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TABLE OF CONTENTS NEWS
INVESTMENTS IN POLAND
DID YOU KNOW?
FROM THE EDITOR The 24% increase in retail sales in February compared to last year, raised the forecasts for the value of GDP in I Q 2008. The Ministry of Finance anticipates a 6% increase in GDP. During the Polwood 2008 forum, at the timber and furniture industry fairs in Poznań, the prospects for growth in the sector will be discussed. There is something to talk about as Poland is one of the world’s leading furniture exporters. In the investment sector there are several new items of information: the article about the zachodniopomorskie voivodship which is becoming more attractive, there are articles about three Special Economic Zones: ŁódĽ, Tarnobrzeg and Kostrzyń-Słubice. In conclusion we have an article on the successes of Polish science. Pleasant reading! PAIiIZ’s editorial team NEWS 6% GDP growth in this quarter is realistic Retail sales have increased by as much as 24%. In relation to the optimistic figures emerging from the economy’s sectors, the economists are raising the estimates for GDP growth.
The Poles have gone shopping - in February retail sales were effectively 23.8% higher than in the previous year. This is around 4 percentage points higher than the forecasts anticipated. In turn, sales grew by 0.3 percentage points, when compared to the previous month - even though February was two days shorter than January. - Taking into consideration the macro-economic figures from this period, we’re raising our forecasts from 4.8% to 5.7% - Ms Monika Kurtek, a BPH economist stated. The Ministry of Finance a few days ago had already calculated that the growth could even reach 6%. These optimistic forecasts are increasingly becoming realistic, although it will only be midway through April that the March figures become available. In IV Q of 2007 growth was 6.1%. These estimates are also pleasing because the US economy is entering a recession. As up to now Poland has successfully resisted the unfavourable global economic trends. It’s these which have led to the Monetary Policy Council raising interest rates. On Wednesday the Council did so for the third time this year - this time by 0.25%. The Poles are steadily earning more money, which has lead to increases in consumption. In February pay in the business sector was almost 13% higher than a year ago. Apart from this, since January of this year, workers have been deducted a lower national insurance payment, which has also influenced the sales increase. For example, last month 34% annual increases were recorded in the sales of electronics equipment, domestic appliances and furniture; 33% in clothes and shoes and almost 30% in new cars. (Rz) Poznań invites guests to its wood and furniture industry fair On 2nd April the Polwood 2008 II Economic Forum will take place in Poznań, as part of the DREMA International Trade Fair of Machines and Tools for the Wood and Furniture Industries and the FURNICA 2008 Fair for Components for Furniture Production. Specialists from the wood and furniture sectors, representatives of various firms and government institutions, will be discussing the possibilities for development of the sector and the threats to it.
The concept of the Forum’s organisers - the Publishers of Investor and the Poznań International Fairs - is to form opportunities for dialogue between firms from the timber industry, market analysts, scientists and politicians, who mould the form of the economic environment and also meetings with the professional marketing specialists. The conclusions of the discussions will be written up in the “White book for the wood and furniture industry in Poland” and could be decisive for the direction taken in developing the wood and furniture industry in our country. This year’s forum will inaugurate a presentation of results from the micro and macro-economic research, carried out by the Publishers of Investor, in cooperation with the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. These figures will be a foundation for discussions, e.g. on the themes of “Poland an Eldorado for timber”, the problem of the illegal acquisition of timber in Poland, or the influence of global threats to the sector and its situation in our country. The event will be concluded by the presentation of awards for the best investment of 2007. Poznan’s DREMA and FURNICA fairs will take place on the 1st-4th April this year. They’re the largest events in their field in Europe. The honorary patronage has been awarded to the Deputy Premier and Minister of the Economy, Mr Waldemar Pawlak. In the 35 thousand m2 area, there’ll be almost 800 distributors from 19 different countries. The largest representations will be from Poland, Germany and Italy. For the leading furniture manufacturers, the fairs are the main forum for the transfer of modern technology and trends from within the sector. The timber and furniture industries are two of Poland’s main economic sectors and are ranked highly in terms of exports. Poland’s the world’s third largest exporters of furniture in terms of numbers of items and fourth in terms of their value. The main factors affecting the competitiveness of our products in the demanding European markets are the use of new technology and the innovative solutions. The significance of this sector for the Polish economy isn’t just the value of its exports, but also the numbers of workers employed in the industries - today the numbers fluctuate around the figure of 120,000 people. (PB) The conference “Thailand EXPO 2008” at the PAIiIZ Press Centre The Thai Embassy invites visitors to a press conference on the approaching fair: Thailand EXPO 2008 in Warsaw.
