Poland Attractive to Investors

The former record belonged to the Korean LG in electromobility, the 2019 investment worth EUR 1.3 billion supported by the Polish Investment and Trade Agency as well, the number of newly created jobs totalling 4,000. Before, LG Chem Wrocław Energy had been number one, another electromobility project developed in Poland. Capital expenditure had reached a little over EUR 1 billion, and 810 new jobs were created.

According to experts, the high-value project influx suggests that the war in Ukraine has not, contrary to forecasts, weakened our country’s potential.

Responding to the Situation

In terms of project numbers, we may be closing this year with a slight decline in comparison with 2022: a total of 47 investments were completed in the first half of the year, with the Agency standing in as intermediary and facilitator. To put things in perspective, 126 investment projects were completed in 2022. Yet that was a record-breaking year regarding project volumes alone.

“While 2022 was a year of many projects, their individual values were lower, the influx primarily driven by the Poland Business Harbour Programme”, commented Marcin Fabianowicz, managing director in the Polish Investment and Trade Agency’s Investment Department.

The Programme was designed in response to the situation in Belarus, where many persecution-threatened companies had begun seeking options for relocating their business to safer havens. The campaign resulted in multiple firms arriving in Poland, primarily representing the IT and startup sectors. Originally addressing new technology companies and experts from Belarus, the Programme has gone global.

“We usually deliver several dozen investments supported by the Agency each year, and expect 2023 to be no different”, Marcin Fabianowicz declared.

Yet the Agency suggests that nothing has been written in stone. By June 2023, the value and volume of projects in the delivery phase were approximately 30 percent higher than in 2022. A total of 184 projects worth over PLN 13 billion have hit the preparation stage.

Jobs and Technologies

New projects we have already managed to secure this year will generate 10,496 jobs in Poland, an excellent result in itself – in 2022, a greater project volume had translated into a total of 13,858 jobs. In previous years, new investments had been yielding over ten thousand jobs annually, on average. The years 2016–2017 were truly exceptional, with 16,000 and 17,000 new jobs recorded, respectively. It cannot be ruled out that the record-breaking performance will be repeated this year.

“Nonetheless, investments generating possibly large numbers of jobs are not our focus. Since the unemployment rate in Poland is low, there is no need to fight for jobs as such. Technology transfer is considerably more important as a source of added value in the employment area. Technology transfer generates high-quality better-paid jobs, and this is what we are after today. We want Polish staff to earn more money”, Marcin Fabianowicz declares, emphasising that this is something the Polish Investment and Trade Agency is fighting for.

Given the general industry outlook, the highest number of foreign investment projects is delivered in the BBS sector – state-of-the-art outsourcing. Furthermore, investors representing the electromobility, automotive, electronics and chemical industries are arriving in Poland.

“We are hoping for successive projects in the likes of Intel. This is what we are focusing on, and we are making a conscious effort to secure new endeavours. We also want to grow stronger in electromobility, state-of-the-art business services, IT, and research and development investment segments”, Marcin Fabianowicz added.

In terms of investment influx directions, the United States, South Korea, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, and Belarus remain in the lead, the latter going from strength to strength thanks to the aforementioned Poland Business Harbour Programme.

Incentives and Staffing

The coming years should favour the foreign investment market as well Poland’s qualities are valuable when it comes to attracting investors effectively. They include the country’s favourable location, allowing full access to the European single market. Costs of investment and business operations, attractively low in comparison with other locations, remain an investment magnet as well. It is noteworthy that the entire country was awarded Polish Investment Zone status in 2018, owing to which enterprises delivering new investments are eligible for Corporate and Personal Income Tax waivers for periods of 10–15 years, even up to 70 percent of planned investment value.

This year, the programme of supporting major economic impact investments has been amended with the intent to facilitate grant availability to small- and medium-sized enterprises, reduce requirements determined by company size and project location, and introduce novel investment assessment criteria.

The constantly evolving road, railway and energy grid infrastructure is significant as well, as are the network of research and academic centres, the presence of innovation support centres, and efforts to develop new businesses and startups. Experts have also identified investment process acceleration and the quality of the Polish economy as important dynamics, ones allowing long-term investment planning. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that our country has been successful in avoiding crises for many years.

“Yet highly qualified and educated staff remain Poland’s most important attraction factor. We are a relatively young and hard-working society. We have a high quality education system, technical education included”, says Marcin Fabianowicz.

A runner-up to Estonia and Finland, Poland ranks third in the prestigious international student assessment system – PISA. Furthermore, 92 percent of Polish citizens aged 25–64 are at least secondary school graduates, which places us fifth among all OECD member states, and well above the 78 percent median. Nearly 1.3 million students are currently attending Polish universities – Poland ranks fourth in Europe in terms of student population. Moreover, the Polish university education community is distinctive in its high STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) student population.

PAO