Brief introduction to the Polish economy
Poland, with its steady economic growth and political stability, guaranteed by Poland’s membership in the European Union, OECD, WTO, and NATO, remained an excellent country for investments and developing business not only in Europe, but globally. Moreover, the Polish market with its 38 million citizens is one of the biggest of its kind in the European Union.
Poland is the only European country, which has not experienced a recession, but instead, has reached the fastest pace of economic growth on the continent. Furthermore, Poland’s membership in the EU and a favorable location in Central Europe on the crossroads of the main trading routes facilitate exports and imports worldwide as well as opens the door to the foreign investment market throughout the EU. A rapidly growing start-ups market in Poland convinced Google to choose Warsaw as a seat of its business incubator, the only one in Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw Campus will help in the development of technological companies and encourage the development of innovation in Poland.
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTEMNTS
Poland was ranked fourth in Europe and the fourteenth in the world by international companies as top prospective investment destinations for 2013-2015, according to the World Investment Prospects survey 2013-2015 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Furthermore, foreign investors indicated Poland as the most attractive location for new projects in Central and Eastern Europe. According to the latest EY’s European Attractiveness Survey 2014, Poland was ranked the 1st country in CEE region and 3rd across the continent in terms of the number of jobs generated by FDI in 2013. Poland is also a leader in CEE region in terms of number of projects in the field of Research & Development – mainly due to large and growing IT industry.
OUTSOURCING SERVICES
Increasing interest of managers in searching for ways to optimize had a great impact on a rapid development of the outsourcing services market in the last few years. With this regard, Poland was ranked third in the world after India and Philippines and Kraków was pointed out at 9th place among the most attractive cities in the latest report “The Tholons Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations 2015”.
SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
Poland offers many investment incentives such as industrial and technology parks as well as fourteen special economic zones providing tax breaks that will remain operational through at least 2026. According to the Financial Times report “Global Free Zones of the Future 2014” Łódź Special Economic Zone (Lodz SEZ) is the winner of the European SME category. The report also listed: Katowice Special Economic Zone (honourable mention), Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone (commended for soft landing services), Pomeranian Special Economic Zone (commended for the CSR practices).