Poznań seems to be doing very well in the economic rankings but its residents are still complaining that serious investors show little interest in the city.
Well, that certainly isn’t true. Last year was excellent for investment in the city: MAN has opened their accounting centre in Poznań and so did Carlsberg, a lot of money went into the city’s shopping centers, Unilever expanded their factory, Lisner built a new manufacturing facility. How much more do you need? The only thing that was perhaps missing, was a good promotion of these investments; they have not been talked about enough.
I suppose for your average Poznanian, investment should equal new workplaces. How many jobs have been created in the city thanks to last year’s investments?
Thousands! The two accounting centers alone will produce approximately 1200 jobs. W think that in the next 2 or 3 years we will be able to reduce the unemployment levels that will compete with Warsaw.
What exactly are you personally intending to do to reach these targets?
I’m thinking in terms of three main tasks: firstly, the PR activities in Poland and in Europe; secondly, creating a comprehensive investment offer based in Poznań and the surrounding areasm, with an important involvement from the city authorities and the Head of Voivodeship. We don’t really want a large factory in the city, do we? And thirdly, we will create an institution of “investment pilot”. Any investor who meets the preliminary criteria will be allocated a personal assistant who will take care of his needs and help him through bureaucracy. The “pilots” will be young, well-educated, expert in law and economics, speaking foreign languages and of course able to cope with stress.
This year, just like every other year, Poznań is going to present its investment offer on the Cannes Investment Fair. What exactly is the city going to present?
We are going to Cannes with three solid proposals – the three areas in Poznań ready to be invested in. The first one is Marcelina, which is good for housing, hotels, shopping and services areas or perhaps even small manufacturing facility if its not burdensome to the environment in any way. The second is the old tram depot at Gajowa Street. It is very well-situated, near the city centre and can be used for housing and a large shopping centre. The revitalization of this area would liven up the whole Jezyce district. And finally, the third, smallest opportunity is the area of Brzask Street designated for housing construction. Poznań attracts a lot of developers from Poland and abroad so I think that Brzask will find its investor very soon.
A lot has been said recently about the Ławica Airport. Unfortunately, Poznań doesn’t have access to very good air connections. In this respect we loose to almost every bigger town in Poland. How are the authorities going to solve this problem?
Well, it is in the city’s best interest to have access to good air connections and the problem has been mentioned in the city’s development strategy. We, as the Municipality, can promise to promote the city in such a way as to attract tourism and business regardless of the situation. It is after all the airport authorities’ responsibility to attract new airlines and increase the number of connections.