News about Poland - eurolider.eu

Login

News about Poland

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD): situation in Poland among the best in the region

02.02.2009

According to a report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Poland stands a good chance of entering the small group of countries bound to suffer from the global economic upheaval only to a limited extend.

EBRD’s experts claim Poland’s economic situation to rank among the soundest in the region and estimate the country’s economy to suffer from the current crisis only to a limited extend.
Transition Report 2008. Growth in Transition proves that global markets’ turmoil will put countries like Poland and their transformational achievements to the test. Transition Report 2008. Growth in Transition – is an annual publication providing an analysis of economic performance and progress in the reform implementation process in the CEE region and the former Soviet republics, Mongolia and the Balkan countries. (PAP)

The European Commission’s forecasts for 2009 indicate that Poland is to keep one of the highest GDP in Europe.

22.01.2009

The European Commission (EC) published its latest forecast on economic situation and especially GDP growth in the EU for 2009.

The latest EC economic forecast places Poland among countries with the highest economic growth and at the same time ranks the country among those bound to retain positive GDP this year. Only Slovakia (2.7%) outstripped Poland in terms of 2008 GDP growth. On the other hand, a whole range of other European countries recorded negative results: Belgium (-1.8%), the Czech Republic (-1.7%), Hungary (-1.6%), Portugal (-1.6%), France (-1.8%), Spain (-2%), Germany (-2.3%), the UK (-2.8%) and Ireland (-5%).
The EC experts emphasised that government spending, investments and fall in inflation pressure will have a positive influence on economies.
Comparing the latest forecasts with the November prognoses, the EC lowered GDP forecasts on average by 2%. Polish GDP is expected to reach 2% against the previously estimated 3.8%. (the European Commission, Rzeczpospolita)

UniCredit Group creates a BPO centre in Szczecin

13.01.2009

The international Mialn-based UniCredit Group creates in Szczecin a BPO centre for Germany, Austria and Poland. The company will invest 18.5 million PLN and offer employment to round 430 persons. Plans of the investment were given to public information by the representatives of the Bank, the authorities of the city of Szczecin and delegates from PAIiIZ on a press conference which took place on January 8th.

UniCredit creates in Szczecin a centre for the so called back office services. The centre will serve as an institution supporting business strategies of Austrian, German and Polish banks.

It was the strategic location of the city, situated in the vicinity of the Polish-German border, easy access to highly-qualified and foreign language competent cadre as well as a relatively low number of this kind of investment in the region that made the investor favour Szczecin over other localities. The positive attitude on the part of the city’s authorities was of utmost importance for the project’s realisation. During the press conference, the PAIiIZ Vice President Paweł Stelmaszczyk said that in the era of global economic slowdown, Poland becomes an attractive destination for this kind of projects. Companies realising projects of the kind are mainly in search of young, well-educated specialists, high standard office space and competitive prices of running business activities. Poland caters perfectly for investors’ needs and thus overtakes such countries as the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary or India. Mr Stelmaszczyk informed also that currently PAIiIZ has been receiving a substantially greater number of investor applications concerning outsourcing than in the previous years.

The centre is to offer services in the field of financial operations related to credits and mortgage loans, consultancy, process optimization, training, project management and bank process services (Core Banking), including a wide range of services directly supporting operational work of divisions in Germany and Austria. Recruitment process for the UniCredit centre is planed to start in March 2009 and should finish by the end of 2010. The prospective employee’s profile includes both young university graduates and people with work experience and, above all, with knowledge of German or English. The estimated number of new workplaces to be created accounts for 430.

UniCredit Group is a Milan-based, pan-European banking organization, with over 40 million customers and operations in 22 countries in Europe. The company employs 7 thousand people. UniCredit is listed on stocks in Milan, Frankfurt, including the XETRA platform and since 2007 it has also been present on the Warsaw stock exchange. The Polish Bank Pekao S.A. forms part of the group.

In 2006 the city of Szczecin has mapped out an investor-oriented strategy according to which the city should become a service centre for countries in the west of Europe. To this end the city has recently been attracting shared services and business process outsourcing centres. The city aims also at the IT and ITC sectors development and thus supports the Szczecin Science and Technology Park, a start up friendly place. (PAIiIZ, Szczecin City Council)

Dell shifts its European manufacturing operations to Poland.

12.01.2009

Dell’s production of computer systems for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa is moving from Limerick to its Polish facility and third-party manufacturing partners over the next year.

Dell, the American computer group decided to shift part of the Irish production from Limerick to its Łódź-based facility. The process, which forms part of a $3 billion global cost-cutting drive announced last year, will be taking part gradually throughout 2009. The decision is a response to the company’s transport and production environment analysis.
Within the next 12 months Dell expects to axe 1,900 jobs and shut down production in Limerick. The initial lay-offs of employees will take place in April, with the full transition expected to be completed by January 2010. Sean Corkery, vice-president of operations, EMEA at Dell siad: “This is a difficult decision, but the right one for Dell to become even more competitive, and deliver greater value to customers in the region. We will treat affected employees with dignity and respect and offer them every practical support through this extended transition period to minimise the impact on them.”
In turn, PAIiIZ President, Paweł Wjciechowski PhD said: “I am very pleased with the fact that Dell opted for Poland, especially in the face of the global economic slowdown. The decision confirms Poland’s strong economic position and the country’s competitiveness. Projects from the IT sector do create a solid base for future innovation development attractive for the country especially thanks to the Polish competitive university education offered in the field”.
Irish workers in Limerick would continue to co-ordinate manufacturing operations throughout Europe, and research and develop new products. Global Innovation Solutions Centre and EMEA Command Centre will remain in Limerick. Also sales, marketing and technical support divisions located in Cherrywood in the vicinity of Dublin will continue operating in Ireland.
(Dell, PAIiIZ)

Warsaw Stock Exchange - the leader of the region

07.01.2009

The Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) published a performance summery for the year 2008. The Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) classifies 1st in Europe in terms of debuts and comes before, among others, the London and Wien-based stocks.

The joint number of new companies which entered the Warsaw stock in the 11 months of 2008 accounts for 82, while the London Stock Exchange hosted 72 new companies and the Euronext in Amsterdam 21. The Warsaw stock results to be the unquestioned leader in the CEE.
It is the capitalization of domestic companies, the number and value of public offers, the forward market as well as the domestic transactions value that made the stock perform better than all the other stocks in the region. In terms of capitalization the Warsaw stock manage to outdo both the Wien and Athens-based stocks and became the biggest stock not only among stock markets located in the region of eastern and central but also from among those operating in the southern part of the continent.
In terms of the value of companies listed, the Warsaw stock exceeded the Wiener Boerse by some 15 billion EUR and as of the end of November 2008 its capitalization value was near 2 billion EUR higher than that of the stock located in Athens. According to FESE, the stock’s performance for the first 11 months of 2008 makes the stock an unquestionable leader in term of the number of Initial Public Offerings i.e. the number of companies which issued shares to the public for the first time. As far as debuts are concerned Warsaw managed not only to outdo all stock from the region but also such markets as Euronext, OMX and the London stock. (IAR, GPW)

Source: Polish Agency of Foreign Investments

[ Back ]