Account of the V-th ANNUAL OUTSOURCING FORUM – POLAND AS EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE PROCESS OUTSOURCING CENTER

“A year ago during this Forum we were wondering how Poland would handle the global crisis. Today we can honestly say that Poland has been transfigured ….Paradoxically due to crisis… Considering other developed countries it turned out that we can offer foreign investors a product which was missing in Europe in 2009. This product is economic stability” – said Sławomir Majman, President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency. As the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency indicates the analysis of the investment climate in 2009 shows a moderately positive attitude of the entrepreneurs investing in Poland. “Why does the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency participate in this forum? Our job is to shape the economic map of Poland globally. What does shape this map better than modern BPO services? This is not a coincidence that in modern countries 20-25% of the gross national income are produced by high technology services. We are eager to take steps in this direction. Currently the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency is working on 121 investment projects out of which 25 are BPO projects. Poland has a great potential, first of all human potential, so in my opinion if the investors obtain more support than during the last few years, Poland has a chance to become a European service hub” – stated Sławomir Majman, President of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency.
For the first time, during the conference, we had a debate on barriers to BPO (business process outsourcing) development in Poland with the participation of the representatives of the government, local governments, universities and outsourcing sector. The objective of the debate was to answer the question whether Poland has a chance to become a European service center?
“Apart from low costs, Poland has a great human potential, so in my opinion if the investors obtain more support than during the last few years, Poland has a chance to become a European service hub. Knowledge Process Outsourcing will be of more and more importance for investment, and in particular here I see a big opportunity for our country. Outsourcing is extremely important for Polish economy because it has an impact, to a large extend, on the increase in the number of jobs, which in the period of increased unemployment is of no small importance – according to Eva Krisztina Aboo, Managing Director, Roadshow Polska.
According to Marcin Kaszuba, Ernst & Young expert, the crisis seems to be an ally for outsourcing. “Assuming advantageous legal environment and support of the government, Poland has a chance to double a number of employees in this sector of economy from 40 000 to 80 000 within a few years. We are larger than countries of the region, we have bigger population and it translates into our potential: strong academic centers, two million students and growing reputation of the Polish personnel. That is why it is crucial to attract and improve new technologies, in particular foreign research and development centers. It is important to support the cooperation of business and science, development of education, especially technical faculties. The above should result in creating the competitiveness of the Polish economy based on knowledge and advanced technology. We are doomed to competition in this sector, the EU will continue to expand with new countries and the development of the European Community raises standards”.
“What does then make the success of the outsourcing V FORUM?”
This includes identification of bureaucratic obstacles, difficulties with the information flow, lack of understanding of the service role by these levels of administration which issue various permits or approve plans. It is particularly visible in the construction industry. From all participants I heard statements on the purposefulness of such debates where all participants can speak, support and motivate one another. The perfect preparation of multinational conference by ROADSHOW POLSKA was of key importance. Iron discipline of speeches, excellent auxiliary materials to plan participation in the discussion, excellent technical organization of the event where large screens enabled observation of the session even when having coffee in back rooms – these created the atmosphere of attentive work of nearly 200 persons. Well done! It is time Poland became the most important service provider in Europe”. (PAP information)
The Sponsors/Partners of the event, apart from those mentioned above, were also: NEO BPO, Szczecin, Fraikin, OSG Records Management Group and Poznań, Cracow, Lublin, Gdańsk and BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego.