The biggest foreign companies in Wielkopolska  paid to the state budget nearly 400 million zlotys (about 100 million euro) last year.

The biggest 9 foreign companies which have invested their money into Wielkopolska have been included in the report. They employ 21,000 employees altogether.
According to the scientists from the University of Economics in Poznań who carried out this research the companies are active in a number of areas influencing regional development. Their activity translates into economic and financial potential of the region, foreign contacts, labour market as well as socio-cultural circles.
Foreign corporations also engage into local activity by sponsoring, among other things, sports and cultural events. One of the companies that employs a considerable number of the inhabitants of a commune is becoming virtually the centre of the local community.
However, what is not fully satisfactory is the companies’ impact on the regional development through the cooperation with cooperators. Only a dozen or so of the cooperators who cooperate with the companies considered to come from Wielkopolska. As it turns out, a number of small and medium companies cannot meet the high standards of foreign concerns. Though, there are exceptions. GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company, cooperates with several companies from Wielkopolska in the field of production.
Scientists also point out to the insufficient number of contacts between big companies and an academic environment. Despite the fact that the companies spend a lot on their innovative activity aimed mainly at their activity and technologies, their cooperation with the academic environment is still not sizeable enough. However, there is also an exception - Glaxo that signed a contract just a couple of weeks ago for the cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz University.
Big foreign companies also influence the labour market in Wielkopolska. On average, each of the subject companies sends their employees to over 300 different trainings every year. Some of the employees participate in a training even several times a year. Even if they will be later dismissed or they decide to swap jobs themselves, they transfer the knowledge and experience they gained to other enterprises.
The companies are also engaged in organising traineeships  and placements for students. Each of the subject companies also cooperates in this scope with schools, universities, and employers’ organisations. There are enterprises, which organise school workshops at a company. Some of them are even the sponsors for classes where their future employees are educated (for example Volkswagen Poznań).
By analysing the report it seems that the future prospects for the foreign companies in Wielkopolska are promising. An answer to the question “Would the company also select this region to invest if it knew the present day situation?” was “yes”. Still however, the role of the local governments is to prepare the grounds for next investments.