| POLISH INFOMATION AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT AGENCY | ||||||||||||
NEWSLETTER May 28th 2009, Number 124 | ||||||||||||
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TABLE OF CONTENTS NEWS
INVESTMENTS IN POLAND
FROM THE REGIONS
DID YOU KNOW...?
FROM THE EDITOR Dear Readers, Today we especially recommend the invitation to the conference organised by PAIiIZ and KPMG which will be held this Friday and to the Polish Investforum to be held in June. We also inform about two foreign investments in Opole and in Jasionka nearby Rzeszów. It is worth reading about the use of resources coming from the EU funds allocated to the development of Eastern Poland and about the offer presented by the Legnica Technology Park. And finally, you may find information on the Kraków-based Experiment Garden. Pleasant reading! PAIiIZ’s editorial team NEWS PAIiIZ and KPMG invite to a conference The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency and the professional services firm KPMG invite to the presentation of the report “Poland - an attractive destination for Shared Services Centre”. The conference will be held at the PAIiIZ seat at 12 Bagatela Str. on May 29th, 2009 from 11.30 a.m. to 13.30 p.m.
The report presentation will be accompanied by a discussion panel which will concern the locations of Shared Services Centres. Poland has a unique opportunity to become one of the major hubs for this kind of investment. The global crisis is stimulating international companies to seek cost reduction solutions. Centralization of selected business functions (e.g. accounting services) in Shared Services Centres meets the objective. As the biggest country in the CEE region Poland provides the largest variety of locations for SSC and BPO. Shortly, it can become a leader in the inflow of foreign investments to the CEE region. Poland has many locations that meet investors requirements regarding the availability and quality of resources and required infrastructure. In addition, the recent devaluation of the Polish currency has decreased prospective operating costs in Poland. The conference will be attended by Sławomir Majman - Memebr of the PAIiIZ Management Board, Jerzy Kalinowski - Partner, KPMG and investors from the SSC sector. During the meeting the most attractive locations for SSC and BPO together with the already existing Centres (e.g. Telekomunikacja Polska, HP, Samsung) in Poland will be presented. The meeting will be held in Polish and English. To register contact: katarzyna.antosik@paiz.gov.pl. In order to provide all the conference participants with the most comfortable work conditions, only accredited journalists with a valid press pass will be admitted. Polish Investforum The Polish Chamber of Commerce and Roadshow Polska organise the First Polish Investment Forum which is to be held on June 3-4, 2009 in Warsaw. The event aims at presenting investment offers to foreign investors, discussing the current condition of the Polish economy and prospects for its future development in the years to come. The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) is an institutional partner and a patron of the event.
The Forum will be attended by companies interested in the Polish market, representatives of the public sector and local governments from abroad, bilateral chambers of commerce, Polish cities together with their twin-city partners as well as delegates from the Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP). Moreover, the meeting attracted also representatives of the EURO 2012 Organisation Committee, Special Economic Zones, Technology Parks and experts from Polish and foreign companies and financial institutions.
Companies and persons interested in participation, promotion or sponsoring of the event may contact the Forum’s organizers at info@roadshowpolska.pl or + 48 22 498 9277. For more information visit www.roadshowpolska.pl. Go to top... 
Imagine Cup 2010 in Poland The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Waldemar Pawlak and Steve Ballmer, President of Microsoft Corporation informed that Poland will host the 2010 finals of the Imagine Cup competition organized by Microsoft.
The Imagine Cup competition is now the leading, international technology contest for students. The event will generally be very important and will offer a great possibility to promote innovations and entrepreneurship in Poland - said Steve Ballmer. The Imagine Cup Student Competition is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together young technologists from over 100 countries. The aim of the competition is ti insoire young technologists to resolve some of the world's toughest challenges. This year’s edition of the competition will be attended by over 300,000 students from all over the world. The best finalists will meet this year in Cairo between July 3- 9. The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency has been supporting the idea of Warsaw hosting the finals of the competition through active participation in a film promoting Poland as a land of educated and creative people. The meeting of Steve Ballmer and the Deputy Prime Minister resulted also in the decision to initiate a common educational initiative geared towards small and medium-sized enterprises which would familiarize them with principles regulating electronic commerce. The first stage of the initiative managed by Microsoft and the Confederation of Polish Employers will be a Microsoft Innovation Forum which is planned to take place on June 18th, 2009. The campaign forms part of the governmental Programme for Electronic Commerce and Service Support for the years 2009-2010 developed by the Ministry of Development. During his one-day visit to Warsaw Steve Ballmer met also with Michał Boni, Minister in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and Witold Drożdż, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The meeting was devoted to topics concerning possible savings which may be achieved thanks to informatisation, the challenges Poland faces in the IT sector in regard to the big events e.g. the European Football Championships the country will host in the near future and also issues concerning the IT-connected safety of the whole country. (Microsoft/PAIiIZ) INVESTMENTS IN POLAND New investment in Opole Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), an international concern and world leader in drilling platforms' production, invested in one of the factory shops of the former APC Metalchem. The first construction elements manufactured in Opole will soon be used in projects realised in the North Sea.
