The aim of this study is to assess the impact of foreign investments on the development of one of the poorest Polish provinces – the Podkarpackie region. The article shows the location, structure and spatial variation of direct foreign investments in the region. The institution method was used to compile data: the number of employees and the size of investment were assigned to places where they were made, but not where the company`s headquarters are located. Results suggest a rather positive impact of foreign investments on local and regional development in the Podkarpackie province, especially in manufacturing industries. The influence of FDI on growth of socio-economic disparities in the region should be rated unfavourably.
A city is a reflection of the society and flows its fate. The situation of Warsaw is therefore related to the situation of the whole of Poland – a country relatively big, but still poorly developed country, located at the peripheries of Europe. Due to these general conditions Warsaw has not become one of the most important European metropolises. However, a massive inflow of FDI and location of several offices of TNCs in the city has begun a process of metropolisation of this city – severely damaged during the war and later badly reconstructed according to the principles of real socialism. Juxtaposition of the “old” and the “new” leads to emergence of contrasts and imbalances – in a similar way as it happens in the cities of the so-called Third World. An important question arises – do these contrasts have a tendency to diminish, or are they persistent or even growing? This article aims at providing an answer to this question.
This paper examines the development of international financial centres (IFC) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The study argues that the development of the financial services in CEE is characterized by external dependency, which is manifested in the form of hierarchical command and control functions over CEE financial subsidiaries within the West European IFC network. The paper quantitatively compares the factors of IFC functions of Budapest in comparison to those of Warsaw and Prague. It argues that despite the lack of market evidence showing signs of a regional centre focus during the transition period, there are some signs of IFC formation. The paper assesses the uneven impact of the global economic crisis upon CEE financial centres and confirms that their development trajectories became more differentiated as a result of the crisis. The steady decline of Budapest during the second half of the 2000s was accompanied by the rise of Warsaw. Our analysis concluded that Budapest, despite its earlier endeavours, most likely lost the competition to become an international financial centre.
