Answers provided by Marek Sosna, the Partner and the Head of Transaction Services in KPMG in Poland.

Representatives of Japan companies indicate series of important issues which they take into consideration while selecting of a location for their new investments. On the one hand, they consider most of all high skills of human resources and relatively low costs of labour as the Polish key advantages. They also appreciate willingness to development and workforce loyalty. On the other, they underline complicated and unclear regulations of the Labour Code which in their opinion is unfavourable for employers.

Beside human resource issues, the Japan investors value the quality of the cooperation with the government and its agencies indicating relatively high level of bureaucracy and limited language skills (English) among representatives of local authorities. Other factors of high importance for them are the following: the pace of economic development, increase in the middle class’ number and wealth, consistent improvement of infrastructure condition, location of Poland in the heart of Europe next to rich Western European countries, and a low level of crime.