Regional investor service centres as a tool to support entrepreneurs in Poland

This article explores the activities of regional investor service centres (RCOIs), which were established through a 2004–2005 initiative by the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ). The centres were placed in 16 voivodeships to support the inflow of foreign direct investment into Polish regions. In the first section, the authors present an overview of RCOIs: their history, scope of activities, and cooperation with PAIiIZ. Next, results of a January 2015 survey of all 16 RCOIs are discussed. The article concludes by briefly describing three examples of initiatives launched by the centres to illustrate their activities. These include increasing the regional pool of employees with skills sought by investing entrepreneurs, aftercare and building linkages with existing investors, and support for Polish local government units (gminas) to develop and promote their new investment offers