Marcin Krakowiak, a partner at Domański Zakrzewski Palinka sp. k., a law firm that includes a Japanese desk—a team of professionals specialized in providing legal advice to Japanese companies operating in Poland—talks to Beata Gołębiewska-Chęciak
Japanese desk—that sounds exotic. Was creating a team like that worthwhile? There are many companies of Japanese origin on the Polish market. Poland was a particularly trendy destination for Japanese investment in 2005-2007. Giant corporations such as Toshiba, Sharp, Funai and Orion have built their production facilities in Poland. It is mainly those projects that have turned Poland into a European hub for the production of audiovisual equipment and LCDs, accounting for almost 70 percent of the European market. There has also been considerable investment by Toyota and Bridgestone. This high activity of Japanese businesses prompted the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to open a branch in Poland. The present economic crisis has somewhat slowed the influx of Japanese capital. The nature of Japanese projects has changed as well and now mergers and acquisitions prevail over greenfield projects. But I believe Japanese companies still are and will remain a fixture on the business map of Poland and so by all means building a team that is wellprepared to provide services to clients from the Land of the Rising Sun has been worth the while.
Source: The Warsaw Voice, February 7-28, 2010
Whole article available in PDF file.