The conference will take place in April 2008, at the PAIiIZ Press Centre. Included in the meetings schedule is a presentation of the fairs Thailand EXPO 2008, with a summary of the achievements from the country’s cooperation with Poland. The conference’s guiding theme will be the fairs Thailand EXPO 2008, organised on 7-10th May at Warsaw’s Palace of Science and Culture. During the event, which is mainly targeted for Polish businessmen - visitors will have the opportunity to the see wide range of products exported by Thailand and the new investment possibilities presented by the leading Thai manufacturers and exporters, together with tourist offers available at travel agencies. The exhibition’s programme will also provide additional attractions, e.g. culinary displays, together with food tasting, demonstrations of traditional Thai massages, traditional dancing and Muay Tai - Thai boxing. INVESTMENTS IN POLAND The Zachodniopomorskie voivodship attracts investors The last few months have been very successful for the voivodship. Several projects have been finalised, as a result of which there will be an investment inflow of 55 million EUR and app. 1 thousand new jobs will be created across the region. This year positive investment decisions have been taken by investors from Taiwan and Sweden.
The Taiwanese company, the LOYAL Chemical Corporation - has purchased two plots of land within Infrapark Police SA, where it intends to produce polystyrene for the European market. The Mitsubishi Corporation will be the company’s strategic partner. The estimated value of the investment is 15.5 million EUR and 260 jobs are expected to be created. Two Swedish firms also want to open branches in the region. The first one intends to build a factory to produce construction materials at a site in Golczew; the business is waiting for permission from the Ministry of Interior and Administration (MIA), regarding the purchase of land. The value of the investment is app. 2 million EUR and 70 people are expected to be employed. The second firm is from the IT field, and plans to transfer part of their operations to the Zachodniopomorski region, opening an IT centre in Szczecin. A company agreement is to be signed at the beginning of April; the declared employment target is 30 workers, but the value of the investment is still unknown.
At the end of last year talks with British and French investors were successfully concluded. Valassis The British company is to open a document processing plant in Białogard; initially they hope to employ app. 160 people, however as the investor is considering expansion, it’s possible that the investment could employ even three times the number. - The cost of the investment is estimated at app. 3 million EUR - most of the capital will be spent on equipment and the technical infrastructure - Mr Piotr Biernacki from Szczecin’s Investor Service Centre (ISC) stated. The French manufacturer of industrial chocolate - Cemoi - bought out the Gryf chocolate factory in Szczecin, which it intends to modernise, but it also plans to continue existing production. The value of the investment has been estimated by Szczecin’s ISC as 15 million EUR. The investor currently plans to maintain the existing employment level of 200 workers. (Szczecin ISC) Procter & Gamble is building a cosmetics factory
Mr Marek Kapu¶ciński, the president of Procter & Gamble Poland provided official notification of the investment decision. The factory will be built on a 33 ha site and will have a daily output of several dozen tons of cosmetics, to be sold under the Olay brand. About 300 workers will be employed there. The scheduled completion date for the first stage is October of this year; whilst production is due to begin by March 2009. P&G already has two plants in Poland, a disposable nappy plant at Warsaw’s Targówek and the world’s largest razor factory, manufacturing under the Gillette brand-name in ŁódĽ. The company today employ 2.5 thousand people in Poland, and the joint sum of the hitherto investments is 490 million USD. The products they produce in Poland are exported to over 70 of the world’s countries. (PM Group/GW) 10 new investors were gained by the KSSEZ last year At stake is the significant sum of 101 million EUR and the creation of 880 workplaces.
