreement
  • lack of bribery of foreign public official while concluding export contract.

Contracts planned by the borrowers to be financed under Polish governmental credits, are agreed, on the Polish side, by Ministry of Finance with Ministry of Development and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Disbursements on export contracts are done from the state budget through the agency of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, which has authorization to service payments made under intergovernmental credit agreements directly to Polish exporter. Disbursement for Polish enterprise is done in Polish currency (irrespectively of the currency of the contract) according to the buying rate of the National Bank of Poland (Narodowy Bank Polski) at the date of disbursement, on the basis of documents agreed in the contract which have been accepted by the importer and the importer's bank.

As for the intergovernmental tied aid agreements, OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits (external link) and other related documents with tied aid requirements must be fulfilled:
a. Ex Ante Guidance for Tied Aid (external link)
b. OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Principles for Project Appraisal,
c. DAC Guidelines on Aid and Environment
d. Good Practices for Environmental Impact Assessment of Development Projects.

Notification procedure to OECD is conducted by the Ministry of Finance on the basis of documents presented by the exporters and the borrowers.