Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Poland is setting its sights on Indonesia's railway sector, according to its diplomat and business representatives.

"Currently, Polish railway companies are looking at Indonesia's ambitious railway development strategy," Polish Ambassador to Indonesia Beata Stoczynska recently said at the 2022 Railwaytech Indonesia exhibition in Jakarta.

Last month, the Indonesian Railway Society (Maska) flew to Poland for a meeting with Polish railway businesses.

The Railwaytech Indonesia exhibition also had ten Polish railway companies and institutions – including the country's largest rolling stock producer PESA – joining the trade show.

Stoczynska said she hoped these business-to-business (B2B) talks could provide an impetus for cooperation in the railway sector. She added Polish companies "produce trains, state-of-the-art equipment, IT solutions, and infrastructure systems for the railway networks."

"Poland is very pleased to observe that Indonesia plans to announce the ASEAN-Indonesia infrastructure strategy as one of its priorities during its chairmanship next year. Poland is very much interested in contributing to this priority, with a strong emphasis on the railway sector," the envoy said.

There is already an existing partnership between Indonesia and Poland in this field.

Polish power electronic device manufacturer Medcom is already selling its auxiliary converters and propeller systems to state-owned rolling stock manufacturer INKA, according to Grzegorz Ga?czy?ski, the strategic industries manager at the Polish Investment and Trade Agency.

Galczynski revealed that it was possible that any upcoming partnership would have Polish railway companies building manufacturing plants in Indonesia. But that would depend on the scale of the project and the affordability of such construction.

"I think so if Polish companies were involved in a large-scale project... because we are 14,000 kilometers apart, [the shipping] would take a lot of time. But it has to be affordable. Otherwise, it would not make any sense to build a factory," Galczynski told the Jakarta Globe on the sidelines of the exhibition.

"All in all, I can see vast opportunities for cooperation," he said.

PESA expressed its interest in sharing its know-how and technologies with its Indonesian counterparts, be it for agglomeration and commuter trains, or inter-city rail, to name a few.

Krzysztof Zdziarski, PESA's chief executive officer, said that the partnership should not be only limited to meeting the local demand, but should also aim for exports from Indonesia to other markets.

"We can build the plant together with local partners in Indonesia. Everybody likes its local content. But the next step is not to fulfill the Indonesian market and be competitive in surrounding other markets, let's say, Asian market because that would prove you are leading the group," Zdziarski told the Globe.

"If you are doing it for yourself in a protective environment, you don't know how good you are. You are eliminating the competition by not selling outside [the domestic market]."

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/poland-eyes-indonesias-railway-secto