In the past, Poland has played a crucial strategic role in military conflicts between Eastern and Western Europe. Napoleon utilised what is now most of Poland, the Duchy of Warsaw, as a tactical staging ground for his “Grande Armée” in preparation for his invasion of Russia in 1812. Poland was a part of Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Poland was the primary starting point for the attack because it was already under Nazi German occupation and split between the Soviet Union and Germany at the time. Through present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic states, German forces moved eastward from Polish territory into Soviet territory.

Therefore, in addition to Warsaw’s economic expansion, it is also easy to see why Poland is now at the centre of a historic military corridor connecting Russia and Europe. To put it briefly, it serves as the entryway between Central Asia and Western Europe, as well as Russia. This fact has been reaffirmed numerous times in history. It’s fascinating to see how Poland has emerged as a major player in Europe’s defence sector.

In 2025, Poland will have the highest defence spending ratio of any NATO member, at 4% of GDP. Along with bolstering its eastern borders, Warsaw is also making investments in cutting-edge military equipment. Poland has positioned itself through its military acquisitions at the centre of the future defence of Europe and the Western bloc, with a particular emphasis on interoperability within NATO.

Poland has established itself as an advocate for dual-use technologies in Europe by working hard and making sacrifices. This includes systems, technologies, or goods that have dual military and civilian applications. Unmanned systems like drones, artificial intelligence-based surveillance, and secure communications are being prioritised because they can benefit and expand the domestic industry, much like GPS did for the global economy. Warsaw is moving forward with a plan that promotes technological sovereignty and national (and European) defence.

The country’s development is therefore centred on cybersecurity. In February 2022, it initiated the Cyberspace Defence Forces. This is a complete military cyber command with offensive and defensive capabilities, acknowledging that cyber is now a domain in any conflict. The government also intends to invest close to 2.3 billion pounds in cyber defence by 2026 and has guaranteed over 700 million pounds (USD 807 million) for a “cybershield” to protect the nation. Additionally, it helped establish the Tallinn Mechanism to support Ukraine’s digital resilience and coordinated NATO’s “Cyber Coalition” exercises.

Poland wants to become a major cyber power in Europe, just like its economy. Additionally, it is allocating 6 billion pounds from EU recovery funds to dual-use infrastructure and security, as announced by Minister Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz in 2025. However, Poland is not going to stop there. Through the “Cyber Secure Local Government” initiative, it is further strengthening its core cyberinfrastructure. With an emphasis on innovation through startups, this strategy entails substantial public-private partnerships. Investing in AI and data analytics through Poland’s AI Implementation Centre, which oversees long-term strategy through 2039, naturally completes this.

Poland is also in charge of safeguarding the eastern flank of the transatlantic alliance and participating in regular NATO military drills. Large-scale exercises like Dragon 24, which tested rapid reinforcement and multidomain operations with 20,000 troops and thousands of vehicles in 2024, are held there. It is one of the biggest in Europe. Rapid deployment drills and advanced air missions are also supported.

Politically, Karol Nawrocki defeated Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski by a slim margin in last month’s voting for president. Western and European analysts have hurried to label the new president a nationalist-populist and his opponent a pro-EU contender. Again, I think that persistently alienating conservative forces is a risky course of action. First off, conservative parties have contributed significantly to Poland’s economic successes in recent decades. The geopolitical context of the world and the fact that Poland is the eastern front line of both NATO and the European Union make this framing particularly risky.

Nawrocki’s resistance to Ukraine joining Western alliances like NATO was the catalyst for all of this criticism. Brussels must, however, pay attention and initiate a dialogue when the NATO member that invests the largest portion of its GDP in defence, has welcomed Ukrainians into its territory, and has historically been the first European country to be impacted by any conflict with Russia, expresses this worry. According to an Arabic proverb, there is a distinction between the person who counts the blows and the person who is struck with a stick. It is time to give Poland a stronger voice because it is constructing resilience that will benefit all of Europe.

