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areas enjoy easy access to a wide range of services owing to the vicinity of Bydgoszcz
and Toruń which have a very well developed social infrastructure.
The Results: economic analyses (entrepreneurship, agriculture,
tourism)
BTMA is the most prominent area in the voivodship as far as the issue of the level of
development and importance of the economy is concerned. Both Bydgoszcz and Toruń
are specialised industrial centres on a nationwide scale. Numerous plants seated in
these cities are among the biggest and most important in the country – a lot of them
are owned by large international co-operations and operate globally. The most
important branches of industry present in both cities include: electrical machinery
industry (including the production of means of transport), food and chemical
industries. A relatively new, yet very dynamic branch is printing.
In the suburban areas, small carpentry workshops and small manufacturing plants are
dominant forms. The operate mostly in the following branches: food, metal
processing, machine, chemical, construction, carpentry, transport and horticulture
(vegetable growing, flower growing and a variety of seedlings production). The
suburban zone has been popular with warehouse and storing business activity for
several years. It is now also a popular location for large-area outlets. The newest
business activities undergoing a rapid development in suburban zones is high-tech
branch – an industrial park has been in operation for a few years now, and currently a
large Japanese-owned electronics manufacturing complex is being constructed.
The total number of business entities seated in Bydgoszcz exceeds 45 thousand, and
in Toruń the figure approximates 26 thousand. The suburban zones of both cities host
almost 14 thousands companies.
Among the indicators describing the level and character of business operation in the
counties of Bydgoszcz and Toruń the most outstanding ones include:
- for general indicators – the number of business entities against the number of
inhabitants is remarkably high – several communes within BTMA are among
those characterised by the highest index of entrepreneurship (6 out 8
communes with the highest entrepreneurship index are included in BTMA) – in
the most successful communes the index of companies per 1000 persons at the
productive age exceeds 200, with the rural average for the whole voivodship
standing at 92,
- several types of business activities connected with the large cities’ markets:
manufacturing, storing, trade, transport, real estate and business servicing,
- high interest from the foreign investment capital,
- business activities requiring easy access to highly-qualified personnel.
BTMA is characterised by varied agricultural conditions and uneven development of
this sector. A number of communes have very unfavourable soil conditions, whereas
in others the conditions are good or very good (high-volume production in on the
increase, largely crops, in relatively modern, large farms). Some of the communes in
BTMA (especially the communes of Koronowo and Chełmża) are among the biggest
food producers in the region.
BTMA’s big horticultural production (fruit, vegetables) is a vital characteristics of this
region and generally, production for the city market is very well developed. The local
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