Dear Readers,

We are pleased to inform that the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency will take part in the international trade fair “Automechanika” in Frankfurt. At the event PAIiIZ will take the advantage to inform about and promote investment possibilities in Poland for the automotive industry projects. Visit the News section on our website to keep informed about the event. Moreover, in this week’s issue we write about new foreign investments in the Łódź and Legnica SEZs. We also provide data proving that Polish airports continue to perform successfully and that generally more and more Poles take to flying.

Pleasant reading!

PAIiIZ’s editorial team

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NEWS

The fairs have been organised every two years, starting from 1971. In 2006 the 19th edition of the event attracted over 4600 exhibitors, 1500 journalists and an astounding number of 160 000 visitors, executives from a variety of sectors forming a substantial part of them, from all over the world. This year’s edition is estimated to gather at least the same number of exhibitors and guests. Poland is to be represented by 86 entrepreneurs.

The prestigious event is a perfect occasion to present Poland as an investment-friendly destination for foreign undertakings from the automotive sector. The Polish Consulate’s Trade and Investment Promotion Section (WPHiI) in Cologne in co-operation with PAIiIZ will organise and manage an information stand presenting materials form the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Treasury, PAIiIZ, the Polish Chamber of Automotive Industry, Polish Tourist Organization as well as offers of the Polish special economic zones, technological parks and investment possibilities in Polish communes. The PAIiIZ’s participation in the fairs will not only enable the Agency to establish new contacts with prospective investors but will offer an opportunity to learn about the latest worldwide trends in the sector.

For more information please contact Bronisław Jaworski form the Consulate General in Cologne Tel: 0 049-221-34 99 29, e-mail: bronislaw.jaworski@wirtschaft-polen.de, Piotr Sołowiec from PAIiIZ, Warsaw, Tel: 0 22-334 98 78, e-mail: piotr.sowlowiec@paiz.gov.pl or Artur Terlecki from PAIiIZ, Warsaw, Tel: 0 22-334 99 17, e-mail: artur.terlecki@paiz.gov.pl (PAIiIZ)

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INVESTMENTS IN POLAND

The Chinese investor constructs its factory in Legnickie Pole (Lower Silesia). Having received the activity permit in January 2008, Lenovo Poland decided to construct in the Legnica SEZ its first European desktop computers factory. The 30,000 sq m factory will have an annual capacity of 1.7 million entities. Lenovo will invest 4.1 million EUR in new production lines and office equipment. The company wants to hire around 1300 people and will look for both highly-qualified specialists and production workers. In order to be able to start production in December this year, the company has already began the recruitment process and has also declared its willingness to enter into co-operation with local service providers. The Legnica SEZ openly endorses the co-operation and supports the investment which together with the Volkswagen investment constitutes the SEZ’s flagship undertaking.

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Production line in the new Danfoss factory

Danfoss, a partnership with Danish capital, forms part of an international Danfoss Group. The company, which manufactures heat pumps, heating and air conditioning systems, obtained the business activity permit to operate in the Łódź SEZ in November 2007 and as of June 2007 it has already invested round 40 million PLN and hired 150 employees. In fact, the Danish investor developed an already existing factory by constructing production and storage premises. Now the production facility which measures 6500 sq m and is equipped with modern production lines is estimated to produce around 30 thousand heat pumps a year, 95% if which is destined for EU markets. Both parts of the project, the Łódź SEZ’s management and Danfoss, are satisfied with the way the co-operation has been developing to date. The company declares further investments that may reach 65 million PLN by 2012, wants to boost the factory’s capacity and create at least 250 new jobs. (ŁSEZ, Danfoss)

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On the area of 25 ha new investors plan to realise investments worth 101 million PLN. Thanks to the latest declarations the outlook for the Legnica-based SEZ seems quite bright and provides scope for SEZ’s performance improvement both in terms of sales and profits gained by the SEZ management partnership.

At the end of July and the beginning of August the SEZ issued two new permits, this time for Polish SMEs companies. The Polish investors who are active in the service and storage-packaging sectors will invest 5 million PLN and offer employment to over 50 workers in the Bolesławiec county. (LSEZ)

Legnica Special Enomic Zone

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• Poles take to flying

  Over 6.2 million people in Poland opted for air transport last year i.e. over 16% more than in 2006, “Rzeczpospolita” daily informs. 280 million chose travelling by rail and 720 million by car. (Rzeczpospolita)

• Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport (source: LOT)

  9.6 million passengers attended in the 1^st half of 2008

  In the 1^st half of 2008 Polish airports attended 9.6 million passengers i.e. over 14% more than in the 1^st half of 2007

  The Warsaw-based Okęcie airport continues to be the leader with an overall number of 4.5 million customers attended in the 1st half of the year, i.e. 440 thousand more than in the same period of 2007, informs PAP citing data provided by the Civil Aviation Office. Nevertheless, the capital airport’s share in the aviation market in Poland fell slightly in the last year from 49% to 47%, to the benefit of other dynamically developing regional airports. Poland has 12 airports entitled to an international passenger flow attendance. Among those that reach the highest rates of new client acquisition the top three are Poznań with a 60% increase in customer flow, Bydgoszcz - 47% rise and Katowice - 36% followed by Kraków and Gdańsk. (PAP)

