Poland as the destination for Shared Services Centers

14 Poland as the destination for Shared Services Centers
It is also worthwhile to mention that the Polish Government is playing an active role in
counteracting the effects of the economic crisis. In January 2009 it presented a so called
“anti-crisis package”, i.e. a set of measures aimed at ensuring economic growth (incl. tax relief
for direct investors), stability of the banking sector (incl. mechanisms for bank bailout), as well
as creating appropriate conditions for companies to gain access to necessary capital
(incl. credit guarantees).
2 .4 FDI and key investors in Poland
Since the collapse of the communist systems in 1989, Poland has attracted numerous
international investors. During the last five years some of the world’s largest companies have
invested in Poland, including LG Philips LCD, Bridgestone, Dell, Sharp, Whirlpool, Gillette,
Cadbury Schweppes, MAN Trucks, LG Electronics, Toshiba, CapGemini, Shell, ABN Amro,
HSBC, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, IBM, Reuters or Google 6 .
According to estimates from the National Bank of Poland, the value of foreign direct investment
in Poland reached the level of EUR 16.6 billion in 2007, more than in any other country in the
CEE region. The initial estimations show that as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008
the total foreign investment inflow has decreased to EUR 11.2 billion. However, Poland still
remains one of the top business locations in the world. According to a survey prepared by the
intergovernmental body UN Conference on Trade and Development, Poland is the world’s 11th
most attractive economy for the location of FDI behind China, India, the US, Russia, Brazil,
Vietnam, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the UK 7 .
The attractiveness of Poland is also confirmed by the fact that according to Global Services
magazine’s Top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities 2008 special research report, Cracow
was indicated as the fifth best place to locate an outsourcing center in the world preceded only
by cities in Asia. That represents an improvement of 11 positions in comparison to the report’s
2007 edition and Cracow is expected to continue moving up the ranking.
Table 3
Foreign direct investments inflow to Poland (billion EUR)
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
estimation
Amount of FDI inflow 10.305 8.260 15.576 16.582 11.150
Source: National Bank of Poland (NBP), 2008
6 Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) – projects concluded in the period of 2004 - 2008.
7 World Investment Prospects Survey 2008-2010, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
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