The CEE region has enormous potential in the business services sector – Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The BPO sector is well-developed in Poland mainly in the sphere of international service centres: specializing in bookkeeping and finances, IT services and R&D. At the 4th Annual Outsourcing Forum which took place in Warsaw on November 19th conference organizer Roadshow Poland asked what will happen to this sector under the looming crisis.

‘Personally I believe that there won’t be a significant slowdown in the BPO sector in Poland. On the contrary, companies in more troubled Western countries may be forced to look for cheaper solutions and outsourcing may be their best choice’ Robert Seges of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency said.

BPO allows international corporations to relay chosen tasks to newly formed foreign branches thus reducing costs and employing human resources in a given country. Lower costs, however, aren’t the only factor which motivates firms to set up BPO projects. Poland’s human potential, the availability and quality of highly qualified staff is described as the major factor in choosing it as an investment location. Magda Cieliczko of Colliers International calls for an end to the currently prevailing trend to promote Poland as a cheap labour market. ‘Labour is not cheap in Poland, our main asset are the well-educated young people’ she said.

Ronal Rewald, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce said that the strength of Poland as an outsourcing partner lies in the 2 million students who become skilled graduates and the country’s location. ‘Poland is cheaper in terms of labour force than America, but it is more expensive than China and India. Paradoxically this works for the benefit of Poland, as US companies chose it for outsourcing high-level tasks while low-level tasks are outsourced to Asia’ Rewald explained. Experts confirm that Poland’s attractiveness as a location for IT, finance, accounting and greenfield projects remains intact even in the times of crisis.

There are numerous locations which have been successful in attracting such investments i.e. Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Katowice, Gdansk and several other cities including Bydgoszcz and Lublin, which are becoming new BPO centres. Maciej Grzeskowiak, Deputy Mayor of the City of Bydgoszcz, BPO rising star and partner of the conference, sees establishing BPO centres as a unique opportunity for implementing public-private partnership for the development of the town.