Rebuilding Poland's industrial heartland

The Sobieski Institute and the city authorites of Stalowa Wola have begun an initiative to revitalize the former Central Industrial Region (COP), an area created in the late 1930s to help Poland weather the period's worldwide economic crisis. The region comprises parts of the Świętokrzyskie, Lubelskie, Podkarpackie, Mazowieckie and Małopolskie voivodships.

While few concrete details have been worked out, the organizers have gained the backing of the government, the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) and other cities in the region. It is known, however, that preliminary plans include establishing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the area, as well as making use of a significant amount of EU aid and extending the A4 highway as far as Rzeszów and into Ukraine.

"We want to highlight the great efforts of that generation by modernizing the region again, this time using such incentives as Special Economic Zones or EU funds," said Stalowa Wola Mayor Andrzej Szlęzak.

"The COP was the largest project of the Polish state's intervention in the economy," explained Wojciech Morawski, the head of the Socio-Economic History Department at the Warsaw School of Economics.

The COP created 100,000 work places and accounted for 60 percent of all of the Polish government's investments during the period before World War II.

While the entire region is in great need of development, several projects which were completed as part of the COP in the 1930s now greatly contribute to Poland's economy, including: hydropower plants in Rożnów and Porąbka; an arms factory and steelworks in Stalowa Wola; a rubber and tire plant in Dębica; an airplane factory in Mielec; an arms and airplane-engine plant in Rzeszów; and a chemical plant in Sarzyna.