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The launch event was attended by Ali Salim Al Midfa, Chairman of the Sharjah Airport Authority (SAA), along with senior executives from Air Arabia. Joining them was Dr. Etienne Berchtold, Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the UAE, who attended the inaugural ceremony for the Vienna route alongside other dignitaries and officials.

“The new route to Warsaw, Poland, will operate five weekly flights (Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) between Sharjah Airport and Warsaw Chopin Airport using Airbus A320 aircraft. Warsaw becomes the second city in Poland to be connected directly to Sharjah, following Krakow,” the Emirates News Agency reported.

The Vienna route will operate four weekly flights (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) using Airbus A320 aircraft to and from Vienna International Airport.

Ali Salim Al Midfa, Chairman of the Sharjah Airport Authority, said, “The new routes enhance trade and economic exchange opportunities between the UAE, Poland, and Austria while fostering foreign investment with both European nations. This initiative further solidifies Sharjah’s leading position on the Middle East’s aviation and cargo transportation map and provides a strong boost to its growing economy across various sectors.”

Adel Al Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia, commented, “The launch of our new route to Warsaw and Vienna underscores Air Arabia’s unwavering commitment to expanding our network and offering passengers more travel opportunities to explore exciting destinations.”

Talking about Air Arabia, the low-cost carrier in December 2024 also introduced a new non-stop flight connecting Sharjah and the Russian city of Sochi. Three weekly flights on this route will start operating from June 2025, while using Airbus A320 aircraft for the service.

With this addition, Sochi has now become Air Arabia’s sixth Russian destination, joining Moscow, Kazan, Samara, Ufa, and Yekaterinburg.

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The trip also includes delegates from the Federation of Saudi Chambers, which will attend high-level economic meetings with representatives from the private sector and senior government officials. Their goal is to investigate investment prospects and enter into several contracts and business alliances.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, the delegation, which is headed by Hassan bin Mujib Al-Huwaizi, Chairman of the Federation of Saudi Chambers, consists of more than 72 business representatives from a range of economic sectors as well as governmental bodies and authorities.

To increase trade and investment between the two nations, the Kingdom and Poland formed a joint business council in August for the 2024–2028 term. With an emphasis on Poland, one of the biggest economies on the continent, the action is a component of the country’s larger plan to strengthen economic ties with Europe.

The agri-food industry in Poland has grown significantly, with exports hitting a record 47.9 billion euro (USD 51.1 billion) in 2023, up €10 billion from the year before. Saudi Arabia and Poland’s trade reached SR33.7 billion in 2023.

Tobacco, machinery, and mechanical appliances are Poland’s top exports to the Arab nation, while the Kingdom’s top exports to Poland are plastics and mineral products.

Since the Slovak Embassy in Riyadh was formally opened in recent years, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Slovakia has also improved. Furthermore, there are still unexplored investment opportunities due to the notable increase in bilateral trade.

The Saudi-Polish Business Council meeting, a joint forum, and bilateral meetings between representatives will be held by the delegation before it starts its trip to Poland.

The delegation will host the Saudi-Slovak Business Forum in Slovakia, hold meetings between the two countries’ companies, and sign a deal to create a joint business council.

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Trukker provides a mobile app to deliver instant quotes to customers, apart from facilitating real-time consignment tracking, and on-time deliveries.

“The best possible transport allocation. Instant pricing. Live track-and-trace. Real-time analytics. Find everything you need to streamline your freight operations on MENA’s largest digital freight forwarder platform for your on-road logistics. Each day, thousands of shippers and carriers optimize and cut costs, increase loads, reduce empty miles, and enjoy improved income on the TruKKer platform,” the venture stated further.

Decoding Trukker’s Operational Ecosystem

Trukker is attempting to stitch together a digital layer of control and transparency in the logistics industry through data-led innovations.

Trukker’s intelligent freight network, which as of October 2023, is serving over 700 clients in more than 10 nations, is smoothening out the frictions between demand and supply, apart from eliminating any load-related uncertainty.

Nearly 6000 drivers are currently earning 75% of their monthly incomes through Trukker’s platform.

