Roman Matys, President of the International Investment Office, once again took part in the Economic Forum in Karpacz (Forum Ekonomiczne), one of the largest economic events in this part of Europe. This year he was a speaker on the panel “How Can Local Governments Plan Investment?”.
The discussion was moderated by Beata Matyjaszczyk, a lawyer and expert on cooperation between local government and civil society organisations, and co-chair of the Gdańsk Public Benefit Council. Speaking alongside Roman Matys were Michał Pabich, Vice-President of the Łódź Regional Development Agency and Chairman of the Sieradz City Council; Rafał Solecki, Director of Strategy and European Funds at Kraków City Hall; Krzysztof Wolny, Deputy Mayor of Szamotuły; and Piotr Grubek, CEO of the municipal investment company in Marki.
For Roman Matys, the panel’s main strength was its line-up: a large city, a regional development agency, a small municipality and a municipal investment company sat at one table. Each looked at the same problem from its own angle: how to plan investment systematically when there are always more necessary projects than money. The discussion covered strategy-making, EU funding, the work of municipal investment companies and regional agencies, and cooperation between government, business and civil society.
In his remarks Roman Matys focused on five questions:
- how to choose projects when the budget covers only a third of them;
- why social investment should be treated as an economic decision;
- which parts of investment planning methodology survived the war and which had to be rewritten from scratch;
- what choice mountain communities face today;
- why energy resilience has become basic infrastructure.
From 2016 to 2021 Roman Matys headed investment policy at the Lviv Regional State Administration. The strategy “Lviv Region — Factory of Europe”, which he implemented with his team, helped attract almost $1 billion in foreign direct investment and create about 75,000 jobs. Since 2016 he has hosted the International Economic Forum in Lviv.
Roman Matys thanked the organisers for the invitation and for the chance to speak about Ukraine’s experience to an audience that genuinely listens.