Direct support – for companies and employees affected by COVID-19; new direction – a comprehensive support in adapting to market requirements for entrepreneurs and employees in a difficult situation; development impulse – elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy, digitisation of the business environment, pro-entrepreneurial legal regulations – these are the main assumptions of the Plan for Labour and Economic Development prepared by the ministry of economic development, labour and technology. “Our goal is to protect Polish entrepreneurs and employees in the time of the pandemic and to prepare our economy to return to growth trajectory when it is over,” emphasises Jarosław Gowin, deputy prime minister and head of the ministry.

Only from the beginning of 2020 to the end of October this year, 224 investment decisions were issued within the Polish Investment Zone representing a total value of over 7.9 billion Polish zlotys, accompanied with a declaration of creating 3,559 new jobs, informs the ministry of economic development, labour and technology. Moreover, we are heading the inter-ministerial consultations on the draft amendment to the act on supporting new investments, which shall begin soon.

Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin would like to thank the Entrepreneurship Council for the appeal calling for “strict observance of sanitary rules in the workplace, which will protect us from closing the economy down.” He also calls on the society to mobilise in the name of nationwide solidarity. As he emphasises, today we need to combine all individual responsibilities. “I believe that we, as a society, will meet this challenge”, he says.

Suspension of catering activities with the option of selling food to take away only, limiting the functioning of malls and shopping centres, closing cultural institutions, as well as sports and recreation centres – these are the most important restrictions that will apply throughout the country from November 7 to 29. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed the regulation in this matter.

The EC estimates that the decline in GDP in Poland in 2020 will amount to 3.6%. This result is better than the estimates of the summer forecast (-4.6%) and the spring forecast (-4.3%). In comparison to the EU countries, the weakening of activity in 2020 will be lower than the EU average (-7.4%), and also lower than the indicator for the eurozone (-7.8%). Among the EU countries, only Lithuania, Ireland and Sweden will be less economically affected by the pandemic this year.

The final version of first Polish genetic test, MediPAN-2G + FAST COVID, has already been launched on the market – it is the fastest among all currently used, very sensitive and created in Poland. The test was developed by a group of volunteer scientists from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań with a governmental support. By the decision of Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin, the ministry of science and higher education allocated 15 million Polish zlotys for this purpose.

The PMI index for industry in October remained above the threshold of 50 points, staying unchanged since September at 50.8 points, which means that positive sentiment prevails on the market. Among the most positive phenomena observed are the highest rate of employment growth in 2 years, as well as exports being on the sharpest rise since January 2018.

According to data published today by Statistics Poland, in 2019, gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) increased by 18.1% compared to the previous year and exceeded 30 billion PLN. The R&D intensity indicator, which describes the share of gross domestic expenditure on R&D in GDP, increased to 1.32% (compared to 1.21% in 2018).

Unification of the way of creating and maintaining data and metadata sets concerning spatial planning acts on the national scale will enable investors to check information about the designation of the potential investment area and its surroundings online – all thanks to the regulations on spatial planning and development, which enter into force on Saturday. At the same time, the regulation of the Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology in this matter becomes effective, containing detailed regulations concerning the creation and maintenance of data sets, which include APP spatial data and spatial information infrastructure metadata describing such sets.

Combining responsibility for the labour market and the economy in a single ministry is the right response to the challenge posed by COVID-19, which is supposed to solve the issue of siloisation, as well as ensure greater flexibility and efficiency in the face of the crisis – said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Technology Jarosław Gowin during his first meeting with the Labour Market Council. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister Iwona Michałek.