MAŁOPOLSKA REGION
The province’s local government activities aimed to develop and support entrepreneurship
Małopolska is a dynamically growing region whose capital is business-minded residents. Over the last five years, the number of business entities across the province grew by ca. 71.5 thousand, which puts the region second in the country (behind Mazowieckie Province) with regard to their annual growth dynamics. Małopolska’s companies are also very active in international markets. The value of exports in 2021 amounted to EUR 12.5 bn, giving it a 25.4% year-on-year rise. In 2021, over 4.8 thousand exporters operated across Małopolska, which put the province fourth in the country. In addition, a rise of over 20% of companies selling goods abroad in comparison with 2020 was noted, which is the best result in Poland. How active Małopolska denizens are in business can also be seen in the job market, with the regional unemployment rate as low as 4.3% against the average of 5% for the whole country.
Małopolska strength is not only low unemployment rate but qualified workforce, which is particularly visible in the region’s capital. Kraków holds a top position among Polish cities in the modern business services sector. As the ABSL report Business Services Sector in Poland 2022 makes clear, more than 92 thousand people (23.2% of the total across Poland in this sector) were employed in this capacity in the capital of Małopolska. Kraków also took the top spot among Polish cities in the availability of qualified and highly qualified workforce.
A prominent role in dynamic entrepreneurship development in the region is played by the European Union funds allocation. Especially conspicuous is the Regional Operational Programme for the Małopolska Region 2014-2020, which was a funding source for 1657 projects worth PLN 5.2 bn (with the amount of co-financing at PLN 3.2 bn) deployed by 783 business economic. In total, from 2015 to 2022, the business operators executing the projects across Małopolska that were co-financed from the European funds as part of various programmes acquired PLN 10.9 bn of support from EU funds for ventures valued at PLN 19.6 bn. This equalled to over 40% of EU money used in Małopolska.
As is worth mentioning, we are now at the junction of two EU financial frameworks. The 2014–2020 framework is being settled, while the calls from the new European Funds for Małopolska 2021–2027 Programme are starting, meant to serve especially such areas as: the development of company infrastructure necessary for pursuing research and development work and innovation vouchers for SMEs. What will be backed is investment in modern machinery, devices, and technologies, in the transition of company operating models towards digitisation, Industry 4.0-based economy, circular economy, in the solutions to raise the company cybersecurity level. Support will be given to businesses in early stages of development. Incentivisers for international activity of Małopolska SMEs are going to be put in place. In the years to come, EUR 2.7 bn from the European Funds for Małopolska Programme will become available in the coming years.
Nor may we forget that massive aid for entrepreneurs was extended at the level of the province’s local government in the pandemic time, particularly trying for the regional economy. The research conducted by the Regional Development Observatory of the Małopolska Region makes clear that in 2020 the COVID-19-induced financial disturbance affected 73% of the region’s businesses. The Province Board responded to the outbreak of the pandemic with launching the Małopolska Anti-Crisis Shield in 2020, so as to mitigate as fast and as far as possible the negative socio-economic impacts for the region’s businesses. To execute the suite of endeavours within the initiative, the province’s local government earmarked ca. 2 billion zlotys from EU funding and the provincial budget, including 500 million for Małopolska entrepreneurs to maintain the employment in bailout-needing companies, support the job market, and lend money for financial liquidity to entrepreneurs suffering financial losses due to the pandemic. This aid allowed many a business to make it through this taxing period and save over 30 thousand jobs across Małopolska.
The province’s local government deemed economy one of the five key area of Regional Development Strategy ‘Małopolska 2030’ (adopted by the Provincial Parliament in December 2020), which the regional development policies should focus on in the 2030 perspective. We placed particular emphasis on innovation, which is at the heart of building competitiveness, both at the company level and regional level. We attach high importance to supporting the innovative endeavours of businesses, increasing research and development activity, research findings commercialisation, and emerging-technology transfer. The indispensable element of the region’s economic development is to strive for increasing the investment level, hence in the strategy the focus was on the acquisition and consolidation of investment sites and business promotion of the region at home and abroad. Competitiveness level improvement of the Małopolska economy should result in part from the following: transformation of companies’ business models towards an Industry 4.0-based economy, start-up support, cluster development, in particular in the smart specialisation and high-tech domains, infrastructure expansion across the lots set aside for running economic activities, actions towards increasing the level of investor service at the public sector.
In entrepreneur support, a very important role is played by the business environment institutions, which together with businesspeople, researchers, and local government officials form the ecosystem of development for the Małopolska economy. The Kraków Technology Park (KPT) serves a particular role, as it administers the Polish Investment Zone in Małopolskie Province. In 2022, KPT issued 47 decisions on entrepreneur support, with the investment expenditure declared by companies totalling PLN 1.7 bn.
Strategic directions in the region’s economic development are specified by the regional smart specialisations: life science, sustainable energy, information and communication technologies, chemistry, production of metals, metal products, and non-metallic mineral products, electrical engineering and machine industry, creative and leisure industries. Małopolska’s smart specialisations have the largest share in GDP in the region and provides the most jobs. They sustain the areas with the biggest growth potential, fostering Małopolska’s competitiveness both domestically and internationally.
For a decade, the SPIN project has been deployed in the region, which involves research and science community representatives, in co-operation with entrepreneurs and in response to their actual needs, contributing to a more effective transfer of knowledge between science and business. In the present edition of the project, entrepreneur support takes place within eight partner-managed knowledge transfer centres whose thematic ranges correspond to the regional specialisations. The SPIN project upends the standard thinking of innovation as a space staked out for sizable companies only, which have the financial resources, research facilities, or R&D departments. It allows smaller businesses in Małopolska to compete in designing and deploying innovation on a par with large entities. Through the project, entrepreneurs get access to a professional pool of experts specialising in a particular field. Within the project, the province’s local government co-operates with the Jagiellonian University, AGH University, the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow University of Technology, AGH University of Kraków, and the Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials that is part of the Łukasiewicz Research Network, among others. In the project, scientists advise entrepreneurs, both the ones who already have an idea for innovation in their company, and those who are seeking new development directions or grappling with various challenges. The outcomes of the project are prized, and Małopolskie Province earned the Polish Smart Development Award 2022 for SPIN in the ‘Supporting innovativeness and competitiveness of the economy’ as well as the GOZpodarz 2022 award in the competition held by Employers of Poland.
