Download Poland – The Heart of Europe

Poland – The Heart of Europe
Poland’s geographic location - in the hearth of Europe - creates a number of opportunities, attracts
investment from Western Europe as well as from the US and Asia. It also facilitates the logistics activities
related to the exportation of goods to all locations within Europe and to non-European countries.
Poland is one of the largest members of the European Union and is, therefore, a guarantor for stability,
security and prosperity. Its business environment is inviting and provides many promising investment
opportunities.
“Poland’s enormous development potential, energy and hunger for success
build the core of its beating heart.”
Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency
1.
ECONOMIC FIGURES
Poland counts a population of 38.17m and is the largest market in Central Europe and the sixth biggest
in the EU. These 38.17m consumers drive an annual retail market growth of 10%.
The Polish economy is developing much faster than the economy of
the whole Euro zone and about 1.5% more than the average of all 27
EU members together. With a GDP growth of 6,1% in 2006 it is
projected to reach 6,5% in 2007. Poland's growth has been driven to
a significant extent by export growth, industrial production and
investments. Employment is also steadily increasing. In 2006 the
unemployment rate has dropped by 4% in comparison to 2005.
Macroeconomic Data 2006
Population – 38m
GDP growth – 6.1%
Unemployment – 13.8%
Inflation ~ 1.4%
Export volume – 79,844m EUR
Import volume –91,215m EUR
Since 2000 high dynamics of export turnovers have been
observed. In 2006 for example the rate reached 18.5%. This is due to improved competitiveness of Polish
goods and just a slight increase in domestic consumption. Polish companies are more interested in
exporting their goods; many market leaders are exporting not only to the EU markets but also to Russia
and Asian countries. Polish exports are based on several key industry sectors: food, furniture, automotive
parts, ships and plastic goods.
Among Poland’s major trade partners the highest export turnovers are attributable to Germany (27.2%),
Russia (9.7%) and Italy (6.7%), while Poland’s main import partners are: Germany (27.2%), Italy (6.4%)
and France (6.3%).
2.
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).
3.
EDUCATION, PERSONNEL AND LABOR MARKET
One of the key factors that make Poland one of the most attractive areas for FDI is undoubtedly the
structure of its society. According to a survey among foreign investors - commissioned by Polish
Information and Foreign Investment Agency - youth, ambitiousness and high skills are the most crucial
characteristics of the Polish society that render Poland such an attractive investment area.
Poland has the largest working population in Central Europe. It possesses also one of the youngest
populations on the continent: 50% of the Polish society is under the age of 34 and 35% is under the age of
25 years. This means an approximate number of 13m young and well-educated people that will enter the
labor market in the near future.
Poland provides a nationwide network of 427 centers of higher education. It consists of 126 public
higher education academies including 17 universities, 18 universities of technology, as well as 301 private
schools of tertiary education. Every year an approximate number of 211,000 students graduate in social
sciences, business and law, 43,000 in engineering, manufacturing and construction, 22,000 in science,
mathematics and computing. There are 20 information and telecommunication academic centers (ICT) and
each of them counts a number of more than 2,500 students and more than 150,000 IT, computer science
and telecommunication students overall.
Polish Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) education centers and specialists are
highly recognized worldwide. They have been continuously winning in the prestigious Top Coder ranking
and also achieving high positions in the worldwide Google Code Jam Competition (1st place in 2005) and
the IBM Linux Scholars Challenge (1st place in 2005). Polish IT specialists are employed by the largest IT
companies in the world. They also constitute major parts of managers responsible for research and
development (R&D) activities in multinational corporations such as Microsoft and Nokia.
The level of foreign language knowledge of young Polish is rising steadily and very fast. The most
popular foreign language is English, followed by German and Russian. A 44% of Polish society is able to
communicate in a foreign language, 33% speak at least two foreign languages. A significant number of
80% of all students do speak English.
Foreign investors highly rate the skills and commitment of Polish employees. In many cases the Polish
subsidiaries of foreign companies were considered to be the most successful units worldwide according to
their management. In the 2005 Ernst & Young Report, Poland is placed fifth after Germany, UK, France
and Scandinavian countries considering the level of labor skills. Rotation between various companies is
common, thus professionals are very versatile regarding skills from many sectors.
Due to rapid economic development and an increasing number of foreign investment in Poland the need
for qualified production employees and engineers is contemporaneously rising. The labor market is
stabilising and the average income is also increasing. In 2005 the average monthly salary in the business
sector for example added up to approximately EUR 592, while in February 2007 it reached an amount of
about EUR 702.
According to law in Poland there are 12 monthly salaries to be paid per year, whereas more can be
agreed upon as bonus or commission. The income tax is on a gradual basis: 19%, 30%, 40%. The social
security contributions are to be partly paid by the employer (19.83% and 22.72%) and partly by the
employee himself (18.71%).
It is estimated that the UEFA EURO 2012 event will boost the Polish economy and especially the labor
market. The FDI inflow of at least EUR 3bn within one year will create at least about 370 thousand jobs in
the sports sector, the entertainment and leisure sector as well as in the road, rail and air traffic sector.
4.
COMPETENT ON SITE PERSONNEL CONSULTING
HILL International Poland has been present on the Polish market since 1992 and was one of the first HR
consultancies in the country. Amongst our clients are domestic and international companies whereas the
biggest part of our target clients consists of mostly multinational companies. For more than 15 years we
have been engaged in business with clients of almost every economical sector such as IT,
telecommunication, banking, electric manufacturers, insurance, FMCG, pharmaceutical and steel.
Our clients benefit from the extensive knowledge and experience of the highly educated, multilingual team
of psychologists and sales experts with broad experience in different business branches.
As one of the most recognized personnel consultancy in Poland we offer complex and actual HR services,
such as recruitment projects, Assessment Centers / Development Centers, Personal Audits, Outplacement
Coachings, Outplacements, Individual Coachings, first and foremost the HILL Competence Analysis©, and
many more.
HILL Poland is assisted in this process by the experience and expertise of the HILL Group. Over 30 years
of personnel and management consultancy, scientific methodology, and an extensive network in Europe
and central Asia enables HILL to provide successful consultancy in the areas of personnel and
management for numerous firms in diverse branches.
Date: August 2007