Overview

Doing Business in Poland 2015—the first World Bank Group sub-national study on the ease of doing business in Poland—compares business regulations in 18 Polish cities: Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Katowice, Kielce, Kraków, Łódź, Lublin, Olsztyn, Opole, Poznań, Rzeszów, Szczecin, Toruń, Warsaw, Wrocław and Zielona Góra. The report measures regulations relevant to 4 stages in the life of a small to medium-size domestic firm: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property and enforcing contracts.

Where is it easier to do business in Poland?

Main Findings

• Polish entrepreneurs face different regulatory hurdles depending on where they establish their businesses. This is due to varying efficiency levels at the public agencies in charge of the 4 areas benchmarked—starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property and enforcing contracts—and discrepancies in the interpretation of national legislation.
• It is easier to start a business in Poznań, deal with construction permits in Bydgoszcz, register property in Białystok, and enforce a contract in Olsztyn.
• Smaller cities tend to do better overall across the 4 indicators: of the 18 cities measured, Bydgoszcz tops the aggregate ranking. However, several large cities rank at or near the top of individual indicators—for example, Poznań and Wrocław on starting a business and dealing with construction permits, respectively—proving that high demand for business services can be dealt with efficiently.
• No single city does equally well on all 4 indicators. With the exception of Kielce, all cities do better than average on at least one indicator and 13 out of 18 rank in the top third on at least one indicator.
• Reform-minded local officials can make tangible improvements by replicating measures already successfully implemented in other cities in Poland.
• On all indicators, there are good practices to be found across Poland. If a hypothetical city were to adopt the best practices found across the 18 cities, it would rank 24th out of 189 economies globally—8 positions higher than Poland’s current ranking according to Doing Business 2015—placing the country ahead of France and the Netherlands.