The information age

Forty percent of foreign companies who don't conduct business activities in Poland are unable to name a single characteristic of the country, says a KPMG report, Why not Poland? Opinions of foreign enterprises who didn't choose Poland. The surveyed companies who were able to come up with some associations mentioned the country's fast-developing economy and its location in the CEE region.

While the report highlights other reasons for not choosing Poland as an investment spot, such as the size of the market or corporate issues, a lack of hard information seems to be the most pressing factor and the only one that can be directly influenced by the government.

When asked what should be done by the Polish authorities to encourage investments, 43 percent said it should provide more information about investment opportunities and 36 percent said it should improve the functioning of the state and its economy.

"Financial incentives or grants appeal to few of them. When investors make a choice of country, they know it's not just a one-off thing, it's a long-term commitment so what they really look at is the market - how big it is and what opportunities it creates," says Mirosław Proppe, director of advisory at KPMG. "The problem is 20 percent of companies we were talking to couldn't quite find the information they were looking for," he adds.

Andrzej Żołnowski, the outgoing president of PAIiIZ who will be replaced this week by Andrzej Kanthak, explains: "If you look at who spends the money on the promotion of Poland - the Ministries of Economy and Finance, local governments - then you can see the money is there. The problem is there is no common strategy. We have to come up with a common method and then implement it accordingly."

In a less enthusiastic tone, he added: "It was my intention to change the structure of PAIiIZ in order to opt for a more channeled promotion, because with a zł.13 million budget no general promotion can be conducted. However, the project was not approved by the former supervisory board."

In Q1 2006 FDI in Poland amounted to $3.3 (zł.10.5) billion.