If you’ve ever gone through the process of setting up or expanding a business to a new region, you’ll surely agree that a supportive mindset of the local authorities can be crucial to its success. Malopolska, with its heart in the city of Krakow, recognizes the importance of fostering good relations with local entrepreneurs, as well as attracting international investors. Today, we thought we’d familiarize you with some of business-friendly aspects of the region.
First, let’s stop for a quick overview. Located in the South of Poland, this dynamically developing region houses a total of 61 cities, and over 380 thousand business entities. The high concentration of business activities in Małopolska translates to its significant socio-economic potential: the region produces nearly 8% of Poland’s GDP, and has been distinguished as the Polish region which experienced the most GDP growth per capita from 2012 to 2016. Thanks to its carefully designed development plan, year after year, Małopolska occupies leading positions in Polish investment attractiveness rankings.
These accomplishments have not gone unnoticed – in 2016, Malopolska was awarded the “European Entrepreneurial Region of the Year” Award. The committee has recognized the Voivodeship’s dynamic growth in the recent years, its focus on encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation through business-friendly policies, as well as an optimal use of European funds provided for the region. Malopolska was the first Polish region to receive the award.
If you’ve had a chance to check out our previous post about Krakow, you will know that Malopolska also takes great pride in its active startup community. This fact has not gone unnoticed by the local administration. Since 2013, many of the startup-related meetups have been sponsored through the “Malopolska – here technology becomes business program”, which functions as an open contest aimed at NGOs who want to receive funding for the organization of events and meetups for the local startup scene. Throughout the years, major community events such as Smogathon, #e-biznes festiwal, Startup Stage, and TEDxKraków have benefited from the program.
Investors who place their trust in Małopolska value not only the region’s natural resource diversity, which includes petroleum, coal, natural gas, and mineral waters, but also its notable science and research potential. We’ve already touched upon the region’s sizable student base, but Malopolska is also home to over 100 research and development units, as well as 20 cluster initiatives, such as LifeScience, and MedCluster. In an effort to make the most of the region’s R&D potential, in 2016 Małopolska has joined the InnoBridge project organized by the European Union Regional Development fund. The program strives to bridge the innovation gap by improving the chances of commercial success for local R&D projects.
Interested? Impact’18 is coming up in Kraków, on June 13th and 14th, so if you’re looking for an excuse to take a field trip to the region, here it is! Register now, we hope to see you there!
For more information about Małopolska – Impact’18 HOST REGION, head to www.malopolska.pl.