“Our cloud-based freight solutions offer end-to-end coverage and a full-service portfolio for shippers, carriers, and businesses alike. That’s how we’re introducing shared efficiencies for all the involved parties in a supply chain. Behind the scenes, we cross-reference and analyze millions of data points across touchpoints and interactions. Our ever-growing data pool and AI-driven platform ensure continual process optimization with each transportation cycle for all our network users. At TruKKer, it’s all about delivering the future of freight now,” the venture added further.

Established in 2016, the start-up immediately captured MENA’s business landscape by launching ‘UAE Cross Border’ in 2018, followed by its branch openings in Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 2019. In 2021, Trukker acquired Pakistan-based digital freight booking platform TruckSher. In the same year, Trukker made its market debut in Turkey, Oman and Bahrain. A year later, Trukker’s branches were opened in Poland and Kazakhstan too.

Through the solution called ‘Move My Home’, the start-up helps Emirati families during their relocation by providing them live location tracking and status updates on the movement of latters’ assets. Trukker’s seasoned team of moving professionals ensure zero damage to these assets while relocating them to new homes.

“Our relocation experts offer end-to-end care for your goods throughout the journey and beyond while you enjoy an effortless moving experience. These skilled professionals can dismantle and rearrange your decor, fix necessary circuits, set up devices, and do paint jobs. You don’t need to do anything,” the venture remarked.

During house relocation, a family can request a quote from TruKKer, following which the venture’s sales representatives will contact the customer.

When it comes to moving the family’s belongings to the new property, Trukker takes a day to move the contents of a studio/one-bedroom apartment. For bigger homes, the process takes two or three days. The customer needs to pay 50% of the bill amount in advance and the rest on the day of the move.

Trukker helps businesses to find logistical and freight support in the MENA region without the involvement of middlemen and freight brokers.

By December 2022, Trukker established its presence in the West Asia. The UAE and Saudi Arabia markets are currently contributing almost 40% to the company’s revenue flow.

Trukker has three main digital solutions, ‘TruKKer Pulse’ for B2B clients, ‘TruKKer Load Board’ for truck service providers, and ‘TruKKer Driver App’.

‘TruKKer Pulse’, apart from helping businesses to ship commercial cargo, also caters to the needs of retail customers looking for movers and packers services.

TruKKer’s Load Board Interface provides truck owners and transportation companies with an overview of the marketplace, clients available for fleet owners to bid on, and analytics on their operational efficiency.

Through the venture’s solutions, the drivers and fleet managers in the MENA region can also upload relevant documents and manage their payments, stay connected with each other, store invoices, submit proof of delivery and manage warehouses.

Trukker In News

Talking about Trukker’s recent achievements, the venture earned the fourth rank in Forbes Middle East’s list called ‘MENA’s Top 50 Most-Funded Start-ups 2022’.

Through its presence in Poland and Kazakhstan, Trukker will now be eyeing to extend its reach into the European markets in the coming days.

“Poland and Kazakhstan are strategically located along the Belt and Road route at the crossroads of Eurasia. Poland’s convenient transportation, low freight costs, and high logistics performance index, which ranks 28th globally, provide favourable conditions for TruKKer to access European supply,” remarked Gaurav Biswas, while interacting with the Gulf News in November 2022.

As of October 2023, Trukker is being backed by large institutional investors including Mubadala, STV, ADQ, and IFC. The start-up closed a USD 100 million series C in September 2022 led by Investcorp, a large private equity firm with USD 40 billion assets under management.

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To carry out the strategy, the business recently finalized two different contracts with Olsztyn Mazury Airport and the Polish Investment and Trade Agency.

Just a few days back, the LuLu Group debuted its Italian sourcing, food processing, and export base.

To handle fresh goods including meat, berries, apples, cheese, and other packaged foods that will be shipped to markets in the Middle East and North Africa, the Far East, and India, the retail behemoth will build a facility at Olsztyn Mazury Airport as part of its new investment in Poland.

The envisioned building will house the company’s first Central and Eastern European logistics hub.

