The investment support programme in Poland until 2035 is expected to become one of the key tools for strengthening the country’s investment attractiveness over the next decade. Its assumptions indicate a clear shift in how Poland intends to support businesses: not only the scale of investment, but also its quality, technological level, impact on economic security and contribution to skills development in Poland will become increasingly important.
The new programme is part of a broader package of measures designed to stimulate investment in Poland. It covers, among others, support for advanced technology projects, clean technologies, the Polish Investment Zone, guarantee instruments and startup development. For businesses, this means that Poland wants to compete for high value-added projects, not only for investments measured by capital expenditure and the number of jobs created.
A new approach to supporting investment in Poland
Existing public aid instruments have played an important role in attracting large manufacturing and service projects to Poland. The new programme is intended to continue this policy, but with a stronger focus on the strategic importance of investment projects.
In practice, support is expected to be directed primarily to projects that:
- strengthen modern sectors of the economy,
- develop technologies and innovation,
- increase the resilience of supply chains,
- support automation and robotisation,
- create high-quality jobs,
- and build cooperation between business, science and education.
This is an important change for investors. Simply allocating capital in Poland may no longer be sufficient to obtain a high level of support. Increasingly, what matters will be whether a project fits into the long-term development goals of the Polish economy.
Budget and time horizon of the programme
The programme is planned to cover the period until 2035, with a budget of PLN 4.5 billion. This long-term perspective is important for large investment projects, which often require extended preparation, location analysis, financing assessment and negotiations regarding public aid conditions in Poland.
From a business perspective, this means that investment decisions should be planned well in advance. In more complex projects, it will be important not only to prepare documentation, but also to plan partnerships, qualitative indicators and the overall investment implementation model.
What types of investment are to be supported?
The programme provides for support for three main types of investment.
Key sectoral and technological investments
The first category covers manufacturing projects in strategic sectors. This includes, among others, digital technologies, microelectronics, semiconductors, biotechnology, the defence industry, aviation, the space sector and technologies related to the energy transition.
Such investments are intended to strengthen Poland’s position in European supply chains and increase the country’s technological independence.
Development investments
The second category concerns large manufacturing projects that may have a significant impact on the economic development of Polish regions. These may include both new facilities and the expansion of existing plants, especially where the investment involves automation, productivity growth or the implementation of new processes.
For regions, this creates an opportunity to attract projects that generate not only jobs, but also demand for local suppliers and specialist competences.
Key service investments
The third category covers advanced services, including IT, research and development, data processing centres and technology services. This is an important signal for companies planning competence centres, R&D departments or specialised digital functions in Poland.
In this area, however, it will be important for the project not to be limited to simple operational processes, but to bring genuine technological or expert value.
Sectors preferred by the programme
The programme identifies sectors that are particularly important for the competitiveness and economic security of Poland. These include, among others:
- digital technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics and cybersecurity,
- microelectronics, semiconductors and photonics,
- low-emission technologies, hydrogen, energy storage and electromobility,
- biotechnology and biomedicine,
- precision agriculture and the modern food sector,
- aviation and space,
- the defence industry.
This catalogue shows that the programme is intended to serve as a tool of targeted investment policy. Poland wants to strengthen sectors that will be important for the future competitiveness of the economy, technological security and industrial transformation.
Project quality will be crucial
One of the most important elements of the programme is the use of qualitative indicators. These are intended to show whether an investment genuinely contributes value to the Polish economy beyond the level of financial expenditure alone.
The indicators may concern, among others:
- research and development activity,
- robotisation and automation,
- energy efficiency,
- renewable energy sources,
- cybersecurity,
- cooperation with universities, technical schools, startups or innovation centres,
- employee skills development,
- and cooperation with domestic suppliers.
For investors, this means that projects will need to be prepared in a more comprehensive way. An application for support should not only describe costs and schedules. It should also show how the investment contributes to the development of technology, skills and the local business ecosystem in Poland.
The importance of cooperation with science and education
The programme is expected to place significant emphasis on cooperation between businesses and universities, schools, research and development units, startups or innovation centres. For medium-sized and large companies, this may become one of the important conditions for obtaining support.
This approach is intended to encourage investors to build lasting relationships with the local environment. An investment should not operate in isolation from the labour market, education system and technological base. In practice, this may mean joint research projects, internship programmes, technical education, laboratory development or the creation of competence centres.
For foreign companies, this may be a particularly important element when preparing to enter the Polish market. Early identification of potential educational and technological partners may increase the chances of preparing a successful investment project.
The programme as part of a broader investment package in Poland
The investment support programme until 2035 is one of five announced investment impulses. The remaining measures include support for clean technologies, strengthening the Polish Investment Zone, expanding instruments offered by the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (KUKE), and developing the Accelerate.pl programme for startups.
From a business perspective, it is important that individual instruments may complement one another. An investment project may require a combination of grants, tax incentives, financing guarantees, cooperation with suppliers and access to innovative solutions developed by startups.
This shows that investment planning in Poland should become increasingly strategic. Entrepreneurs should analyse not only a single support instrument, but the entire available ecosystem of incentives and financing.
What does the programme mean for investors?
For companies planning new projects in Poland, the programme may become an important argument when choosing an investment location. This applies in particular to businesses from the technology, industrial, energy, defence, digital and research and development sectors.
The most important projects will be those that combine several elements: high added value, modern technologies, skills development, cooperation with science and a real impact on the regional economy.
However, investors should remember that obtaining support will require meeting specific conditions. Key factors will include the location of the investment, cost eligibility, compliance with public aid rules, the selection of qualitative indicators and the ability to report and account for them at a later stage.
Summary
The investment support programme in Poland until 2035 shows that Poland wants to compete more actively for projects in modern sectors of the economy. The priority is expected to be given to investments that strengthen technology, economic security, automation, the energy transition and cooperation between business and science.
For entrepreneurs, this means new opportunities, but also higher requirements. In the coming years, the attractiveness of a project may be determined not only by its scale, but above all by its quality, strategic importance and ability to create lasting value in Poland. The best-prepared companies will be those that, already at an early stage, combine financial analysis with an assessment of available support, location selection, a cooperation plan with partners and a realistic choice of qualitative indicators.
