Poland’s special investment zone experienced a record year in 2021. The number of new projects increased by 92% relative to 2020 and the value of investments was up by 145%, reaching 37.1 billion zloty (€8.2 billion). That created more than 16,800 jobs, marking a 186% increase on the previous year.
“Last year, a total of 713 decisions were issued to support new investments in the Polish Investment Zone,” said deputy development and technology minister Grzegorz Piechowiak on Monday, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Piechowiak noted that, despite the pandemic, “Poland remains one of the most attractive directions for the inflow of foreign investments”, increasingly in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.
The special zones, which offer tax relief to draw foreign capital into the country, were set up in 2018 and, later that year, extended to the territory of the entire country.
According to data for between January and November 2021, published in December by the ministry, the largest source of investment in Poland’s special zone was Germany, with a declared investment value of 2.9 billion zloty and guarantees of creating 970 jobs.
That was followed by investment from South Korea (2.8 billion zloty and 358 jobs) and the United States (828 million zloty and 514 jobs).
Most projects handled by the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAiH) in September came from Belarus, in part thanks to the government’s “Business Harbour” programme that offers visa waivers and other benefits for businesses and entrepreneurs relocating from countries in Poland’s eastern neighbourhood.
The greatest number of investments were directed to business service centres, as well as the automotive and electromobility industries. The largest part of foreign direct investments also came from reinvested profits, “which proves the loyalty of investors to the Polish market,” said Piechowiak.
Poland has become an attractive destination for investors with its sizable and resilient economy, the benefits of EU membership, competitive labour costs and quality of the workforce, as well as improving infrastructure.
In 2020, Poland ranked fifth in the world in terms of the value of new (greenfield) foreign investments, which reached $24.3 billion in value, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Main image credit: Mariusz Cieszewski/www.poland.pl (under CC BY-NC 2.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
