Voivodship Capital |
£ód¼ |
Area (km2) |
18,219 |
Number of residents |
2,517,500 |
The £ód¼ voivodship is distinguished by its central location within Poland and Europe. The regional capital is £ód¼, a city with a great industrial tradition. In the 19th century, the City was the largest industrial centre in the country and one of the largest in Europe. It is currently an important academic and cultural centre; a large metropolis and a rapidly developing economic centre. During recent years, due to foreign investments the largest cluster of domestic appliance companies in Europe has been established here; it’s also a location for the development of new technology and of modern financial institutions (Philips Corp. has set up a European Financial Services Centre) and retail centres.
Across the voivodship’s area there run two trans-European transport corridors: East-West (embracing the A2 motorway and the E20 railway route) and North-South (embracing the A1 motorway, the central Rail Route and the ¦l±sk to the Sea Ports coal route). The regions nucleus is £ód¼’s Metropolitan Area. The £ód¼ region is characterised by a high level of urbanisation (64.8% of the residents live in the voivodship’s 42 towns and cities). On the other hand the vast majority of the area is used agriculturally, which is why farming still provides incomes for a significant share of the population.
The region’s cultural background has led to the creation of many museums, including the Central Textile Museum in £od¼ (with the nations largest collection of artistic textiles), galleries and arts centres, the Teatr Wielki, professional dramatic theatres, a dolls theatre, a musical theatre and the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra. Most of these centres have a trans-regional appeal and the theatrical sphere is one of the largest in the country. £ód¼ is linked to the world of films at every stage of their creation (referred to as HOLLY£ÓD¬). Some graduates of the National Academy of Film, Television and the Theatre, have been: Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polański, Jerzy Skolimowski, Piotr Trzaskalski, Juliusz Machulski, Janusz Gajos, Krzysztof Zanussi, Kazimierz Kutz and Krzysztof Kie¶lowski. The Academy of Fine Art and the G. Bacewicz Academy of Music have also had a significant impact on the cultural life of the region.
The £ód¼ voivodship is also a region undergoing fundamental change and creating a new image for itself.
Investment opportunities
Domestic appliances
The introduction of the cluster strategy by the City of £ód¼, in cooperation with McKinsey & Company, creates support for large foreign investors in the white goods sector and insures the provision of a professional service throughout the investment process.
The necessary R&D environment is present, as well as the availability of qualified personnel and numerous investment incentives (tax break in the SEZ, public assistance, plots prepared for investment), all of these factors mean that the £ód¼ voivodship has alone been classified as a region of great opportunity for the domestic appliances sector.
BPO
Development of the domestic appliances sector utilising the cluster strategy and the related requirement to provide professional assistance throughout the investment process, has led to a dynamic development of the BPO sector.
The £ód¼ voivodship has become a place in which there are an increasing number of services in fields of: accountancy and bookkeeping, banking and finance, and in computer programming and IT centres. The development of BPO is helped by the appropriate education environment, the availability of trained staff and a large amount of office space being available.
Logistics
The voivodship’s central location, the expanding road infrastructure, favourable rail and flight connections and the availability of sites in locations adjacent to express routes and planned motorways has made the region a desirable location in which to locate logistical investments (warehouse, distribution and logistics centres).