Piotr NOWATKOWSKI
International Department Supervisor at RSM Poland

In today’s post  I would like to share my impressions from a meeting with representatives of A+network Association, in which I participated on 17 April this year in Bologna.

Poland – is this somewhere near Russia…?

The meeting was devoted to Poland and opportunities the country gives to foreign investors, in particular to Italian businesspeople. It needs to be clarified that the question from the subheading did not occur during the meeting and, apparently, participants had knowledge of both geopolitics and geolocation of Poland, as well as of its neighboring countries. What came as a surprise to them were Polish macroeconomic determinants, which seemed impressive especially in comparison to the determinants of the so called Old Union countries. One of the participants said he would never have thought that Poles’ income had reached two-thirds of Italians' income. Even more surprising to Italians was the size of Polish market; none of members of the association have expected that in Poland there are around 38 million prospective service and product buyers. This limited view on our market may result from the way our country is perceived by the broadly understood West. Poland, through the eyes of Western countries, is often not a single country but a part of the Central-Eastern Europe and, therefore, the data on an excellent condition of Polish economy are usually somehow “blurred” by financial analyses of the whole region, for example, when compared to non-satisfying economic performance of Hungary.

Poland – so big?

„Is really Poland so big?” – this was the reaction of the participants to information on Poland’s population. They acknowledged in disbelief that the number of citizens in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, which are often chosen as investment locations, even after adding up, cannot compete with the population of Poland. Therefore, if a new foreign enterprise is looking for new sales markets for its goods or services, a set-up of a new company or branch seems to have more business benefits. When launching a business in Poland, an entrepreneur reaches a big internal market regulated by one administrative, tax and language system, unlike in the three abovementioned countries.

How does business work in Poland?

This is the question that business consulting specialists as well as experts in management and logistics who were present at the meeting, asked most often. What branches in Poland may constitute the so called ”tempting targets” ? Which of them are predicted to grow most dynamically and which have the best prospects for development? Although factors that influence the attractiveness of Poland as a potential business location are numerous, we decided to draw the attention of attendees particularly to the energy industry. And so we did take the opportunity of a new Act on Renewable Energy Sources and elaborated on this issue. The Statute introduces material changes from the point of view of energy trading, as well as regulations regarding mechanisms and instruments to support generation of electrical energy from renewable energy sources. Since its main aim is to develop the so called micro installations (of a total installed capacity not more than 40 kW), according to experts in the branch, the Act will increase the number of micro installations from 500 (at the national scale) to 200-250 thousand, with a yearly boost of around 50 thousand units. More information on the new Act in the following article: /en/news/new-renewable-energy-act-introduces-significant-advantages-prosumers.

The meeting with the A+network representatives closed with discussion from which the conclusion could be: “The best moment for investing in Poland is right now!”.