The Opole Region – given its location near the border and vicinity of ready markets (Germany and other UE countries), demographic potential together with its ethnical diversity (the highest nationwide – 12.5% of ethnic German population in the total number of inhabitants of the region), and the longstanding economic migration which – is a perfect partner for international cooperation. At the same time the characteristics of the regional economy in connection with an easy access to an open, mobile and highly qualified workforce, favour the development of foreign investment in the area.
These strengths surely convinced Cadbury Schwepps, Heidelberg Cement, Zott or the Italian concern Marcegaglia to invest in the Opole Region. In addition, in 2008 one of the investment areas, the Ujazd commune, was the subject of a serious interest of a German motor-concern Daimler which considered to build a plant for construction of A and B class Mercedes.
The Opole Region needs, however, a higher inflow of direct foreign investments, as a result the authorities of the province and individual local self-governments intensify their efforts to acquire new investors and increase investment attractiveness of the region. Perhaps these efforts will lead to appearance in our region of further investors, e.g. from China.

Special Economic Zones in Opole Province

Opole Province covers an area of over 9.4 thousand km2, and borders with Dolnośląskie, Śląskie, Wielkopolskie and Łódzkie provinces. On the south, Opole Province borders with the Czech Republic. The region has a well developed network of national and provincial roads. The most important road connection that runs through the region is A-4 motorway (80 km) that constitutes a part of Pan-European transport corridor from France (Paris) to Ukraine (Kyiv). Opole – the capital of the province – has a direct railway connection with Warsaw, moreover the city is one of the major Polish centres of international bus connections with Western Europe. As far as air transport, the airports are situated outside the region – near Wroclaw and Katowice. Both airports can be reached from Opole Province in less than 1 hour by motorway.
The regional industry is characterized by a complex division structure, which is an asset in development of Opole Province. An important advantage of the region are competitive food industry, and cement and lime industry plants, as well as modern and developed furniture and timber industries based on a long tradition. The potential of such industries as: food, chemical, power engineering, construction materials, machine, electrical machinery and metal products have a great importance for development of the region.
The investment offer of Opole region currently includes approximately 3.5 thousand ha of investment area (so-called greenfields), out of which approx. 15% (468 ha) are included in subzones of Special Economic Zones (SEZ). The database of these areas has been maintained (gathered and promoted) for five years by Investor Assistance Centre (COI) operating since 2007 as a part of Opole Centre for Economy Development (OCRG). The centre makes available the data gathered in the databases also to Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), which on behalf of the government of Poland promotes the investment offer of the state and provides assistance to foreign investors.
The Opole subzones of SEZ managed by three companies – Katowice, Wałbrzych and Starachowice. Whereas the first two Katowice SEZ and Wałbrzych SEZ belong to the biggest in the country both in terms of created workplaces – employment on Katowice SEZ amounted to 45.5 thousand persons and in Wałbrzych SEZ nearly 31 thousand (as of December 31, 2008), and in terms of the total area of the zone – the size of each offer is over 1500 ha. The Opole SEZ offer from Starachowice concerns only 17 ha of territory of the former china factory in Tułowice.
Even thought the first subzone of SEZ was established in the province relatively late that is in 2002 in Nysa (8 years after the first subzone in Poland – Mielec subzone), however this process has been dynamically accelerating and we are expecting that thanks to the effort of our self-government, the offer of investment areas included in SEZ subzones, will be extended by further 273 ha by the end of the year including such economically important locations of the province as Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Nysa, etc.

By the end of December 2008 on the area of 11 845 ha of investment areas in SEZ 210 542 workplaces were created and 56 705.9 billion PLN were invested.
The zones stimulate development of local markets creating cooperation networks with nearby companies. These are often small, national companies for which a possibility to cooperate is a chance for development and access to the latest technological and organizing solutions. Most of direct production investments implemented by large companies, both Polish and foreign, are placed in the zones. The fiscal form of aid is favourable and safe for the Budget as providing it is spread over many years and takes place after starting up the activity and obtaining profit. High efficiency of investment support by means of tax exemptions and substantial interest of the investors to implement their projects in the zones is decisive in further development of this tool.
From the point of view of the province self-government, the SEZ subzones already constitute an important advantage in efforts to acquire foreign investors – despite a short period of operation in our region they are an area of substantial investment.