Pats on the back all round, here in the Polish outsourcing industry. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Poland has become the most attractive foreign direct investment country in the EU. The Conference’s annual FDI survey, published in World Investment Report at the end of July this year, shows that Poland has moved up to sixth place in the world in terms of the most attractive FDI host countries as perceived by multinational corporations. The Czech Republic is the only other EU member state from Central and Eastern Europe in the top 20, in 17^th place. This indicates that across all industry sectors, outsourcing, or more specifically – offshoring- to Poland is becoming increasingly attractive.

While overall levels of FDI are still lower than they were prior to the 2008 crash, Poland now has a larger share of FDI than many other countries that out-performed it in this area in the early-to-mid noughties. This is particularly good news for our outsourcing industries when you consider that UNCTAD predicts that global FDI flows will recover over the next two years. Outsourcing behemoths like India and Brazil remain ahead of Poland in terms of FDI, as do China and Russia (and of course the USA), but I believe that not only is this to be expected, it is, in the short term at least, a good thing.  For a start, they are much larger countries than Poland. More importantly, as I always say, one of our software development sector’s and the wider IT outsourcing industry’s key differentiating strengths is its attention to quality. In fact it seems that quality is a hallmark of other types of Polish outsourcing too.

While we all want to achieve fantastic growth, we want to do it in a sustainable way, and not so that we lose sight of this core value. And I think this strategy is paying off. Judging from the business Polish outsourcers seem to be doing this year, I am already looking forward to the results of next year’s FDI attractiveness survey from UNCTAD.