| POLISH INFOMATION AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT AGENCY | |||||||||||||
NEWSLETTER January 15th 2009, Number 105 | |||||||||||||
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TABLE OF CONTENTS NEWS
INVESTMENTS IN POLAND
FROM THE REGIONS
DID YOU KNOW...?
FROM THE EDITOR Dear Readers, The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency together with the consulting firm KPMG organized a conference devoted to the special economic zones’ offer for investors, the zones’ economic influence on the country and their co-operation with the Agency. You may read more on the meeting in the News section. Also we write about two important investment decisions which emerged last week. The first concerns the decision of the American computer group Dell which shifts part of the Irish production from Limerick to its Łódź-based facility. The second regards UniCredit Group’s project to create in Szczecin a BPO centre for Germany, Austria and Poland. At the end we also write about new interesting investments attracted by some special economic zones and about the impressive increase in the number of registered Internet names in the .pl domain. Pleasant reading! PAIiIZ’s editorial team NEWS Conference presenting “A guide on special economic zones in Poland” The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency together with the consulting firm KPMG organized a conference presenting “A guide on special economic zones in Poland”. The meeting was held on January 14th at the Westin Hotel in Warsaw.
At the very beginning of the conference the President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, Paweł Wojciechowski PhD emphasised the economic significance of special economic zones which over the last years have become one of the major mechanisms attracting investment to Poland. The PAIiIZ President attracted attention to selected vital effects resulting from the zones’ business activity e.g. new technologies inflow, real employment rates increase in and out of the zones as well as the zones’ palpable influence on regional development. The presented summary gathered all essential information on exemptions and subsidies available in the Polish special economic zones. Mr Kiejstut Żagun, Senior Manager of the Grants&Incentives Team from the consulting firm KPMG emphasised that the zones “are among the most certain instruments to obtain relieves” offered by the Polish government. Moreover, the zones do beef up infrastructure and induce help on the part of local authorities e.g. in the process of highly-qualified cadre recruitment - stressed Mr Żagun. The guide clarifies the mission and legal acts regulating the workings of the special economic zones. It also presents all the existing zones in detail and contains the Act on Special Economic Zones amended in August 2008. The conference was attended by numerous zones’ delegates and media representatives. (PAIiIZ)
Dell shifts its European manufacturing operations to Poland Dell’s production of computer systems for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa is moving from Limerick to its Polish facility and third-party manufacturing partners over the next year.
Dell, the American computer group decided to shift part of the Irish production from Limerick to its Łódź-based facility. The process, which forms part of a $3 billion global cost-cutting drive announced last year, will be taking part gradually throughout 2009. The decision is a response to the company’s transport and production environment analysis. Within the next 12 months Dell expects to axe 1,900 jobs and shut down production in Limerick. The initial lay-offs of employees will take place in April, with the full transition expected to be completed by January 2010. Sean Corkery, vice-president of operations, EMEA at Dell said: “This is a difficult decision, but the right one for Dell to become even more competitive, and deliver greater value to customers in the region. We will treat affected employees with dignity and respect and offer them every practical support through this extended transition period to minimise the impact on them.”
In turn, PAIiIZ President, Paweł Wojciechowski PhD said: “I am very pleased with the fact that Dell opted for Poland, especially in the face of the global economic slowdown. The decision confirms Poland’s strong economic position and the country’s competitiveness. Projects from the IT sector do create a solid base for future innovation development attractive for the country especially thanks to the Polish competitive university education offered in the field”. Irish workers in Limerick would continue to co-ordinate manufacturing operations throughout Europe, and research and develop new products. Global Innovation Solutions Centre and EMEA Command Centre will remain in Limerick. Also sales, marketing and technical support divisions located in Cherrywood in the vicinity of Dublin will continue operating in Ireland. (Dell, PAIiIZ) New regulations to make Poland-based companys’ life easier New regulations streamlining starting up and running commercial companies in Poland comes into force. The regulations were developed by a team led by the Secretary in the Ministry of Economy, Adam Szejnfeld.
