| POLISH INFOMATION AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT AGENCY | ||||||||||||||
NEWSLETTER December 4th 2008, Number 100 | ||||||||||||||
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TABLE OF CONTENTS NEWS
INVESTMENTS IN POLAND
FROM THE REGIONS
DID YOU KNOW...?
FROM THE EDITOR Dear Readers, The 2nd edition of “The best Master thesis, regarding the promotion of the Polish economy contest” organised by the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency and the Foundation for the Polish Promotional Emblem came to an end. In the News section we write about the initiative of three cities from Lubuskie where a Lubuskie Tricity Association was formed to effectively promote the region. We also inform about new investments in the Katowice and Łódź Special Economic Zones and about a conference on wind energy development organised by the SEZs in Słupsk and Pomerania. We are pleased to remind you that this the 100 issue of the PAIiIZ Newsletter. For the last two years we have been trying to provide you with interesting, up-to-date and useful information. Pleasant reading! PAIiIZ’s editorial team NEWS Investment offer of the Lubuskie region’s Tricity A presentation of the investment offer of the Lubuski region’s Tricity took place at the PAIiIZ Press Centre on December 2nd. The meeting was attended by delegations of the cities forming the region’s Tricity i.e. representatives of self-governments from Zielona Góra, Nowa Sól and Sulechów.
The Lubuskie Tricity Association was established in 2004. The idea behind the tight co-operation of Zielona Góra, Nowa Sól and Sulechów together with other 19 communes aims at combining the potential of all the places and in making a joint effort to attract investment. The presentation showed the region’s potential to PAIiIZ employees and in consequence also to investors who turn to the Agency when seeking investment destinations in Poland. Janusz Kubicki, President of the Zielona Góra city; Wadim Tyszkiewicz, President of Nowa Sól and Ignacy Odważny, President of Sulechów discussed investment potential of the three cities, their investment offer and development plans focusing on increasing the region’s economic capacity boosted by the well developed infrastructure, academic centres, highly-qualified cadre and well-prepared investment lots. The Lubuskie Tricity benefits from its convenient location and well-developed transport infrastructure. Among the strongest advantages of the region there are: the vicinity of Germany, access to the A3 and A4 highways, S3 express road, railway magistrate and the Odra river. Also the local airport located in Zielona Góra-Babimost stands a good chance to experience a quick expansion and development of new air domestic and international connections. The transport infrastructure in the region is planned to be effectively boosted by quick railway which is expected to join the main cities of the region in the future. The Lubuskie Tricity together with the surrounding communes has round 250 thousand residents. Despite a considerable fall in unemployment recorded in the last years, unemployment rates in the region tend to exceed the average rate in the country and hovers around 12% so there still exists a considerable pool of workers available for new investments. The region witnesses a development of professional specialisation closely connected with educational profiles of the major universities in the region. The University of Zielona Góra is a technology school as it substituted the former University of Technology. Among the major subjects and specialisations there are: computer science, telecommunication and electronics. The State School of Higher Vocational Education in Sulechów and a section of the Cracow’s AGH University of Science and Technology in Nowa Sól focus mainly on the fields of processing and foundry engineering. Besides the region hosts two subzones of the Kostrzyn-Słubice Special Economic Zone in Nowa Sól and Zielona Góra. The subzones do have well-developed and prepared investment lots at their disposal. The region’s authorities estimate the plots to be perfect destinations for logistic companies and BPO centres. The Lubuskie Tricity Association has far-reaching development and promotion plans. In four years’ time Nowy Kisielin, a town situated in between the highways A2 and A4 is planned to host, on a 200 ha lot, a science and technology park. The park is expected to host centres for construction and energy, mathematical modelling, innovation and technology. The voivodship’s authorities and governments of the cities comprising the Lubuskie Tricity, plan to turn the region into a place able to attract tourism in that they plan to take