Re: yadda
Hi ecstatic, I don't have any investments over there. I was over there for the last 2 weeks and was quite impressed by the measures Poland are taking to make themselves attractive for foreign investment (English speaking, well educated, etc etc). The figures I talked about were from the english language Warsaw Business Weekly.
As stated above, they really are looking at growth for the next 1.5 yrs, but nothing until about 2009, I'd agree with that, hence the essential long term view required.
My pessimism stems from the fact there are 40m people in Poland, and possibly 100m accross all the accession states. That is a lot of wealth and job creation required to replicate the successes of Ireland, where really only about 200,000 jobs had to be created to make us where we are today. That translates into 2m jobs in Poland alone to create similar sustainable relative wealth. (in a country of unemployment simmering at 19%...)
Accession is great, but East Germany and many other countries, including Germany itself, haven't exactly rocketed as a result of EU accession and its subsidies.
Having said that, if I was in charge of setting up back office admin functions (like so many of our jobs), I would be setting up in Poland, given the cheapness and quality of the labour.
Its a tough one, and a visit to the country is a must to get a feel for it.