Łódź has been undergoing big changes. A crucial element which has an impact on both direction of the city development and its transformations is to define key industries attracting investors in the Strategy of Integrated Development of Łódź 2020+. The most important sectors for the city are: BPO, SSC, IT and modern textiles.
We are focused on attracting newer and newer investors from the sector of IT and shared services for business. These industries are work places of a really good quality, which generate big employment and which definitely depart from stereotypes of a simple storeroom. Moreover, we are very concentrated on industrial production, which – contrary to popular beliefs – generates considerable increase – convinces Adam Pustelnik, Chairman of the Office for Investor Service and Cooperation with Foreign Countries in the Łódź City Hall, during the talk with the information agency Newseria.
According to Adam Pustelnik, many great global giants have already opened their headquarters in the city. In the BPO/SSC and IT industries these are: Infosys BPO Poland, Philips, Fujitsu, Technology Solutions, Sii, TomTom, Hewlett-Packard, or Nordea Operations Center. There are also leaders from the AGD sector such as Indesit, B/S/H and Gillette. Furthermore, Łódź also attracted such companies as Rossmann, DB Schenker or Dachser.
We can find leading global brands in the portfolios of investors from Łódź. Particularly in the sector of IT, accounts and broadly understood financial services there are big investments offering several thousand work places, however, I cannot point out concrete brands right now. There are also smaller investments, for instance, one of the Dutch companies which produces packets, or one of the Austrian IT centers – says Chairman of the Office for Investor Service and Cooperation with Foreign Countries in the Łódź City Hall.
The largest number of work places will be offered in companies operating in the IT sector (1.7 thousand of new work places) and such sectors as BPO/SSC (850). The next 570 work places will be offered in the production sector and 160 – in the textile industry. First and foremost, computer programmers will be especially needed, just as in each Polish agglomeration. However, Łódź needs them especially because we are a big cluster of ICT: computer programmers and experts of SAP programs, Java computer programmers, testers of applications and experts specialized in production processes as well as chairmen of production. The packing industry, AGD, where we are one of the biggest clusters in Europe, as well as logistics industry have a need for human capital – enumerates Adam Pustelnik.
According to the representative of the Łódź City Hall, investment plans are mainly the result of politics conducted by the city and contacts with investors. We try to cooperate with potential investors basing on the one stop shop principle. Investor who thinks whether he/she should choose Łódź or other location talks to one person designated by the Łódź City Hall from the Office for Investor Service and Cooperation with Foreign Countries, who shows him/her all details concerning Polish administration, bureaucracy and coordinates the whole process of locating his/her center – explains expert of the Łódź City Hall.
According to Adam Pustelnik, the prospects for the nearest years are promising. The city wants to organize the Expo International 2022 exhibition, which may bring image and promotional benefits. The chances are that we may join the bunch of dynamically developing European agglomerations in the nearest years. I keep my fingers crossed so that this tendency could not change because we are on a good path – says Adam Pustelnik.