It will improve cooperation between Polish producers, suppliers, and contractors in the UAE and expand the availability of local Polish items on the shelves of LuLu’s supermarkets.

According to Pawel Kurtasz, Chairman of the Management Board of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, the investment would also provide new prospects for regional Polish producers.

According to a statement, the logistics centre in Poland will significantly aid the growth of LuLu Group International’s business in Central and Eastern Europe.

The new investment, according to the statement, is advancing the company’s expansion, which will strengthen its position as one of the most significant players in the global retail market.

LuLu Group also opened its world-class sourcing, food processing and export hub in Italy, a move which will further boost the company’s sourcing operations from Europe, thus ensuring uninterrupted supply and price stability of food products.

Located at World Trade Center Malpensa Airport in Milan, the state-of-the-art facility will primarily focus on sourcing, processing, storing, packaging and exporting top-quality food products from Italy to more than 255 LuLu Hypermarkets spread across Gulf countries, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The focus categories will include cheeses, chocolates, fruit jams, sweet and puff pastries, organic pasta, infused extra-virgin olive oil, and high-quality sea salt from well-known Italian brands. Apart from packed food, the centre will also source and export a wide range of fruits and vegetables, including apples, grapes, kiwis and olives.

LuLu Group, which has an annual turnover of USD 8 billion and employs over 65,000 people from 43 different countries, is currently ranked as the numero uno retailer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and as one of the Top 50 fastest growing retailers in the world by Deloitte.

LuLu Group has similar food processing centres in the UK, US, Spain, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, China, and South Africa among others.

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The seven biggest consumers of petrol in the EU—Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and Poland—reduced their overall consumption by 22% from October to December of 2022.

Much of this decrease was reportedly due to milder temperatures; between October and December of 2022 compared to a similar timeframe during 2021, the average number of heating degree days in each country decreased by about 16%, Reuters market analyst John Kemp said in his opinion piece.

However, there was also a slight decrease in underlying temperature-adjusted consumption, which can be attributed to consumer backlash against high costs, public relations initiatives to reduce demand, and business closures, he stated further.

The area saw an abnormally warm October in 2022, and none of the big consumer nations made any substantial headway in lowering underlying demand, Kemp added.

However, more progress was being made in reducing underlying usage as the weather got colder in November and December of 2022.

Germany, the primary user in the area, experienced a 5% increase in heating degree days in December 2022 compared to December 2021.

Nonetheless, use per degree day was reduced by 19%, ensuring that the overall consumption was still down by 14% over the previous year.

On the other hand, December was mild in Italy, the second-largest consumer in the region, with 18% fewer degree days.

Nonetheless, the nation also succeeded in cutting consumption by 8% each degree day, resulting in a 24% decrease in overall consumption.

Every nation decreased its temperature-adjusted consumption in December, with reductions ranging from 19% in Germany and Spain to 17% in Belgium and the Netherlands, 13% in Poland, 11% in France, and 8% in Italy.

Energy-intensive businesses, such as those producing chemicals, fertiliser, steel, ceramics, glass, smelters, and greenhouse horticulture, have been under the most pressure to adapt.

Short-time working and plant closures have caused consumption in several industries to drop significantly, leading to significant gas conservation.

The upshot is that savings by electricity producers and families have been relatively small after accounting for the warm winter because the burden is falling so heavily on the industry.

The weather was kind to European nations, and industry bore an excessive amount of the cost of lowering demand.

The following winter might not be as mild, and without a permanent loss of capacity, the industry cannot continue to bear the majority of the demand decrease.

If temperatures return to being more in line with the long-term normal, households may need to reduce consumption even more next winter.

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As he explains, the platform sees great potential in Poland due to its fast-growing startup ecosystem and the country’s promising climate for a new breed of multinational companies.

The launch event in Warsaw will feature an expert panel discussion with high profile decision-makers at FundedByMe, such as Lovisa Strömsholm who is responsible for Investor Relations and International Growth at the company. Based in Stockholm, she has so far been responsible for coordinating and launching the crowdfunding concept of FundedByMe to new markets in Europe and Asia. Moreover, Ronald Domelid, Swedish entrepreneur and the Co- founder of Stonfactory.se, the largest online retailer in its category, will be among the panelists, as well as Alicja Domelid, founder of Ecoliving and Naturalbox, which raised over €200.000 through FundedByMe.