• A 14.3% increase in retail sales in July

  According to the Central Statistical Office retail sales in Poland rose by 14.3% in July y-o-y, and in comparison to June this year by 1.8%. In June 2008 the retail sales increased by 14.2% y-o-y. In July the greatest increase were noted in sales of fibre, garment and footwear. (PAP)

• 77% of TV sets in Europe will be produced in Poland

  LCD panel production in the LG Display factories in Biskupice near Wrocław have already reached 5 million. “Gazeta Wyborcza” got to estimates prepared by the Ministry of Economy according to which in two years’ time the factories in Lower Silesia will have been producing 77% of all the LCD TV sets in Europe. Due to the fact that several electronic concerns from Asia, among others, Toshiba and LG, invested in assembly plants located in the region of Lower Silesia and thanks to many subcontractors and partners operating in the region, Poland became a leading producer of TV sets for the whole of Europe. According to “Gazeta Wyborcza” the current annual production capacity amounting to 20 million sets may reach 35 million in 2010. As many as 32 million of the sets will be equipped with LCD panels and only 3 million of the whole production is to be comprised of the kinescope type TV sets. (Gazeta Wyborcza)

• Exchange rates (as of 28.08.2008):

	Buy	Sell
USD	2.2429	2.2883
EUR	3.3029	3.3697

Source: www.nbp.pl

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FROM THE REGIONS

Shenyang and Katowice - twin towns

While contacts between the cities date back to 1999, the efforts aiming at establishing official relations began in 2005. That year “Polish Days”, an event promoting Silesian mining companies, was organised in Shenyang. It turned out that economic exchange within exactly this sector is of vital interest to both parties.

Polish Embassy in Beijing took up the role of a mediator and since 2007 the cities officially co-operate within the so called town twinning scheme. The official status of the co-operation provides a better basis for economic contacts with special attention to the mining industry and the Katowice Special Economic Zone. The booming Chinese economy and the impressive volume of investments taking place in the country may serve as a rich set of experiences that may prove useful in the face of the upcoming realisation of the Katowice city centre rebuilding, esp. experience in road connection construction as well as in sport and office facilities design.

During the last visit of the city of Katowice and the Silesia voviodship’s representatives in Shenyang the Polish visitors initiated talks on expanding the cities’ co-operating also to the fields of culture and academic education. The city of Shenyang is the capital of the Liaoning province with a population of over 5 million people. The province is one of the most important and most dynamically developing industrial centres in China concentrating activities from the mining, energetic, mechanical, pharmaceutical, electronic, car and chemical sectors. The city itself, which under the reign of the Qing dynasty was the country’s capital, is nowadays the Northeast China’s cultural, research and educational hub.

„Contacts between the cities do contribute to an increased interest among Chinese entrepreneurs in investing in the region of Katowice in different sectors as the market does offer big investment possibilities.”, Katarzyna Włodarczyk from the Katowice Promotion Office told the PAIiIZ Newsletter. “The city of Katowice is interested in developing the co-operation with Shenyang. New exchange possibilities concerning not only commercial exchange within mining and mechanical industry but also in the field of culture have been outlined. We hope for successful co-operation also on this ground.”, said Katarzyna Włodarczyk (Katowice City Hall).

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ANALYSES AND REPORTS

According to this year’s report by the Ministry of Economy the positive link between the enterprise-oriented activity level, the economic growth and the situation on the labour market may easily be observed in Poland. The GDP increase in 2007 by 6.6% reflects the good condition of Polish companies. In fact, the annual accounting profit of private companies, hiring more than 9 persons, in 2007 rose by 26% y-o-y and accounted for over 127 million PLN. Also in 2007 private undertakings experienced the highest in decade profit rate and intensified the employment dynamics by 5%. From the overall sum of investment costs incurred by Polish companies, 126 billion PLN i.e. a 27% increase y-o-y, and from the 2 000 billion PLN in form of profits, 86% was made by private companies. It should not be forgotten that from 2003 the foreign trade turnover has been growing steadily and in 2007 the export value exceeded 100 billion EUR, 80% of which was destined for the EU markets. At the same time the value of import accounted for 77.3 billion EUR. The foreign trade commodities structure has been changing and Polish export has been displaying a clear tendency for high and medium-high technologically advanced products.

According to ministerial experts in order to maintain the positive tendency the Polish enterprise needs the red tape slashing, the initial business-connected costs cuts as well as the tax system and the investment process simplification.
The first report “Enterprise in Poland” was published in 2003. The yearly publication is prepared by the Ministry of Economy and aims at presenting Polish companies’ economic condition against the macroeconomic situation of the country, examines their overall performance and pinpoints areas in need of improvement. (Ministry of Economy)

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