According to the new regulations, initial capital required to start up a limited company should be at least 5 thousand PLN while in the case of a joint-stock company it was lowered from 500 thousand PLN to 100 thousand PLN. These are the most important changes concerning the Code of Commercial Companies included in the amendment to the act. The Code’s former regulations on commercial companies constituted a serious development barrier to companies in Poland. The rules tended to impose often unnecessary administrative obligations like the duty of transferring civil partnerships into unlimited partnerships. Such a transformation was required when the company’s net income for two consecutive years reached and amount that normally requires a ledger to keep detailed accounting records. Now the troublesome obligation has been eliminated. Moreover, due to high requirements concerning the necessary amount of initial capital the previous regulations effectively hampered dynamic creation of new companies. There is also a number of other issues which thanks to the new regulations should no longer pose difficulties to entrepreneurs. This week the Polish President signed another vital act from the package “Actions for enterprise” i.e. the Act on Public-Private Partnership. The change of regulations in the Code of Commercial Companies constitutes only one of twenty legislative initiatives prepared by the Ministry of Economy and coordinated by Mr Adam Szejnfeld in the frame of the “Actions for enterprise” which includes projects of amendment to the Act on Freedom of Economic Activity, on the Act on Public-Private Partnership and on the Foreign Exchange Act. (Ministry of Economy) INVESTMENTS IN POLAND UniCredit Group creates a BPO centre in Szczecin The international Milan-based UniCredit Group Milan creates in Szczecin a BPO centre for Germany, Austria and Poland. The company will invest 18.5 million PLN and offer employment to round 430 persons. Plans of the investment were given to public information by the representatives of the Bank, the authorities of the city of Szczecin and delegates from PAIiIZ on a press conference which took place on January 8th.
UniCredit creates in Szczecin a centre for the so called back office services. The centre will serve as an institution supporting business strategies of Austrian, German and Polish banks. It was the strategic location of the city, situated in the vicinity of the Polish-German border, easy access to highly-qualified and foreign language competent cadre as well as the relatively low number of this kind of investment in the region that made the investor favour Szczecin over other localities. The positive attitude on the part of the city’s authorities was of utmost importance for the project’s realisation. During the press conference, the PAIiIZ Vice President Paweł Stelmaszczyk said that in the era of global economic slowdown, Poland becomes an attractive destination for this kind of projects. Companies realising projects of the kind are mainly in search of young, well-educated specialists, high standard office space and competitive prices of running business activities. Poland caters perfectly for investors’ needs and thus competes successfully with such countries as the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary or India. Mr Stelmaszczyk informed also that currently PAIiIZ has been receiving a substantially greater number of investor applications concerning outsourcing than in the previous years.
The centre is to offer services in the field of financial operations related to credits and mortgage loans, consultancy, process optimization, training, project management and bank process services (Core Banking), including a wide range of services directly supporting operational work of divisions in Germany and Austria. Recruitment process for the UniCredit centre is planed to start in March 2009 and should finish by the end of 2010. The prospective employee’s profile includes both young university graduates and people with work experience and, above all, with knowledge of German or English. The estimated number of new workplaces to be created accounts for 430.UniCredit Group is a Milan-based, pan-European banking organization, with over 40 million customers and operations in 22 countries in Europe. The company employs 7 thousand people. UniCredit is listed on stocks in Milan, Frankfurt, including the XETRA platform and since 2007 it has also been present on the Warsaw stock exchange. The Polish Bank Pekao S.A. forms part of the group. In 2006 the city of Szczecin has mapped out an investor-oriented strategy according to which the city should become a service centre for countries in the west of Europe. To this end the city has recently been attracting shared services and business process outsourcing centres. The city aims also at the IT and ITC sectors development and thus supports the Szczecin Science and Technology Park, a start-up oriented place. (PAIiIZ, Szczecin City Council) Unilever to open an R&D centre in Poznań - Unilever Polska is to open an R&D centre for Liquid Foodstuff in Poznań - the company’s spoekesperson Wojciech Tomczak told the Polsih Press Agency.
