Consulting Poland | Sourcing Poland | Market Entry | Market Research

The Polish market is the largest of all the European Union accession countries. Poland's population is approximately four times larger than the CEE4 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia) and it has a national income over two and a half times larger.
Poland has the ability to attract large amounts of foreign direct investment. Over the last eighteen years, Poland has largely managed to complete its privatisation process and has attracted the largest volume of foreign direct investment of any country in the region. In terms of FDI per capita, however, Poland is still behind its smaller neighbours: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
The country has a well-educated workforce and the number of university graduates is increasing with each year. This high supply of labour combined with relatively high unemployment in the regions is expected to prevent immediate dramatic wage increases.

Agriculture and industry

Poland has a large agricultural sector of private farms, and can be a leading producer of food in the European Union. Agriculture is mostly privately run and was so even during the communist years. Currently it accounts for 5% of the gross national product and occupies 16.1% of the workforce. Poland is generally self-sufficient in food. The main crops are rye, potatoes, beetroots, wheat and dairy products. Cows, pigs and sheep are the main livestock. Structural reforms in health care, education, the pension system and state administration have resulted in larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Warsaw leads the region of Central Europe in foreign investment and in 2006, GDP growth met expectations with a level of 6.1%.

Poland pursued a policy of rapid economic liberalization throughout the 1990s and now stands as a successful example of transition from a command economy.

Poland is relatively rich in natural resources. The chief minerals produced are coal, sulphur, copper, lead and zinc. The country's leading manufactures include machinery, iron and steel products, chemicals, ships, food processing and textiles. Industry, which had been state controlled, began to be privatized in the early 1990s, although restructuring and privatization of the country's large coal, steel and chemical industries has moved forward slowly, when it has progressed at all. In 2006, exports at current prices was 22.2% higher than in 2005 and amounted to €87.85 billion f.o.b. Imports amounted to €100.35 billion f.o.b and was 22.8% higher than in the previous year.

Germany, Russia, Italy, France and the Netherlands are important trading partners of Poland.

Transportation

Poland has a poorly developed infrastructure of roads, expressways, highways, waterways and railroads considering Western European standards. The total length of railways in Poland is 20,665km, which puts Poland in first place in Europe in terms of railway network density. The total length of Highways/Expressways in Poland is 381,000 km. There were a total of 12,000,000 registered passenger automobiles in Poland, as well as 4,000,000 registered trucks and buses in 2005.
Poland has 12 major airports, and a total of 105 airports and airfields as well as 5 heliports. The total length of navigable rivers and canals is 3,640 km. The merchant marine fleet of Poland consists of 106 ships, but only 9 are registered inside the country. Poland's principal ports, river ports and harbours are Gdansk, Gdynia, Kolobrzeg, Szczecin, Swinoujscie, Ustka, Warsaw and Wroclaw.

Telecommunication and IT

The value of the Polish telecommunications market increased by 8.1% in 2005 (compared to 2004) and reached the record-high level of €10.1 billion. According to EITO (European Information Technology Observatory) forecasts for 2007, the market is expected to grow at a rate of 3.5%. Telecommunications is one of the most rapidly developing, as well as most promising sectors of Polish industry.

In 2006 36% of polish households had an Internet access. Currently in Poland there are 38.665 million using mobile phones, which translates to 101.5% of the population.

GENERAL DATA

Area: 312,685 sq km
Population: 38.6 million
Capital city: Warsaw
Language: Polish
Ethnic groups: Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other 2.7% (2002)
Land boundaries: Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine

MACRO DATA

GDP (real growth): 6.1%
GDP (PPP): €439.08 billion
GDP per capita: €7,076.9

Inflation: 1.3%
Unemployment: 13.8%
Export: €87.85 billion f.o.b.
Import: €100.35 billion f.o.b.

* 2006 est. source: Eurostat

USEFUL DATA