The branch in Poland has been set up in cooperation with local partners through a new joint venture.

FundedByMe is one of the only full-service crowdfunding platforms offering capital through equity crowdfunding. In the past years, some 470 companies from 25 different countries have been successfully funded with more than €50mn. The platform has strategically grown into attractive markets in Europe and Asia. Furthermore, it grabbed the top spot in the Alternative Finance category in the First Round of the European Fintech Awards 2017. The public and a panel of judges have chosen FundedByMe as one of most promising European FinTech companies.

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The company opened its first Mi store in Barcelona. According to Reuters, Senior Vice-President Xiang Wang said, “For the first time in Xiaomi history, we launched products to cover all three channels.”

Spain being its first market in Western Europe, Xiaomi grew faster because of its tech popularity among young fans active on the company’s MIUI forum. The forum is an online community developed to discuss latest news and updates.

The company showcased its products at Mobile World Congress 2018. “They give us feedback, even in product development,” Wang said.

India has also been Xiaomi’s top market for three-and-a-half years now. Besides smartphones, other devices such as rice cookers have been introduced in Russia and Poland. “We have some ideas, we always want to find a market where a lot of fans already know us. And markets should be active enough, big enough,” he added.

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It is the most recent country to structure a bond which contributes to development of environmental-friendly projects, according to Financial Times

Felipe Gordillo, a senior analyst at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said, “It is a very interesting green bond as they are using their existing infrastructure for Islamic finance, and the areas in which they are going to be investing—climate mitigation and climate resilience—are interesting.”

An independent science-based Climate Action Tracker (CAT) assessment report  predicts Indonesia’s emissions to rise by 2030. The report said Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is ‘insufficient’ with low levels of commitment. Referring to the Paris Agreement temperature goal, its emissions should balance out if not decline.  

By 2026, the Indonesian government is focused to increase the use of renewables to more than 20%. However, “Indonesia’s climate policy is a contradiction—an apparent mismatch between a plan to have renewables play a stronger role in its energy mix, while simultaneously locking in a large and growing role for coal, which will lead to continually rising emissions,” the report reads. The country’s current use of renewables is less than three percent.

Last month Poland was listed as the first country to sell two green bonds. The country heavily relies on coal as 80% of its power generation is from this fossil fuel.

Green finance has grown significantly with a record of US$155bn in 2017, observed Moody’s. This year, global green bond issuance is expected to grow 60% to reach US$250bn  record. Moody’s analyst Matthew Kuchtyak said other countries are driven to implement green finance, but it is India and China that will take the lead in this market. 

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The announcement comes after they have proven themselves to be a preferred provider for individuals transferring money to Brazil, Portugal and the Middle East, due to the competitive rates that their money corridors enable them to offer. They cemented their position in these markets with the acquisition of BR Money in 2015.

While many fintech firms are concentrating on digital payments and currencies, personal backgrounds and the experience in sending remittance payments means that the team at Imperial FX are increasingly aware of the financial exclusion that the digital realm is creating, and the number of ‘unbanked’ people that are unable to take advantage of these services, missing out on vital funds.

“We had held back on the Eastern European markets until we could ensure that we were offering a service that provided numerous benefits to users, especially those that are being pushed out of the digital transfer services,” explains CEO Ali Alani. “We have now been able to create a comprehensive offering to those who wish to send money back to Poland.”

“Having already invested £2 million into building our own secure and agile transfer technology rather than relying on third-party software, we are currently working on our online offering. But we are also aware of the number of individuals worldwide that may suffer as a result of the ‘digital only’ world, not being able to access funds, and being penalised with high charges and fees that the traditional services offer. Brexit has also had a severe effect on the amount of remittance sent back home by migrants, we want to make sure our services can lessen the financial burden.”

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