During the XXVIII Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój, a presentation and discussion about the new report of  Polish Development Fund and Allegro took place. Although topics of innovation and new technologies appear regularly in the space of public debate, they are rarely taken from the systemic perspective of reflection and analysis of macroeconomic data. "Pioneers of Development " refers to the historical trends of adoption of new solutions for decades, today's state of the Polish economy and finally, institutional, regulatory and human capital challenges.

As Paweł Dobrowolski – chief economist of Polish Development Fund, comments: "Economic development can not be imported. Each time it must be worked out locally. Pioneers of development, entrepreneurs working out the best techniques of using modern technologies, improving modern technologies and inventing new applications of existing technologies, give us economic development. Further development requires us to change those elements of the socio-economic environment that limit the pioneers. "

"PFR notes the great need to support pioneers in the task of building a modern welfare state and that is why we offer a unique innovation support chain – from the first idea, through development, to expansion abroad. At the same time, we recognize the necessity to look for new solutions that will respond to the challenges posed by the 21st century. That is why, we created PFR School of Pioneers, a unique educational program "– comments Paweł Borys, CEO of Polish Development Fund.

The report recommends that in order to continue Poland's transformation into a welfare state based on innovative technology, the key is to:

• measure and analyze institutional blocks and the needs of technological pioneers,
• reform the education system towards interdisciplinary, practical and collective knowledge transfer.

The example of Allegro – Polish leader in the e-commerce sector, shows how the sense of the moment of availability of a new technology combined with consistent following the needs of customers guarantees success. However, it is not only the development of a pioneering service, but also sustainable cooperation within the wider ecosystem of suppliers, customers and business partners.

- "The contribution of Allegro's ecosystem to the Polish economy is valued at PLN 8.2-9.9 billion, which is 0.5% of the Polish GDP. Allegro's success is proof that Polish companies can successfully compete with global enterprises if they have solid foundations and a favorable environment: social, economic, legal and political. There are so many talks about startups, but it is worth answering the question: what to do to make a great idea and initial enthusiasm of developers of a fledgling business into a long-term development strategy needed to reach the mature company phase. I hope that this report will start the debate on how to wisely support "Polish unicorns", because they are the key to the development of the entire economy "– sums up Damian Zapłata, board member for commercial matters at Allegro.

The most important conclusions from the report:

1. The history of implementation of previous general-purpose technologies indicates that in the West there is currently social and economic adjustment, which will allow the most advanced economies to gain a rapid growth in benefits from the new technologies in the near future.
2. The benefits of big jumps in technological progress (greater efficiency of economies) even in the most developed economies appear after several decades since the emergence of new technologies.
3. The equipment of economies with modern technologies is correlated with the degree of their wealth.
4. Peripheral countries catch up with richer countries during periods of technological slowdown and fall away from them at the moment of acceleration.
5. Polish enterprises implementing modern technologies of information processing and transmission enable Poland to quickly absorb modern technologies and business models. The majority of technological and organizational progress around the world, including in the most developed countries, consists in adapting existing technologies, implementing new applications of existing technologies and gradually improving existing technologies.
6. Success in modern production processes requires efficient and constant completion of many changing "pieces" of knowledge. These societies, which are able to assemble teams of people with diverse knowledge, deal with complex and high-margin production.