Losing ground?

Poland is ranked the world's seventh most attractive place for investment, according to the "European Attractiveness Survey 2007" from Ernst & Young. Around 11 percent of the 800 European, Asian and North American investors surveyed chose Poland as the most attractive investment destination. Moreover, the country ranks second as a destination for future investments and also saw the largest number of new jobs created by foreign investments in Europe last year - which totaled as many as 31,115.

The report shows that the most attractive areas for foreign investments are still industrial sites employing large populations of workers, mainly due to low labor costs and advantageous geographical positioning. Poland ranked second in the world in terms of industrial-production attractiveness and grew more popular in the call-center sector, moving from seventh to fourth position.

Paweł Wojciechowski, the president of Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), says that in attracting labor-intensive industries, Poland also creates a large number of job vacancies, which is particularly critical given its high unemployment-rate problem. However, he stresses, the advantage of low labor costs won't last forever and Poland must work on other ways to lure investments.

When it comes to high-tech investments Poland is not seen as particularly tempting location, even though the sector boasts the highest level of investment in Europe. While its attractiveness for foreign investors was noted to have fallen three places since 2005 (and one place since 2006), there are no figures available for its ranking for these types of investments in the report.

"We should continue to encourage the growth of our share of high-tech investments. That said, this process has already begun," said Wojciechowski, pointing out that the share of high-tech foreign investments in all investments coordinated by PAIiIZ has grown from 28 percent in 2000 to 52 percent in 2006.

"Poland is and will remain an attractive country in which to invest," says Wojciechowski. "Especially if it increases the quality of its products and boosts spending on innovation."