Special economic zones and industrial zones in the shaping of regional economic development on the example of Poland and the Czech Republic

The aim of the present work is to show how the changing approach to special economic zones in Poland influenced the competitiveness of Polish regions, both on the internal and external scale. In the case of external conditioning, a comparative analysis of competitiveness of Polish regions against the Czech regions was conducted. In the examination of the internal and external competitiveness conditions of particular Polish regions, an important element that shapes it is the existence of special economic zones. Their location positively affects the competitiveness of the given region, due to lower costs of functioning for the subjects active in the area. According to the original assumptions, creation of the zones was designed as a privilege for problem areas, e.g. characterized by high unemployment or low industrialization. Today’s solutions in this aspect considerably depart from the original assumptions of the idea of special zones, as – created when demanded by the investors – the zones include the most attractive regions. This has led to a situation when disproportion between peripheral and central areas of economic development is increasing. On the other hand, from the point of view of the state’s economic policy, Poland becomes more competitive. When observing the current inflow of crucial investments into the Central-European countries, we do not see situations typical of the 1990s and the first decade of the 21stcentury, when the most important investments were aimed at the Czech Republic or Slovakia (Peugeot-Citroen-Toyota, VW, Kia or Hyundai), since the offers made by Poland to these investors usually concerned relatively unattractive locations, often peripheral, which could not compete with the areas of Prague, Bratislava, Ostrava, Trnava or Zilina