Polish-British economic co-operation – a summary of 200904.03.2010The UK is one of Poland’s most important trade partners. Despite the global economic crisis, bilateral trade between both countries continued to grow and in 2009 it was £100m greater than in 2008. At the end of 2008, the UK was the seventh largest foreign investor in Poland in terms of cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI).The National Bank of Poland’s statistics show that €8.4 billion of FDI came into Poland in 2009. This is just 16% less than in 2008. According to FDI Intelligence, 17 greenfield investment projects were carried out by 15 companies from the UK in Poland last year, creating 7,200 new jobs. The largest investment concerned the services sector (26% of all projects) and in agrifood (24% of all project).
From the left: Martin Oxley, BPCC; Ric Todd, HM Ambassador to Poland; Bożena Czaja, PAIiIZ; Monika Słomka PAIiIZ and Michael Dembinski, BPCC. |
Britain’s largest investors in Poland include: Tesco, Imperial Tobacco, Glaxo SmithKline, British Oxygen Corporation (now Linde), AVIVA, Associated British Foods, Cadbury's (now Kraft), Shell Overseas Holdings, BP and Pilkington (now Nippon Sheet Glass). According to Polish investment promotion agency PAIiIZ, there were 83 investors from the UK present in Poland, making the UK the seventh-largest foreign investor in Poland. Globally, the UK is second only to the US, so in Poland, the UK is definitely under-represented.
Last year, PAIiIZ piloted 36 investment projects into Poland worth a total of €887m, creating over 9,700 new jobs within the next few years. Two of these projects come from the UK; one is logistics firm TJX, which is planning to invest €20m and create 800 new jobs. Cadbury’s has invested €250m in Poland before its takeover by Kraft Foods, creating 750 new jobs. Kraft has announced that it plans to extend its Polish manufacturing operations at the expense of the Cadbury’s plant in the UK.)
PAIiIZ is currently running 118 projects with a joint value of €4,365 billion which could potentially create over 33,500 jobs. Of that number, 17 projects worth €230m, that would create 2,500 new jobs, come from the UK.
From the left: Martin Oxley, BPCC; Ric Todd, HM Ambassador to Poland; Bożena Czaja, PAIiIZ; Monika Słomka PAIiIZ and Michael Dembinski, BPCC. |
Bilateral trade between the UK and Poland continues to grow. The UK is Poland’s fourth largest export market and ninth largest import source. For the UK, Poland is its 20th largest export market (a fall of three places from 2008) and 15th largest import sources (a rise of three places from 2008). Last year, the value of Polish exports to the UK rose by 8.8% to 4.7 billion from £4.2 billion in 2008. British exports to Poland fell by 7.6% from £3.0 billion to £2.7 billion, In total, bilateral trade grew by £100m compared to 2008.
The BPCC’s chief executive officer, Martin Oxley, said: ‘We knew that 2009 would be a tough year. So it came as a surprise to us that, despite the big fall in the value of trade in the automotive sector – which is the largest category of bilateral trade between our two countries – Polish exports continue to grow strongly. Looking at the picture from the UK’s perspective, we’re disappointed that British exporters were not more dynamic when it comes to exploiting Poland’s continued economic growth. Also, the pound today is 24% weaker against the euro than it was three years ago, so British products should be more competitive than ones from Germany, France or Italy. That is why we consider that the UK has been poor at making the most of the opportunities to boost its exports to Poland as a way of emerging from the recession”.
For more information contact:
Aleksandra Bigda, PAIiIZ, 022 334 98 40, aleksandra.bigda@paiz.gov.pl,
Wioletta Rodak-Słabuszewska, BPCC, (+48 022) 320 01 18, wioletta.rodak@bpcc.org.pl
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