www.ksse.com.pl

KSSE was founded in 1996 and initially took up slightly over 800 hectares. Its main job is to draw investment, modern technology and know-how and raise employment. The main investment magnets in the zone are CIT reliefs, currently to the tune of 40-70%. Also of importance for investors are the region’s rich industrial traditions, qualified labour and nationwide best road and rail network with the A1 and A4 motorways. All this has helped elevate KSSE to Poland’s leading Special Economic Zone.
Today KSSE covers more than 1,500 hectares, partly reaching over into the provinces Opole and Małopolska. Over 200 new investors have settled in the zone, together employing more than 40,000. Especially successful were the last three years, when we issued almost 100 new business licences. But the zone’s influence reaches far beyond its premises as its companies work together with hundreds of local suppliers, creating even more jobs. Silesia is currently considered the most attractive investment site in Poland for modern industry and services. Over 60% of the firms in KSSE are motor companies, but we also have constructors, steel industry and food producers. Over 80% of the capital invested in the zone is foreign, but Silesia has embarked a singular “roots trip” by reforming its coal industry and letting fresh blood into the branch. In their “second youth” are also companies like the Zabrze Mechanical Works (Zabrzańskie Zakłady Mechaniczne S.A.) or the mining equipment producer Famur. Recently we also welcomed two foreign newcomers - Sandvik Mining & Construction from Sweden and the U.S. unit Joy Maszyny Górnicze.
The Famur Group specializes in the mechanization of longwall mining, the company also offers self-developed coal management software covering the entire excavation process from coal face to surface. There I alsos special software for managing longwall work and transport systems, as well as the e-mine mine management system. Famur invests a lot in R&D and its innovative products find eager buyers in the Czech Republic, China, Russia, Hungary and Romania.
As for Sandvik, about 80 of its machines are currently at work in mines belonging to the copper giant KGHM. Sandvik Mining & Construction is a supplier and servicer of conveyor systems, hydraulic breakers, break-up machinery, crushers (cone, jaw, impact, mobile jaw), crusher hoppers, sifters, vertical and horizontal tunneling machinery, surface drilling rigs, drilling equipment, automated production systems, exploitation safeguards, and sieves made by Sandvik and other manufacturers.
Despite the worldwide crisis, Poland seems to be managing quite well. KSSE is constantly on the lookout for new investors, and in effect we may have some more newcomers to the zone in coming years. We have high hopes for the future, especially as some of our companies are getting ready to launch production here because of the low costs. Others want to but are waiting until the economy picks up. The first signals that the market is starting up again are beginning to reach our western partners, so we’re pretty sure that in the years to come we’ll be able to grow and thereby contribute to Silesia’s growth.