- Elements produced in Opole will form part of a drilling platform in the North Sea commissioned by the energy company BP. To make the project easier to visualise I will tell you that out of the 11,000 tons of elements required to construct the whole platform, 85 tons were manufactured in Opole. - says Jan van Diepeningen, director of HFG Polska. Initial talks and first visits of the representatives of Heeremy’s management took place in 2008. The talks were organized and co-ordinated by the Opole Investor Service Centre. The Centre’s representatives suggested possible investment destinations. The former Metalchem’s shop floor, located close to a motorway (15km), a railway siding system and a river port with a 700-ton overhead crane, was one of the recommended options. - Our company has factories located in almost all the continents in the world but in Poland we are only present in Opole. - stresses Mr Diepeningen. - We decided to expand the business because we were running out of labour force in the Netherlands. Poles are famous for being good workers. They are not afraid of traveling, a thing that forms an integral part of our working conditions. In Opole Heerema has been hiring 65 people but plans to increase the number by 120 persons. In 2010 the number of workers should double. Despite the global downturn the company obtains new commissions. In the foreseeable future Opole will also produce elements for pipelines. The company has been planning further investments in Poland. (COI Opole) MTU opened a factory in Jasionka On May 20th the German aviation company MTU Aero Engines opened a factory in the Podkarpacie Science-Technology Park (PPNT) in Jasionka near Rzeszów.
The investment was worth over 50 mln EUR - We were looking for an appropriate location in various countries and we finally chose Rzeszów. Undoubtedly the Aviation Valley, infrastructure, labour costs and access to highly-specialised academic cadre played a crucial role - Egon Behle, MTU Aero Engines' CEO told PAP. It took less than a year to construct the Polish MTU factory on a 7ha lot located in the vicinity of an airport. The company has been hiring 200 persons and the investor declared to double the amount by 2012.
The official opening of the factory was attended by Waldemar Pawlak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy. During his visit to Rzeszów and Jasionka Minister Pawlak met with local entrepreneurs and emphasized that despite the global economic turmoil Poland has been in a relatively good economic condition - We have been maintaining economic growth, we have varied output and production facilities. That effectively boosts Poland’s competitiveness on the international scene. MTU investment in Jasionka testifies to the fact. - added Mr Pawlak. MTU Aero Engines Polska is an aircraft engine manufacturer. MTU develops, manufactures and provides service support for military and civil aircraft engines. MTU jet engines tend to be exceptionally fuel-efficient and generate little noise. (PAP, PPNT Aeropolis, Ministry of Economy) MACROECONOMIC POLAND
Source: www.nbp.pl FROM THE REGIONS Legnica Technology Park expects investors Representatives of the Legnica Technology Park KGHM Letia (LPT) and the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) met on May 19th, 2009 to present the Park’s investment lots which will be included in the offer PAIiIZ presents to foreign investors.
The Park’s offer was presented by Piotr Urbaniak - Deputy President of the Park’s management and Małgorzata Jarzynka - Managing Director of the Park. The Park has round 30ha of well-developed investment lots at its disposal. The fact that the Park is located in the vicinity of KGHM may prove attractive especially for companies operating in the field of environment protection, renewable energy, metallurgy and coal mining because there is a possibility for the potential Park’s investors to make use of by-products generated in the KGHM’s production process. The investment lots are easily accessible due to the proximity of railway tracks, a motorway, an airport and a border crossing with the Czech Republic and Germany. LPT Letia, a company that has been managing the Park plans to construct an office space complex Letia Business Centre by 2011. The centre will offer 10,000 of office, conference and exhibition space and will be located at one of the Legnica’s major streets. Representatives of LPT Letia emphasised the advantageous location of the city and its value as a possible investment destination. The city is very competitive in terms of space and labour costs when compared to big Polish cities like Warsaw, Kraków, Gdańsk or Poznań but is at the same time easily accessible and well situated. Legnica is a student city which has the capacity to provide educated employees-to-be. Beside the fact that 10% of the Legnica’s residents are college graduates, the city has 6 colleges with the overall number of 12,000 students. Letia focuses on the search for investors from the sectors of technology, BPO and IT. On the meeting with PAIiIZ representatives it was agreed that the lots offered by the Park would be included in the investment base managed by PAIiIZ and provided to potential investors. The Legnica Technology Park Letia S.A is co-owned by: KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., the Dolny Śląsk local government oraz Wrocław University of Technology. (KGHM Letia) 800 mln PLN for Development of Eastern Poland (OP DEP) This year 800 mln PLN will be spend to boost the development of the five Polish regions with the lowest GDP in the frame of the Development of Eastern Poland (OP DEP) - informed PAP after a press conference with the Deputy Minister of Regional Development Krzysztof Hetman which took place in Bialystok.
