Poland: Opportunities for Investors
After 15 years of courageous economic and political reforms Poland has strengthened its position as one of the fastest growing countries of Central and Eastern Europe. As a member of the EU, NATO and OECD, the country is a trustworthy and reliable partner for international business. It offers exceptional business and investment opportunities.
According to the AT Kearney Report of 2006 the environment for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Poland is very positive and dynamic. Global communications investors ranked Poland first in the world in terms of attractiveness for FDI. The outlook for dynamic development of services in the new technology market is also very optimistic.
There are many reasons why foreign investors are attracted by Poland as area for investments, e.g. in respect of the size of the Polish market, its economic growth and the availability of qualified human resources. Moreover, the government offers many incentives to investors, such as availability of EU structural funds, investment incentives in 14 Special Economic Zones and local districts, industrial and technology parks and access to a complex database of brownfield and greenfield locations.
European Union Structural Funds support investments not just directly but also indirectly, e.g. by supporting construction and modernization of existing infrastructure. A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a designated area in which manufacturing or distribution activities can be conducted on preferential terms. The management of each zone issues permits to do business in the given SEZ and helps in the investment process, e.g. by facilitating contacts with local authorities or central administration in such areas as purchase of land.
Other investment incentives for potential investors are the Special Zones “Technology” and “Industrial parks”. The first one is a group of designated areas of real estate provided with a technology infrastructure, created to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and technologies between scientific institutes and business entities. The second one is a group of selected areas of real estate with an infrastructure from restructured or closed enterprises. This type of park has been created in cooperation with the local government in order to provide favorable conditions for business activities, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The foreign direct investment inflow to Poland in 2006 was at an all time high of over 11bn EUR. Approximately 83% of total foreign direct investment came from EU countries, mainly from Germany, UK, Spain, France. The most significant investors apart from EU are from Switzerland, South Korea, Japan and USA. The main greenfield investors in 2006 were Bridgestone, Dell, Sharp, Toyota and Toshiba.
Poland is becoming an attractive destination for companies active in business processes outsourcing services, such as financial services, logistics and IT. In 2006 over 20 new BPO Centres had been established, including ACN Capgemini, Shell, GE Money Bank, Deutsche Bank.
Polish sectors of huge potential attract many international corporations which are to be locating their subsidiaries or to investing capital in Poland. Just to name some of them: R&D (ABB, Alstom, Avon, IBM, Philips, Volvo, Oracle), automotive components (Volvo, GM, Toyota, MAN), aviation (PZL Mielec, PZL Rzeszów, Pratt & Whitney, WSK Rzeszów, Stamet), white goods (Electrolux, Whirlpool, LG, Indesit, BSH), agriculture industry (Rolnik, Morliny, Hortex, Maspex Wadowice, Żywiec, Okocim), yacht building (Balt Yacht, Delphia Yachts, Galeon, Ostróda Yachts and Ślepsk).
