Hospital construction, digitalization, and waste management tech among prospects for Poland-Davao cooperation

His Excellency Jarosław Szcepankiewicz, Poland’s Ambassador to the Philippines paid a Courtesy Call to Mayor Sebastian Duterte during the envoy’s visit to Davao last November 24-26, 2022. The Ambassador was also in the city to attend the Polish Film Festival at the Cinematheque Center Davao.

During the exchange, Ambassador Szcepankiewicz mentioned the construction and waste management technology developed by Poland saying that Polish technology is increasingly becoming popular globally, adding that such technology is not only limited to hospitals but also to construction sites, tourism, and residential development.

They are offering this technology and expertise at a more affordable cost than other countries.

“We will try to build this for Mindanao/Davao as Poland has technology for water waste management (for hospitals and non-medical settings), hospital equipment, infrastructure, and medical technology. Hospital waste management is a huge problem because there is not a lot of technology to do it.”

Mayor Duterte cited the current need for more hospitals in the city and affirmed the need for waste management technology.

The delegation from Poland also offered assistance in digitalization and connectivity noting the challenges in internet connectivity in the city. Mayor Duterte confirmed this is one of the areas that the city is currently working on.

The mayor also said that the city government is also working on other urgent concerns including traffic decongestion via expanding road networks, High Priority Bus System (HPBS), health subsidy expansion especially for indigents, faster permits and licensing processes, all to make things easier for the people of Davao.

On speeding up permits and licensing, Mayor Duterte said that “[the city] ensures to implement the 7-day minimum for releasing of business permits as we do it in 5 days now and [we] keep on trying to improve our process; always better to launch systems we are going to implement as I am concerned with the quality of life for Davaoeños. Before, Davao City was a countryside but is now fast turning into a metropolis,”

He added the city is all-out for digitalization to improve government processes.

Both leaders committed to closely coordinate with each other after Poland pledged to share expertise, particularly in start-ups and digitalization, hospital technology, construction, technology research and development.