The Memorandum of Understanding with CCPIT was signed by PAIiIZ deputy president Wojciech Fedko, who is responsible for cooperation with the Polish exporters. The agreement enhances trade and investment cooperation between Poland and China. The common effort of PAIiIZ and CCPIT will be focused on the promotion and support of Polish exporters and investors on Chinese market, as well as the inflow of investment from China to Poland. Both sides will also cooperate by organizing seminars, trainings, trade fairs, exhibitions and other promotion activities.

PAIiIZ and CCPIT Henan Provincial Committee signing the MoU in Zhengzhou

More information: www.paiz.gov.pl/20161220/Henan_cooperates_with_PAIiIZ. (PAIiIZ)

Selvita is to invest more than PLN 30m and will create at least 124 jobs. New labs of the company will be neighbouring the Campus of the Jagiellonian University in Pychowice.

Currently, Selvita Group employs over 360 people. One third of them hold a PhD diploma in biomedical research. The company is providing research and development on new oncology therapies in the cooperation with Polish universities. Selvita is also involved in several research projects in central nervous system. (KPT)

Japan is looking for new technologies. Especially, such areas as IoT, cyber security, big data, FinTech and so on are attracting enormously high attention in the market and companies pour into a lot of spending. They are looking for new technologies. Thanks to Abenomics, the economic and investment climate in Japan has been rapidly changing and greatly improved. According to JETRO, business and living costs in Tokyo become less than Hong Kong, Singapore, or Shanghai, and Japanese government tries to tackle regulatory barriers eagerly.

The presentation of business opportunities of the IT market in Japan will be provided by Japanese experts and JETRO officers. The seminar will be held in English only.

The admission is free after registration: www.jetro.go.jp/form5/pub/pow/it_seminar_krakow

More information by:
Małgorzata Szmidt (JETRO)
malgorzata_szmidt@jetro.go.jp
tel: +48 22 322 75 00

The demand of a broad range of services is boosting, globally. Trade in business-to-business (B2B) and information and communications technology (ICT) services in particular has flourished, averaging growth of 9% and 12% per year respectively between 2000 and 2015. Poland is in line with the global trend of exports of service, reports HSBC in the “Global Trade Forecast” report.

The survey shows that developed countries currently dominate international service exports, especially in knowledge-intensive industries. If the shift towards increased spending on services endures, this would tend to benefit developed economies. However, Poland which is a highly successful exporter of business services can also benefit from this trend.

Poland is considered as a service hub, while Services exports from Poland is set to grow at ca. 7% p.a. in the next 15 years, that is faster than merchandise exports (ca. 5% p.a.), suggest trade forecast prepared by Oxford Economics, commissioned by HSBC.

Services account for about a fifth of total Polish exports. Transport and tourism constitute half of services trade. As HSBC experts explain, the significant share of transport service in foreign trade it is due to the fact that Poland benefits from its proximity to the EU, playing an important role in German supply chains, which are associated with transportation services; and being a transit route for goods and energy between Eastern and Western Europe.

The share of the top two categories - travel and tourism, has also been declining, as information, computer and technology (ICT) services exports are gaining importance. Currently there are about 1,000 of BSS centres all over Poland. At the moment key services provided by these centres are customer service, IT and advanced finance-accounting processes. What is more, according to Pracuj.pl, within just next four years even as many as 300,000 people could find a job in BPO/SSC sector. The report shows how Poland have benefited from the so-called “nearshoring”. It is when companies choose to outsource services to geographically proximate locations with less difference in time zones, which makes project management more efficient. EU membership and good doing business environment (including data and intellectual property rights protection, quality telecommunication infrastructure and wide range of available financial services) are other important “push” factors for boosting Poland BSS sector. To be successful on demanding foreign markets, Polish service providers develop their offer towards more technologically-advanced, which results in Poland’s evolution from an exporter of simple services to a supplier of more complex services, the reports suggests.

To learn more visit: globalconnections.hsbc.com/downloads/trade_forecasts/pl.pdf

Such Scandinavian countries as Sweden stand out in terms of innovation on the global scene. Moreover, in the Global Competitiveness Index 2015-2016 list, the Scandinavian countries were among the 15 most competitive world economies.

What makes the Scandinavian counties stand out in this ranking? First of all it is clear institutional frameworks, effective government policies regarding innovation, cooperation between different entities aimed at implementing innovation policies and a strong tradition of public-private partnerships. However, the key factor are outstanding results in the excellent quality of education sector. The highest expenditures for education measured as a percentage of GDP are in Denmark (8.8%), Sweden (7.4%) and Finland (7.1%). The innovative power of Scandinavian economies also bases on continuously increased expenditures on Research & Development (in case of Finland they reach 3.78% of GDP) that are correlated with a high numbers of patents in those countries.

© magann - Fotolia.com

But this what distinguishes Scandinavian business culture is its approach to natural environment and focus on responsible development. According to the Eurostat, the share of renewable energy in the EU energy consumption increased, on average, to 16% in 2014, but the objective is the level of 20% by 2020. The Nordic countries have significantly exceeded that level, breaking EU records. The country which can boast the highest level of using renewable energy is Sweden with the gross share of 52.6%. So are Finland (38.7%) and Denmark (29.2%). The eco-friendly business landscape is also shaped with the boosting ICT and innovative sector, write authors of the report.

Read the report: “Innovative solutions of the Scandinavian companies in Poland”