The Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska in Polish) is one of the largest countries in Central Europe, bordering Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany. Warsaw, is the capital city and Poland's economic centre. The five other largest cities of the country are: Lodz, Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk.
After the fall of the communist regime in 1990, Poland has tried to pursue a policy of economic liberalization and deliberately attempted to be integrated in several international political and economic institutions. Since then, most of the goals set have been accomplished, as Poland today stands out as a success story among ‘transition’ economies and has already become a member of the European Union and NATO. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004 and nowadays can be fairly characterized as a democratic, market-oriented country and as an active member of Euro-Atlantic organizations.
Additionally, EU membership and the subsequent access to EU structural funds has been a major boost to the economy of the country. Poland has further benefited by its access to the European Union, as its integration has led to the structuring of the economic and political institutions of the country, according to the rules and regulations that a powerful economic and political institution such as the European Union, has established.
Poland’s economic development was inclusive helping the society to further develop. It is indicative that according to Eurostat, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita reached 11,200 Euros in 2015, significantly increased compared to 2005, when it was 6,500 Euros. The fact that Polish society is rather developed, is also highlighted by the country’s high score in the Human Development Index (HDI) indicator. HDI measures human development and is published annually by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The factors that are taken into consideration in order to form the aforementioned index, are life expectancy, education (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and standards of living (measured by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) income). The prices of the index fluctuate from 0 to 1. In general, countries with an index below 0.5 are characterized as “under-developed”; countries with index between 0.5 and 0.8 are characterized as of “medium development”; and countries with indexes more than 0.8, are characterized as “highly developed”. In 2014, the HDI value of Poland was 0.843, which gave the country an overall ranking of 36 out of 188 countries and territories considered. Since 1980, the HDI value of Poland has significantly increased from 0.689 to 0.843. Also the country has recorded a substantial progress in each of the HDI indicators involved. Life expectancy at birth increased by 6.6 years, mean years and expected years of schooling increased by 4.1 years and 3.5 years respectively, while Gross National Income (GNI) per capita increased by 112.1% over the period.
The ‘progressive’ business environment and the good infrastructure the country offers, have facilitated the development of several economic sectors. One such is the automotive industry. According to data provided by Polski Związek Przemysłu Motoryzacyjnego (PZPM) for 2015, i.e. the Polish Automotive Industry Association, manufacturing facilities based in Poland assembled more than 642,000 passenger vehicles in that year. More specifically, the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plant, based in Tychy, manufactured 302,600 units (down by 3.6% compared to the previous year). The company is followed by the Poznań based Volkswagen plant, which produced 170,800 units and the Gliwice based Opel Polska factory, which manufactured 169,400 units. The polish automotive industry is export oriented, as the bulk amount of its revenues, are generated from exports. In 2015, export revenues reached 27.9 billion Euros, increased by 2.5 billion Euros, when compared to 2014.
Additionally, Poland has a rather developed aerospace industry, as according to a report released by PwC, the country is the 5th best investment destination for aerospace manufacturing projects in Europe, and the 8th worldwide. The main ‘strengths’ of the local aerospace industry, lie in the high quality of products delivered, as well as the competitive associated labour costs. Currently, there are some 200 aerospace and aerospace-related companies in the country, the majority of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Overall, the Polish aerospace industry employs more than 30,000 people and its annual sales amount to some 1.3 billion Euros, while 90% of aviation-related production is exported to countries such as the US, Italy, Canada, China, Ukraine, Australia, the UK, France and Germany. Around 80% of aerospace production plants of the country are located in South-Eastern Poland.
Another sector in which Poland excels, is that of Electronics. According to official estimations, there are almost 6,000 companies providing Electronics related services and/or products, and employing over 50 thousand people. The most important foreign investors in the electronics sector in Poland, are Dell, LG Display Poland, Sharp, Funai, LG Electronics, Alcatel-Lucent, Kimball Electronics Poland and Flextronics International Poland. According to a report published by Business Monitor International (BMI), the value of the Polish electronics market over the period 2015-2018, is to increase at a 2.2% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), reaching 10.65 billion US dollars, at the end of the period.
Further, the Polish IT sector is one of the fastest growing ones in Central Europe. According to estimations provided by the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), revenues from the IT sector in 2015, amounted to 30.7 billion Polish Zloty -PLN- (approximately 7.5 billion US dollars). According to projections by Euromoney, the IT services segment is expected to grow at a rate of 8.2 % per annum over the period 2015-2019, while the software segment is expected to grow at 7.4% per annum. Finally, the computer hardware segment is expected to grow at 3.2% per annum, over the same period.