Invest in Pomerania: the origins

On April 28th, 2021 Invest in Pomerania celebrated the 10th anniversary of its establishment. It is a perfect moment to reflect on what has been accomplished, review the past assumptions, and set new goals. It is also the right time to express our gratitude to all our partners, who shared with us their expertise and provided us with guidance when we needed it the most, and of course, our investors, who placed their trust in us. 

Where it all began

The story of Invest in Pomerania started a few years before 2011, with a concept for a project that would strengthen the capacity of the region to attract foreign direct investment projects. The idea was centered around Agencja Rozwoju Pomorza (ARP), which has served as a regional investor assistance center and a partner of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (currently: PAIH). It was conceived by Marcin Piątkowski and Marcin Faleńczyk who laid the foundations for the future organization. The final design was based on the research conducted by PwC and Instytut Badań nad Gospodarką Rynkową, which was finalized in Q4 2010. The research, titled Analysis of investment attractiveness of Pomorskie Voivodeship, became a basis for the strategy of FDI attraction and development of Invest in Pomerania in the coming years.

Value of partnerships

From the very beginning, Invest in Pomerania was created as a collaborative organization. The organization was established in a result of an agreement between Self-government of Pomorskie Voivodeship, Cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot, Słupsk, InvestGDA, PSSE, SSSE and ARP as a coordinating partner. Later, the founding members of the initiative were joined by other local governments, including Cities of Tczew, Kościerzyna, Pruszcz Gdański, Starogard Gdański, Malbork, Communes of Słupsk, Nowy Dwór Gdański, Dębnica Kaszubska and Poviat of Wejherowo. Altogether, there are 19 partnership institutions that share the common goal of increasing investment attractiveness and attracting new investment projects.

This agreement proved to be essential to implement one of key insights from the PwC and IBnGR research, which highlighted the need to establish a one-stop-shop organization for investors in the region.

Thanks to the commitment of all the partners engaged in the project, Invest in Pomerania received a strong mandate to promote the investment opportunities and support companies in implementing investment projects in the region. It would not be an exaggeration to say that each of over 120 closed investment projects involved the core team of Invest in Pomerania and our partners, who always made their invaluable contribution. Thus, the success of Invest in Pomerania is a celebration of partnerships and collaborations, without which, we would not be rejoicing a decade of unprecedented growth and inflow of new investments into the region.

First milestone: 5000 new jobs

Our grit and determination to succeed always amazes me and humbles me. This is something that has been encoded into our DNA from the very beginning. On the day we were officially established, we announced that our first goal was to attract 5000 new jobs to the region by the end of 2015. Looking back, I think that this hyper-ambitious target along with our mission statement “We care more”, defined core values of the organization.

We challenged ourselves, and off we went – soon, by mastering our craft and raising the variety and depth services provided, we managed to secure a few successful projects, including such new top entrants as Bayer, WNS, Alteams, Kemira, Thyssenkrupp, Epam, CCC (currently: Telus), Powel, Schibsted and MOL (currently: ONE), which contributed to cementing the reputation of Pomerania as a favorable, global business destination.