On November 15, 2018, Association of Maramureș Entrepreneurs (AIM), through the representatives of 3 member companies, visited a similar association and economic units in the city of Rzeszow, Poland.

The displacement was made at the initiative of Raoul Popescu, from Baia Mare city, who received us as president of the auxiliary aircraft and helicopter engines unit of Pratt & Whitney (P&W), the only one outside North America and located in Rzeszow.

P&W is the largest manufacturer of engines for the civilian and military aeronautical industry (airplanes, helicopters, drones), the main customers being Airbus, Boing, Lockheed Martin, Bombardier, and the unit in Rzeszow that Raoul Popescu runs is the most modern one from the group, with an initial investment value of about half a billion euros.

Why did we choose Rzeszow? Because there is a non-profit association similar to AIM (Aviation Valley Association), because Rzeszow was (until 16 years ago) a city with a population of about 130.000 inhabitants with a destiny similar to that of Baia Mare city and many cities in Eastern Europe and, of course, because we have ... Raoul Popescu.

In short, Rzeszow was a city whose production unit for aircraft engines (which competed with the Romanian „Turbomecanica” and around which the city breathed economically) reduced its activity almost until closing in the first years of capitalism. At the same time, in the locality, there was at the time of 1989 a technical university with about 6.000 students, which, in turn, declined in the 1990s.

In 2002, the aircraft engine production unit was privatized by P&W. During the same period, the Aviation Valley Association was founded with the aim of making the initial investment and further development of P&W to the maximum benefit of the community in Rzeszow, and thus P&W to ensure its durable sustainability for the workforce and local suppliers.

Here are the effects of these two events from 2002, along with the consistent subsequent collaboration between the economic environment, the Aviation Valley Association, the university environment, and the public administration:

• In 2018, Rzeszow is known as the city with the highest rate of development in Poland (a country which, in turn, is experiencing an economic turnaround, recently being evaluated by international audit bodies as a developed country - 25th along the 24 countries that were considered developed until then).
• All major players in the global market for aircraft engines and sub-components, services, and maintenance have production units in the city of Rzeszow, which has generated the largest concentration of the aeronautical industry in Eastern Europe.
• The population of the city has increased from 130.000 to 180.000 inhabitants.
• The Rzeszow Technical University is the largest and most important in Poland and together with two other public and two private universities, 60.000 students are trained every year.
• Rzeszow Airport has 3 daily flights to Warsaw, multiple weekly flights to many European cities and a weekly flight to New York.
• Among the major events that Rzeszow city regularly hosts, even during our visit, there was an international start-up investment forum with over 4.800 participants who occupied all the accommodation places in the city and over a radius of 35 km around it (in the city and the adjacent area having numerous important accommodation facilities made in the last 15 years by local private investors), forum attended by the president of Poland and president of the National Bank of Poland.

In Rzeszow we visited, both subunits of the company run by our Maramures resident (with impressive technological and economic models), the city, the industrial and advanced technology park, and the Aviation Valley Association.

We came to a conclusion that will guide our future initiatives: it can be done!

Of course, the model cannot be fully replicated. Not all cities can benefit from large investments in the aero industry.

But what we've been told in Rzeszow is that, for the durable development of an area at a comfortable level of prosperity, investments are required (preferably in high value-added industries, which give a very good pace), the effort must be joint (regardless of the source of the initiatives), consistent, persistent (initially, things do not move quickly) and with a high dose of altruism including from the private environment. We hope that we, AIM, can contribute to the development of Maramures together with all those who can get involved.

We thank Raoul Popescu for this experience.