We have written of some of the 5 foreign investors that have already received permission to trade in the Kostrzyn-Słubice Special Economic Zone (KSSEZ), in previous newsletters. These are the companies: Mazel, Utescheny, ICT Poland, Olsa Poland and Drink-Tech; which represent amongst them the sectors of paper production, the automotive and food industries. The joint sum of these investments is 34 million EUR. The names of the remaining 5 firms interested in investing in the Zone are still undisclosed - currently they’re awaiting permission to invest. At stake is over 67 million EUR as well as 640 jobs. It appears that the most popular location for investors is Nowa Sól - as four of the investors intend to place their investments in this sub-zone. New investors enter the TSEZ The Tarnobrzeg Special Economic Zone (TSEZ) has gained two new foreign investors. CBS POLAND plans to produce metal elements for collecting pipes and separators at Nowa Dęba. Samwha Poland will provide a logistics service and its warehouse will be located at the Kobierzyce Technology Park near Wrocław.
According to the information provided by the TSEZ the total value of both investments is almost 13 million PLN, with as many as 100 workplaces being provided. The attractive locations, large tax exemptions, together with the ease of finding employees, are the main reasons why both companies have chosen this region of Poland. The Polish section of the Samwha group was established in 2007, as their second European business following Samwha Europe with its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. The company was established in 1960 and apart from those in Europe it has branches in China, Thailand, India, Hong Kong, Brazil and the USA. Today it’s one of the main sub-contactors of electrical components for the LG Corporation; which is why their new Polish warehouse will be located near Wrocław, where LG Electronics owns 9 factories. The Italian firm CBS POLAND is located at Nowa Dęba, but talks are in progress for its transfer to Tarnobrzeg. The company produces air conditioning, cooling and heating systems; complex piping systems, collecting pipes and other half finished products from copper, aluminium, iron and steel. To date CBS have four factories in both Italy and Poland. The TSEZ has since its inception attracted 34 foreign investors, four of which are Korean. The total of the capital investments at September last year was almost 4 billion PLN and employment was found for nearly 20 thousand people. Just over last year the Zone’s area has been doubled and is currently 1,300 ha. (TSEZ) MACROECONOMIC POLAND
Source: www.nbp.pl DID YOU KNOW? Polish science emerges from the shadows Polish scientists are achieving increasingly spectacular successes - although the spending on scientific research falls a long way behind that of Western Europe.
In recent weeks there has been a widespread response relating to the discoveries of the astronomer Prof. Andrzej Udalski and the physicist Dr Tadeusz Lesiak. - We now attach a greater importance to reaching out to public opinion - Prof. Udalski told “Rzeczpospolita”; whose team had recently discovered a planetary system similar to our own. Behind the success of the Polish scientists there lays firstly talent and secondly hard work - the Poles can only dream of receiving the aid granted to those in similar foreign outposts. Only 0.3% of GDP is devoted to research and a similar sum is provided from non-budgetary sources. Meanwhile the achievements of Poles are widely discussed in the most prestigious science publications. Prof. Udalski, who was mentioned earlier, works at the Warsaw University Astronomic Observatory. In 1992 he was the head of the OGLE programme, which used gravitational microlensing methods. As a result of the use of these methods the OGLE team discovered unknown planets in a distant planetary system. Making use of the Polish telescope in Chile, Prof. Udalski looks for planets that are similar to our Earth that are beyond our solar system. The team’s most recent discovery was the system OGLE-2006-BLG-109 - named the miniature solar system. Dr Tadeusz Lesiak, works at the Atomic Physics Institute in Krakow. He took part in an international team from Japan that reconstructed through a laboratory process the destruction of antimatter. It is thought that the same thing took place in the early phases of the big bang at the beginning of the cosmos’s existence. The laboratory tests have enabled answers to be provided for the following question: why the cosmos is produced from matter and not from antimatter, as at the beginning of time there was an equal amount of each. Another Polish scientist of world renown is Prof. Mariusz Z. Ratajczak, a well known haematologist who divides his time working between the University of Louisville in the USA and at the universities of Krakow and Szczecin. As a result of his medical research, the use of mother cells is being developed in medicine. Prof. Ratajczak, has discovered a way of recovering these cells from bone marrow. Among the well renowned research scientists from the medical environment Prof. Jan Antoni Lubinski must also be mentioned; he has been able to identify the gene connected to the risk of getting cancer of the colon. His discovery saves app. 1,500 people each year. (Rz)  Editorial office: Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, 00-585 Warsaw, Bagatela Street 12Economic Promotion Department tel: (+48 22) 334 98 15, fax: (+48 22) 334 99 98, e-mail: redakcja@paiz.gov.pl | ||||||||||||
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