Minister Hetman said that although the pace of agreement signing has not been satisfying, this does not influence the realisation of the projects. There may appear problems in the programme’s realisation scheme if the agreements’ conditions are not fulfilled. - he stressed. In the frame of the OP DEP money may be allocated to universities, entrepreneurs and local governments. There will also be subsidies for the development of university research facilities and conference-exhibition centers, for investment lots preparations in communes, innovative projects and roads. Programmes providing broadband internet or bicycle paths will be realized in all the five regions. - With regard to the level of EU funds’ usage, this year we plan to spend 800mln PLN. Realization of the plan does not seem to be in any way threatened - Minister Hetman told the journalists. In Białystok the Minister met with representatives of the local government and talked about the management of EU funds and the development of the eastern part of Poland. The list of key projects to be realised in the Podlasie region will be expanded by a project known under a working title “Health-Resort Augustów”. In March representatives of the central government announced in Augustów that the projects will aim at supporting the region’s most attractive aspects which may be endangered due to the city bypass being built in Raczki. The outreach of the OP DEP covers the areas of the regions: Lubelskie, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie. The Objective of the Programme Development is to hasten the pace of social and economic development in Eastern Poland pursuant to the sustainable development principle. The Operational Programme Development of Eastern Poland (OP DEP) is financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the national budget. The resources allocated to the programme account for round 2.27 bln EUR, including 992 bln EUR from special funds allocated by the European Council for the poorest regions in the EU. The rest of the sum i.e. round 1.3 bln EUR will be covered by the Polish Government. (PAP) From Poland to Ukraine faster by train The Ukrainian State Railways inaugurated a new train route Lwów-Kraków-Wrocław. The Polish State Railways (PKP) together with the Ukrainian partner have been working together to shorten the time of traveling between Warsaw and Kiev.
The improvements will be possible thanks to the SUW 2000 system which enables trains to use tracks of various width without the need to change railway carriage wheels. On May 31st trains running between Wrocław and Lviv will use the system which was developed in Poland. - We finished technical tests of the Ukrainian carriages in Mościska (in Ukraine). In the nearest future we will be organising tests for carriages owned by PKP - Ihor Breus, representative of the Ukrainina Railways, informed on a press conference in Kiev. Thanks to the changes passengers will need slightly over 6 hours to get from Lviv to Kraków and from Lviv to Wrocław 11 hours. The average price of a train ticket for the trip is 124 PLN or 300 UAH. This summer the SUW 2000 will be tested also on the railways connecting Kiev and Warsaw. At the moment trains need 17 hours to cover the distance between the cities. (PAP) DID YOU KNOW...? Garden in Experiences in Kraków The Kraków-based Garden of Experiences named after Stanisław Lem is the first sensory park in Poland. The Prark is located in the Nowa Huta Polish Pilots Park.
The Park was co-financed from the EU funds and national sources in the frame of the EQUAL Initiative. Since June 2007 visitors could enjoy 22 installations. In September 2007 35 new didactical exhibits were added. The project is one of the “Integration Manufactures”realised in the frame of “Nowa Huta - Nowa Szansa” a programme aiming at reviving the Kraków's district of Nowa Huta. The Kraków Educational Park followed similar projects realised in Nuremberg and Paris. Authors of the project wanted to provide an exposition of attractive installations which would allow to experiment and stimulate the victors’ senses of sight, hearing and touch. The interactive installations will enable children to learn by playing. The Garden offers installations of an acoustic telegraph, a Cartesian diver, Newton’s cradle, stone dulcimer - all the mechanism help children understand physics and chemistry. Organisers want the Garden to become an independent and profit-generating facility in the future. ( www.ogroddoswiadczen.pl ) 
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 99, e-mail: redakcja@paiz.gov.pl | ||||||||||||
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