advantage of the natural potential of the Odra river. Thanks to subsidies form UE funds river harbours will be constructed and two passengers ships will be bought which will make it possible to initiate passenger excursions on the river. There are many, both Polish and foreign, companies which have already been benefiting from the region’s business-friendly environment and has been expanding business in the region. ADB, a company established by graduates of the University of Technology in Zielona Góra has been manufacturing software and complete tuners for digital TV reception, which are exported form Poland to many countries all over the world. Gedia Poland, one of the biggest local employer, hiring 850 people, produces car parts for Ford, Mercedes and in the nearest future also for Opel. The region hosts also factories established by companies in projects realised in co-operation with PAIiIZ e.g. Japan Funai specialising in LCD TV sets assembly and Rockwool producing rock glass wool. Both investors plan to expand investment and increase staff numbers. The region’s representatives of local self-governments and the Lubuskie Tricity Association management board are about to strengthen co-operation and thus effectively promote the region and attract new investors. (PAIiIZ) Final of the 2nd edition of “The best Master thesis, regarding the promotion of the Polish economy contest” On December 8th a prize giving ceremony finalising the 2nd edition of “The best Master thesis, regarding the promotion of the Polish economy contest” will take place. The competition was organised by the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency and the Foundation for the Polish Promotional Emblem.
The idea behind the competition is to popularize the theme of promoting the Polish economy and thus to beef up the young cadre recruitment process for the needs of Polish national marketing. The competition’s objective is to spread information concerning the development of the Polish economy, the problems of national marketing, the topic of a brand for Poland and the basis-creation for the Poland’s systematic and dynamic development. The competition is organised under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Economy. The contest partners include: the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; the Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw; the Institute for Economic Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences; the Warsaw School of Economics; the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Deutsche Bank PBC and Brief for Poland. (PAIiIZ) Norwegian subsidies for 300 Polish projects The Ministry of Regional Development informs that the Norwegian side accepted round 300 Polish projects relating to, among other things, environment protection, health care, education and the Schengen zone. Norway will grant financial aid to the tune of 340 billion EUR.
From the two Norwegian funds i.e. the Financial Mechanism (EEA) and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for the years 2004-2009 Poland was granted jointly 533 million EUR. The financial aid is to be allocated to socio-economic development of the EU newcomer countries and comes from Norway, Lichtenstein and Island. The Minister of Regional Development, Ms Elżbieta Bieńskowska says that Poland ranks high among countries, which benefit from the funds of the financial mechanism EEA. To date, over 300 projects worth round 340 million EUR were accepted by the funds’ coordinators. The Ministry of Regional Development (MRR) informs that in the year 2008 all three grant application processes for individual projects and programmes were closed. Over 2.7 thousand applications were submitted. The majority of projects came from local self-governments. Projects concerned, among other things, plans of hospitals’ modernisation, borders’ fortification in the frame of the Schengen zone, renovation of cultural heritage sites e.g. restoration of the Palace in Wilanów, the Castel-Museum in Malbork. Also thanks to subsidies from the funds the adaptation of basement areas in the Warsaw Old Town for cultural purposes will be possible. Ms Bieńkowska said that the Polish-Norwegian co-operation has been smooth and successful. Undoubtedly the number of submitted projects does confirm the fact. Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been co-operating with its Norwegian counterpart in the process of funds and projects implementation. (PAP, MRR) INVESTMENTS IN POLAND Zawiercie to welcome the first investor Aluron was granted a permission to start business activity in the Katowice Special Economic Zone. New investment is to be located on the area recently enclosed to the zone.
