JEDDAH, 19 December 2006 — The Saudi-Polish bilateral trade is expected to expand with a new initiative to encourage more exchange of business visits.
“We aim to increase our bilateral economic cooperation with regular interactions between the business communities,” Polish Ambassador to the Kingdom Adam Kulach told a reception hosted to mark the opening of Polish Amber and Silver Jewelry Exhibition at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Sunday night.
Kulach said that together with the expansion of business ties, Poland would be able to encourage more exchange of commercial delegations between the two countries. “Go to Poland and see the opportunities available for joint ventures and trade,” he said in an appeal to the local business community. “You’ll also see a wide variety of products and services there.”
Poland is also rich in tourism and gets about 10 million overseas visitors annually. “We’re a small country with sea, mountains, lakes and fresh water. Come and enjoy them,” he said.
Wincenty Sienkiewicz of Poland-based ALTREX and chairman of the Polish-Saudi Business Council, echoed Kulach’s call, saying that “the two-way bilateral trade (between the two countries) is around $300 million and it is evenly balanced.”
The jewelry exhibition shows off a variety of amber and silver jewelries that is exclusive to Poland. Amber, called ‘the golden gem of the ages,’ is a fossil resin exuded from the now-extinct evergreen pine trees formed about 50 million years ago. As the resin flowed, it entrapped insects and plant species found preserved in pieces of amber. It is found nowadays mostly along the Baltic Sea coastline areas of Poland and Russia, as well as in the Dominican Republic in Central America, in addition to a few other locations worldwide. The best amber is transparent and yellow to yellow-brown in color. It has an agreeable pine odor when rubbed with a cloth or burned. Rubbing amber also charges it with static electricity. It is used in the arts and in the manufacture of jewelry.
Omar Attar, honorary consul at the Consulate of Poland, along with other businessmen, graced the occasion.