In the era of the coronavirus pandemic, we want to further support the activities of investors within the Polish Investment Zone and encourage them to more activity. We have prepared a draft amendment to the regulation on state aid granted to certain entrepreneurs for the implementation of new investments, which has just been included in the list of works of the Council of Ministers. We are also working on a draft amendment to the act on supporting new investments, which is now ready for inter-ministerial consultations. We will also continue to encourage investments in less developed areas, which mainly means medium-sized cities losing their socio-economic functions and cities in Eastern Poland – emphasises Jarosław Gowin, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology.

In turn, the deputy head of the ministry, Olga Semeniuk, adds: – We want to clarify the quality criteria to improve the transparency of the applicable regulations and make it easier for entrepreneurs to operate within the Polish Investment Zone. This is all the more relevant now during the Covid-19 pandemic.

29 billion zlotys for investments

A total of 680 investment decisions were issued within the Polish Investment Zone from September 2018, i.e. from the moment it was launched, until the end of October 2020, reflecting total value of 29 billion zlotys. During this time, investors declared the creation of 12,450 new jobs. In December 2018, already 50 percent of the value of investments was located outside the Special Economic Zones, at the end of 2019 this percentage was 55%, and by October 2020 it had increased to 66%.

Importantly, in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, starting in March this year, only a slight decrease in the number of decisions to support investments was noted (decrease by 14% y/y in the number of projects). Moreover, already from October their number began to gradually increase (by 2 percentage points compared to September). In the past six months, we also saw a decline in the value of investments – by 36%, but also in this field we could see a slight rebound (by 4 percentage points compared to September). The number of new jobs within the Polish Investment Zone also fell until September this year – by 28 percent, but already in October there was a slight increase – by 4 percentage points compared to the previous month.

In October, compared to September this year, 27 new projects were added, reflecting the value of approx. 1.1 billion zlotys, accompanied with a declaration of creating 387 new jobs. Only in 2020, in the three largest Special Economic Zones, namely the Katowice, Łódź and Wałbrzych zones, as many as 87 projects have already been launched, representing total amount of 3.5 billion zlotys.

Support for Polish Investment Zone and Special Economic Zones during the Covid-19 pandemic

In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, we have introduced a number of changes to Polish Economic Zones that are positive for entrepreneurs. They include:

• clarification of the provisions, and thus extension of the period of support for entrepreneurs, in the case of investments located only partially in the area covered by the status of a special economic zone (51%);
• enabling leasing to be included as eligible costs also after the investment implementation period (because leasing has a different financing structure than most costs incurred by the entrepreneur);
• organising information clauses and rules for using state aid based on the notification of projects to the European Commission;
• clarification of the definition of a plant and an entrepreneur.

Moreover, pro-entrepreneurial solutions were introduced in other regulations. Their goal is to increase the investment and business attractiveness of the Special Economic Zones. These solutions include:

• clarification of the provisions in the field of initiating and conducting remote control carried out by zones at the entrepreneur;
• the possibility of reasonable postponement by large entrepreneurs of payment terms to their contractors, which improves the liquidity of the entire market; as well as the possibility of purchasing agricultural real estate by Special Economic Zones.

Origins of Polish Investment Zone

Polish Investment Zone was established under the Act of 10 May 2018 on supporting new investments, thus becoming a uniform investment area. The act entered into force on 30 June 2018. As a result, from 5 September 2018, tax exemptions are made available throughout the country and not only – as before – in special economic zones. From 1 January 2019, new investments can only be placed in the Polish Investment Zone. However, Special Economic Zones still play a key role in the system of the Polish Investment Zone – they manage its individual parts.