In Zawiercie Aluron will construct a factory which is to produce, among others, metal elements for construction woodwork, metal structures and will run metal processing services. The investment is estimated to cost 30.5 million PLN and 60 workers are expected to find employment in the plant. The Katowice SEZ, established 12 years ago, has been recently expanded and now contains also terrains in Zawiercie. Aluron will be the first investing company in the new part of the zone. Aluron specialises in the production of aluminium-wood windows, window drip caps and wooden doors, frames for doors, windowsills and doorstep systems. The new investment makes the number of new projects realised this year in the Katowice SEZ exceed 20. The projects’ managers declared to invest 1.5 billion PLN and plan to create over 2.5 thousand new workplaces. The Katowice-based SEZ is the biggest from the 14 Polish SEZs. The zone was established 12 years ago and in that time investors jointly incurred investment costs to the tune of 13 billion PLN and declared to employ near 37 thousand people. (Katowice SEZ) Frigo Logistic Centre A foundation stone laying ceremony for Frigo Logistic’s frozen food logistic centre took place in Radomsko.
New investment worth 54 million PLN will be one of the most modern cold storages in Poland. The facility is planned to be completed by August 2010 and offer employment to 60 persons. The logistic centre, located in the Łódź Special Economic Zone is thought to serve as a storage for products requiring controllable temperatures. The facility will deal with the wares’ distribution to recipients and also package supplementing, rewrapping and labelling. The foundation stone laying ceremony was attended by: Mr Wojciech Kluck, President of the Frigo Logistics; Ms Anna Milczanowska, President of Radomsko; Mr Marek Cieślak, President of the Łódź Special Economic Zone and Mr Tatsuo Yamamuro, President of the Nichirei Logistics Group, the stem firm of Frigo Logistics (the Łódź SEZ) MACROECONOMIC POLAND
Source: www.nbp.pl FROM THE REGIONS Conference on wind energy development The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PAED) together with the Pomeranian and the Słupsk Special Economic Zone organize a conference on wind energy development. The meeting will be held on December 15th in Słupsk.
Recently the topic has been unusually popular and ever more often discussed by self-governments, economic zones and entrepreneurs. Also the number of Polish manufacturers producing devices for renewable energy absorption has been on the rise. Because of the growing interest in the issue of renewable energy solutions, both the Słupsk and the Pomeranian Special Economic Zone in co-operation with the Alpine Green Energia Sp. z o.o. organise in Słupsk a conference dedicated to the problem. The meeting will be an opportunity to learn more about laws and infrastructure conditioning determining the usage of renewable energy sources. Edward Siwy, PhD from the Silesian University of Technology will discuss renewable energy. A representative of the Institute for Fuels and Renewable Energy will present opportunities to apply for financial aid from the EU for the realisation of investment related to wind power plant and electro energetic nets. During the meeting also legal issues connected with renewable energy will be discussed and the idea behind the regional Baltic Centre for Clear Energy will be presented. The meeting will be held on December 15th from 11 a.m. to 14.30 p.m. at the Higher Hansa School of Management in Słupsk (6-7 Kozietulskiego Str.) The deadline for registration is December 10th. Contact Ms Agata Jaroszewska, Tel: (59) 841 28 92, Fax: (59) 841 32 61, +48 609 120 766, agata@parr.slupsk.pl Application form is available on www.sse.slupsk.pl. DID YOU KNOW...? Young computer science students from the University of Warsaw the best in Europe This is not the first time Warsaw computer science students prove they belong to the best in Europe and win the Central European Programming Contests in Wrocław. Two teams from Warsaw top the winners’ ranking.
"Warsaw Swifts 08" comprised of Marcin Andrychowicz, Maciej Klimek and Marcin Kościelnicki, under the supervision of professor Jan Madey took the first place. Another Warsaw team called "Warsaw Eagles 08" comprised of Tomasz Kulczyński, Jakub Łącki, Piotr Mikulski led by Marek Cygan classified second. Representation of the Jagiellonian University ranked 3rd in the contest. The rest of Warsaw student teams participating in the contest came on the 6th, 19th, 23rd and 43rd positions. The Contest took place in Wrocław and was attended by 61 students teams from all over Eastern and Western Europe, like Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The aim of the contest consists in selecting the best teams for the 2009 World Programming Contests in Stockholm. (University of Warsaw) 
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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