Looking for investors? – Just be attractive!

Yes, that is as simple as described. If you want somebody to invest in your country, just make it attractive. Which means: Try to anticipate investors’ needs and prepare suitable conditions for them.

Location, location, location…

Centralizing business operations, companies decide to outsource or insource them. Establishing a shared service center (SSC) or a BPO center makes it possible to reduce costs, and increase quality and performance.

One of the crucial decisions while outsourcing or insourcing operations is that about the location. Investors tend to establish their BPO or SSC in a location with relatively low costs of building/starting and functioning, high qualifications of job applicants and their availability – close to high education center, knowledge of foreign languages among potential employees and their intercultural competencies.

Of course, infrastructure (telecommunications, airports, number and quality of roads and motorways) is of big importance as well. Also the quality of living of people, i.e. access to education and culture plays a role for a potential investor. Not of importance is existing of other centers in the area – one investment mainly attracts another one.

Governmental grants and subsidies for investors also motivate them to invest in a certain geographical area. It is not only going on subsidies for initial investments but also for existing ones.

… and Poland as the location

Let’s have a brief look at Poland in this context. Such towns as: Gdansk, Gdynia, Krakow, Lublin, Lodz, Poznan, Sopot, Szczecin, Warszawa and Wroclaw belong to 10 best locations for shared services and BPO in the area of finance and accounting, IT and customer service according to one of the newest reports Poland as the destination for Shared Services Centers published by KPMG.

According to PAIiIZ (Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency), during the past five years numerous foreign investors have chosen Poland to invest in. These include such global giants as: ABN Amro, Bridgestone, Cadbury Schweppes, CapGemini, Dell, Gillette, Google, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, IBM, Lenovo, LG Electronics, LG Philips LCD, MAN Trucks, Reuters, Sharp, Toshiba, Whirlpool and many more. That is not a chance – according to World Investment Prospects Survey 2008-2010 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, USA, Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Mexico and UK.

The picture below presents the geographical structure of BPO and SSC located in Poland:

Picture 1. BPO and SSC located in Poland


The table below presents the inflow of foreign direct investments to Poland (billion EUR) during 2005-2008:

Table 1. Inflow of foreign direct investments to Poland during 2005-2008


Poland, located in the heart of Europe, has convenient air, railway, road and sea connections with other countries in Europe.

The main advantages Poland has in terms of attracting foreign investments include: favourable investment climate, highly qualified human capital and the modern office space market. Office space is relatively easy available in all bigger towns of Poland. In recent years, the country has experienced a real boom on the construction market, with a great number of residential housing, retail property and office building projects being developed.

Poland offers many incentives for foreign investors There are different possibilities of public aid varying from incentives for investors investing in Special Economic Zones to tax incentives issued by the government and the local authorities.

The EU funds support investments in Poland as well in both: direct or indirect way.

Magdalena Szarafin
http://www.szarafin.info