The centre in Poznań is one of the six Unilever R&D centres planed to be constructed in Europe. The company entered Poland in 2008. According to information disclosed by the company’s spokesperson Wojciech Tomczak, the new building will contain offices, laboratories and a pilot production line. (PAP) MACROECONOMIC POLAND
Source: www.nbp.pl FROM THE REGIONS Kostrzyn-Słubice SEZ to host new investors Last week the Kostrzyn-Słubice Special Economic Zone issued two permissions allowing new investors to start business activity in the zone. New investors declared to invest 22 million PLN and to jointly create 50 new workplaces.
TEKRA is one of the investors and plans to construct a factory on a 2.8 ha plot in Gubin. Initially production will focus on metal and steel structures for industrial machines while the plans are to expand production by ready telescope extension arms and other parts of steel structures and construction machines and hoists. The plant is estimated to create 30 jobs while investment outlay is expected to reach at least 13.5 million PLN. NAFA Polska is the second new investing company which wants to construct a plant in Łozienica by Goleniów. The facility will offer reloading and storage services as well as focus on technical research and analyses. The plant is estimated to cost 8.5 million PLN and create at least 20 jobs. (Kostrzyn-Subice SEZ) New sub zone in Białystok On December 30th a decree on the Suwałki Special Economic Zone came into force. According to the decree issued by the Council of Ministers, a 30 ha plot located in Białystok is to form part of the Suwałki SEZ.
Tender procedures aimed at selecting entrepreneurs to develop business activity in the new part of the SEZ are about to be initiated soon. All the companies which will buy lots in the SEZ and meet all requirements are in line to receive business activity permission and the right to tax concessions reaching up to 70% of investment costs incurred. (Suwałki SEZ) Summing up 2008 in the Katowice SEZ The company managing the Katowice Special Economic Zone summed up 2008: 24 new investments acquired last year are worth 1.5 billion PLN and generate 3.7 thousand new workplaces.
The Zone’s 2008 performance exceeds all previous forecasts. The SEZ closes the year with 24 new investment projects. PLAST-DACH is the last company which received permission to invest in the SEZ in 2008. The investor plans to build a production factory in Myślenice. In general, companies which opted for the SEZ will in the incoming years invest near 1.5 billion PLN and create 3.7 thousand jobs. (Katowice SEZ) Rewarded investor in Łódź The Łódź SEZ is to host Libner, a rewarded producer of car bodies and lorry trailers.
Libner Polska is about to start production in Kutno sub zone of the Łódź Special Economic Zone. Libner manufactures car bodies and lorry trailers. The future Kutno-based factory is to be the company’s fourth plant in Europe. Libner has not only been developing dynamically but may also boast about achievements in the field of innovation. In fact, the company was granted the 1st prize at last year’s Internationale Automobil Ausstellung für Personenkraftwagen IAA in Hannover for its body car Libner Openbox C+. (Łódź SEZ) DID YOU KNOW...? Internet domains ending in “pl” reached 1.3 million The number of Internet domains ending in ”pl” kept in the NASK register reached 1.3 million at the end of 2008.
NASK, Research and Academic Networks in Poland, informs that last year resulted decisive for the Polish national registry of Internet names in the .pl domain. 2008 closed with over 1.3 million registered domains what places Poland in the 5th place among EU member states and in the 10th place in the world. The whole 2008 witnessed a 73.5% increase in domain registration. According to NASK, in several of the highly developed countries like Japan, Korea, France and Spain both the current number of domains per 1000 persons and the pace of new domain registration tends to be lower than in Poland. The number of domains ending in .pl and registered in NASK at the end of 2007 hovered at around 762 thousand. At the end of the 1stQ2008 the number reached 1 million while the 3rdQ of tht year closed with 1.2. million. NASK is a research and development organization and the Polish national registry of Internet names in the .pl domain. The organization is a leading Polish data networks operator who offers state-of-the-art telecommunications and data solutions to business, administration and academic customers. (NASK, PAP) 
Editorial office: Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, 00-585 Warsaw, Bagatela Street 12 Economic Promotion Department, tel: (+48 22) 334 98 15, fax: (+48 22) 334 99 98, e-mail: redakcja@paiz.gov.pl | |||||||||||||
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