Poland came third in the number of jobs generated by foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2010 - according to an annual survey of Investment Attractiveness of Europe prepared by the consulting firm Ernst & Young. Announcement of the report took place on June 15th at the headquarters of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment.

Last year, Poland recorded the highest increase in the number of FDI projects across Europe - 40% more than in 2009. Experts from Ernst & Young say that Poland made a lasting positive impression on the international scene during and after the crisis - Poland was one of the few economies which successfully tackled the crisis what effectively convinces investors that the investment risk may be lower here than in other EU countries. We have also well-qualified staff - particularly in large cities. It is the large number of students and alumni who speak dozens of different languages that made Ernst & Young open its Shared Services Centre this year in Wroclaw. The centre now hires over 200 people - says Duleep Aluwihare, Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Poland.
This view is shared by the President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment, SÅ‚awomir Majman - Positive results of the survey came as no surprise to me. Poland is still perceived as a leader in the region, it has a huge internal market, educated staff and enviable growth. Thus in the race for investment Poland comes ahead of the Central European group. In the latest edition of the E&Y Survey Poland ranks high in terms of the average size of FDI projects. In 2010 one investment project located in Poland tended to create an average of 86.5 jobs, while in countries that ranked ahead of us in terms of the total number of newly created jobs, it was 29.1 in Britain and 26.6 in France. Last year only Hungarians managed to attract larger FDI projects which created on average 97 jobs per project.

In 2010, foreign investors created in Poland 12.4 thousand jobs - more jobs were generated by FDI projects only in the UK and France. Most of the jobs were created by Americans - 3845 what represented over 31% of all jobs created by FDI in Poland in 2010. Despite the fact that they were running only 10 FDI projects in the country, Korean investors hired more than 1.6 thousand people. Third place in this respect was occupied by German companies (943 jobs) and the fourth by entrepreneurs from the UK (926). PaweÅ‚ Tynel, Director at Ernst & Young drew attention to the growing role of the Swedish capital - The IKEA Group and its subcontractors are active on the Polish market. The company’s investment in Podlasie is a perfect example of IKEA’s appreciation of the market as the factory created 250 jobs.

In 2010, the largest number of FDI projects in Poland was developed in the electronics/domestic appliances sector as well as in the automotive industry - what resulted in the creation of 2.2 and 1.5 thousand jobs respectively. Third place was taken by business services, through which in 2010 there were more than 830 jobs created.

Source: PAIiIZ, http://www.paiz.gov.pl/20010616/Poland_among_the_most_attractive_in_europe_survey_by_ernst_anb_young