Q: Do foreign investors look at Poland’s economic security – the stability of our laws and tax system, currency rate fluctuations and so on – before they decide to settle here?
A: Transparent and clear legislation enhances enterprise. Surveys carried out for PAIiIZ this year by the Gdańsk Institute for Market Economics show that Poland enterprisers do not rank Poland very highly in this respect.
The worst marks went to our tax laws – almost 70% of those polled criticized them. Also criticized were our public procurement regulations, with over half of the surveyed companies ranking their quality and coherence as bad to very bad. This is a clear sign that we must put things right in these areas if we want to remain among the most attractive investment countries. In Polish condition, currency fluctuations do not play such a big role. What is important, however, is that we set a date for joining the euro zone as quickly as possible. One of the things long-term investors look at are transaction costs.
Q: What needs to be done to improve our investment climate and advance higher in global rankings?
A: We are high enough as it is – we only need to look at a recent Ernst & Young survey which ranked Poland as the world’s second-most-attractive site for production projects and 7th on a general list of best foreign investment sites. In order to keep this position we will first of all have to upgrade our rickety transport system – most of all our roads. This is our Achilles’ heel, the main drawback foreign investors point to.
Q: Figures show that valuewise PAIiIZ piloted only 10% of the foreign direct projects launched in Poland last year. Does this mean you handle selected projects?
A: 2007 should be another record year for direct investment. We expect new projects to the tune of around EUR12 billion, and counting in transit capital  we may manage to exceed 15 billion. I base this estimate on two facts: first, over nine months of this year our agency finalized 42 investment projects, almost as many as throughout the entire preceding year (43), and in effect more than EUR1.1 billion in investment will flow into Poland. As last year, most of them were located in the Dolnośląskie, Mazowieckie and Kujawsko-Pomorskie provinces. Most new investment projects come in from the United States and Far East. Secondly, this year’s monthly inflow of new investment stands at over EUR1 billion.
We must remember that most of the direct investments in Poland are capital projects and as much as 40% are reinvestments. There are also many mergers and takeovers. PAIiIZ specializes in major greenfield projects, mainly from distant places like the Far East and the currently biggest investor – the United States. After that comes Germany. Noteworthy is the rising inflow of Chinese investors, who come third.
Most of the investment projects we handle are in the motor and IT industries, many investors also offer BPO and R&D services. We are especially pleased with projects which bring new terchnology to Poland, create opportunities for young academics and jobs for Poles, as this helps keep unemployment low. The biggest foreign job providers in Poland are the Indesit household appliance plants in Radomsk (over 1,300), Toshiba’s LCD TV plants in Kobierzyce (over 1,000) and the ABN-AMRO BPO centre in Warsaw (600).
Q: What are your plans for next year?
A: We most certainly want to keep foreign investment coming in at the same rate as this year, which means EUR15 billion worth. Here we count on investors from the countries I mentioned before. It would be good to see the new parliament speed up work on the establishment of a Polish Trade and Investment Agency. Such an institution, equipped with an adequate budget, broad powers and a network of foreign offices, would quite certainly play a key role in raising Poland’s attractiveness for foreign investors.

Poland’s investment climate in investor eyes
A country’s investment climate depends on the efficiency of the commercial and institutional environment in which its companies and foreign investors operate. At the turn of August and September Polish and foreign enterprisers – one half of them producers, the other service providers, and almost half employing more than 250 people – were asked about the investment climate in Poland.
More Polish than foreign respondents complained about labour inspection authorities, low-quality terrain, low credit access and bad infrastructure. More foreign than Polish respondents were content with Poland’s laws, political situation and labour costs.