Poland makes Hyundai shortlist
Though the race is far from won, the development has been greeted by analysts as great news for Poland's foreign direct investment (FDI) profile, which in recent years has slipped behind its regional neighbors.
The plant will be Hyundai's first in Europe and would create around three thousand jobs. The new jobs and investment would then be multiplied with time as associated supply and component businesses build up around the main assembly plant.
Poland's FDI suffered a major setback earlier this year when it lost a PSA Peugeot-Citroen production base to Slovakia, and several analysts' reports complained that government u-turns on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the disorganization of its inward investment agency was costing Poland dearly. But the re-formed and re-named Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) is seen to have made major improvement on its predecessor since its creation in the summer.
"We would like think it's a positive change," says Wojcech Drzewiecki, President of the auto sector analysts' firm Samar, "...PAIiIZ has changed its role totally, organizing itself much better, offering itself as the main partner to the investor, which previously had to deal with many partners."
Jacek Pawlak, Toyota's commercial sales director, sees a positive final result for Poland as good for the whole sector. "Any investment which helps the economy to grow helps car sales," says Pawlak, "...and the competition will motivate us at Toyota."
According to CzechInvest, the inward investment agency of the Czech Republic, Poland's key asset - that the Czechs cannot not compete against - is the reduction of Poland's corporate income tax (CIT) rate to 19 percent earlier this year. "We wish the Poles good luck," says Ladislav Logaj of CzechInvest, "...and we hope they keep their promises."
With Polish law now more in line with the EU, analysts suggest that the SEZ mistakes of the past - where Poland offered tax breaks only to annul them after the investment - were in a different era, and any promises made to Hyundai are necessarily based on a new status quo. Another concern for investors into Poland has been a lack of logistics infrastructure, but the main factor pitched by PAIiIZ to the South Koreans is that Kobierzyce is near Wrocław, which is, in terms of regional transport links, one of the best locations in Poland.
The Hyundai plant would produce over 200,000 cars a year. From next year, the size of Poland's market, once a major selling point to Poland's direct inward investors, will be less relevant as it joins the enormous free trade area of the EU. This can only accentuate the importance of Hyundai's move, which suggests that locating in Poland should be an important business consideration notwithstanding its relatively large population.
At the time of going to press, Deputy Economy Minister, Andrzej Szejna was setting out for Seoul to go through the details of the Polish side's proposal with the South Korean government.
The plant will be Hyundai's first in Europe and would create around three thousand jobs. The new jobs and investment would then be multiplied with time as associated supply and component businesses build up around the main assembly plant.
Poland's FDI suffered a major setback earlier this year when it lost a PSA Peugeot-Citroen production base to Slovakia, and several analysts' reports complained that government u-turns on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the disorganization of its inward investment agency was costing Poland dearly. But the re-formed and re-named Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) is seen to have made major improvement on its predecessor since its creation in the summer.
"We would like think it's a positive change," says Wojcech Drzewiecki, President of the auto sector analysts' firm Samar, "...PAIiIZ has changed its role totally, organizing itself much better, offering itself as the main partner to the investor, which previously had to deal with many partners."
Jacek Pawlak, Toyota's commercial sales director, sees a positive final result for Poland as good for the whole sector. "Any investment which helps the economy to grow helps car sales," says Pawlak, "...and the competition will motivate us at Toyota."
According to CzechInvest, the inward investment agency of the Czech Republic, Poland's key asset - that the Czechs cannot not compete against - is the reduction of Poland's corporate income tax (CIT) rate to 19 percent earlier this year. "We wish the Poles good luck," says Ladislav Logaj of CzechInvest, "...and we hope they keep their promises."
With Polish law now more in line with the EU, analysts suggest that the SEZ mistakes of the past - where Poland offered tax breaks only to annul them after the investment - were in a different era, and any promises made to Hyundai are necessarily based on a new status quo. Another concern for investors into Poland has been a lack of logistics infrastructure, but the main factor pitched by PAIiIZ to the South Koreans is that Kobierzyce is near Wrocław, which is, in terms of regional transport links, one of the best locations in Poland.
The Hyundai plant would produce over 200,000 cars a year. From next year, the size of Poland's market, once a major selling point to Poland's direct inward investors, will be less relevant as it joins the enormous free trade area of the EU. This can only accentuate the importance of Hyundai's move, which suggests that locating in Poland should be an important business consideration notwithstanding its relatively large population.
At the time of going to press, Deputy Economy Minister, Andrzej Szejna was setting out for Seoul to go through the details of the Polish side's proposal with the South Korean government.
