Business News Poland-week 20 (Update)
- Stanisław Chao
- May 15, 2020
- 3 min read
Weekly briefing you important business news regarding Poland.
Poland’s plan to block foreign takeovers alarms business (14 May)
Poland’s government won praise for the early steps it took to help companies stricken by the pandemic.
(1) The government is considering giving the country’s competition authority the power to block non-EU companies from taking stakes of more than 10 percent in businesses deemed to be providing critical infrastructure, goods or services for a period of two years.
(2) More than half of inward investment to Poland comes from inside the EU and would therefore not be affected. But business leaders are still justifiably uneasy about the messages being sent to foreign investors.
(3) Another problem was that the provisions on which Polish companies would be covered by the new rules were so vague that they could be open to abuse.
(4) Investors who fail to notify the Polish authorities of their purchases could face fines of up to 100m zloty, and even jail terms of up to five years.
Poland tops ranking of investment value in CEE, but Czech Republic in pursuit (12 May)
In the first quarter of 2020, the total capital invested in commercial real estate in Central and Eastern Europe amounted to €4.25 billion. This means increase of 24 percent y/y. Poland maintained its leading position with an investment value of over €1.7 billion. A similar result was recorded by the Czech Republic (€1.6 billion), which is trampling Poland after investment heels, according to the CBRE report.
The CBRE report shows that Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria (€450 million) are on the podium of the countries with the highest investment value in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Just behind the podium was Hungary with a result exceeding €199 million.
Microsoft to invest $1 billion in Poland for new data center region and training
Microsoft will invest $1 billion in Poland to build a data center region in order to provide cloud services to businesses and government institutions, among other verticals. Microsoft inked an agreement with domestic cloud provider Chmura Krajowa to provide cloud services across Poland and parts of Central Europe.
In addition to the cloud services, Microsoft will also offer a long-term training program in Poland that will help businesses and organizations implement their cloud-based digital transformation strategies.
In addition to the Microsoft Azure cloud services, Poland's digital economy also stands to gain from Microsoft's Office 365 applications that can be hosted in the cloud for software-as-a-service (SaaS) workloads as well as its Dynamics 365 business applications.
Poland's GDP to drop at much lower pace than in EU European Commission estimates that Poland's GDP in 2020 will fall by 4.3 percent and in 2021 it will increase by 4.1 percent, as results from spring forecasts. Besides, HICP inflation is to amount to 2.5 percent in 2020 and to increase to 2.8 percent in 2021. In the EC's assessment, the risk related to the forecast is tilted down.
The EC forecasts as well that the unemployment rate in Poland in 2020 will amount to approx. 7.5 percent.
At the same time EC estimates that GDP decline in the European Union in 2020 should be expected by 7.4 percent, a fall much deeper than it was during the global financial crisis in 2009, and a rebound in 2021 by only 6 percent.
Foreign Ministry launches portal promoting Polish entrepreneurs on foreign markets
To support Polish companies in searching for new outlets in the turbulent times of the epidemic, the Foreign Ministry has launched a website promoting their offer on international markets, deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński has told PAP.
The platform is designed mainly for producers of food, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, personal protection and hygiene products as well as technology companies but other industries are also welcome to join by sending their business offer to the ministry, he added.
Polish embassies and foreign offices of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH) will help Polish entrepreneurs to establish contacts with representatives of local business and local authorities, especially ministries responsible for the economy, agriculture and health as well as offer their support in procedural matters, Jabłoński said.
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