Financial determinants related to the budgetary situation of territorial self-government units play the most important role among all the factors affecting the undertaking and conducting of investments by territorial units. Finances are a key element in functioning of territorial self-government units as well as the primary determinant of viability and success of any investment. The objective of this article is to present financial determinants associated with the budgetary situation of territorial self-government units in Poland and their effects on investment execution by these entities. Consequently, investment expenditure, own income, and budgetary result with particular attention to operating surplus have been characterized.
In the European Union (EU), there are four Baltic Sea Region (BSR) states – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland – which are interlinked by the following facts: the common moment of obtaining EU membership, a common historical path from communism to democracy, and being part of the BSR. Although the selected countries share common roots, it seems that, in terms of the economic development, they may follow a different path. Investment development path (IDP), a concept developed by J.H. Dunning, stresses that the development of a country is a result of being an active exporter of capital. This paper aims to evaluate the progress of the four selected economies in terms of their IDP. The analysis takes into consideration their peculiar economic determinants. The methods used include quantitative and qualitative methods. Among the qualitative methods, a literature review briefly presents Dunning's IDP paradigm. The review of existing empirical research highlights the contributions of the paper. The quantitative methods cover the statistical data illustrating the progress of the selected countries in terms of the IDP. The data were obtained from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTADStat) and Eurostat. The BSR states under investigation differ in terms of their economic growth. However, they share a common denominator of maintaining the role of importer of capital. The highest dynamics of the growth of the outward stock of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was observed in Poland and Lithuania. It is Poland and Estonia, however, that seemingly will climb on the ladder of IDP faster than Latvia and Lithuania. In all cases, these countries deal with higher dynamics of annual growth of Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) than Inward Foreign Direct Investment (IFDI), which suggests that all are at the third stage of IDI. However complex analysis reveals differences that shed new light on the progress of development paths of these BSR states.
TTIP - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is an agreement that carries a number of risks for the economy, the natural environment, consumer rights, labour rights and access to public services in the European Union. The mechanisms included in the agreement, concerning the settlement of disputes between states and foreign investors, pose a number of threats to democracy as well. The benefits that are supposed to result from the implementation of the agreement will primarily be reaped by large corporations involved in the transatlantic trade. Mostly the citizens and societies of the EU member states will be under threat from the agreement. The principle of mutual recognition of regulations, which is expected to be practically universally used in accordance with the agreement, will mean in practice lowering safeguards protecting the rights of citizens, workers and consumers in the European Union. The liberalization of trade within the TTIP will be a factor forcing increased competition also in relation to the Polish small and medium-sized enterprises, and as a result, putting also pressure to reduce wages and other costs, including those related to the need of complying with the norms or standards. Thus, there are far more threats than benefits of the agreement.
The aim of this article is to examine the impact of the actions of Chinese capital on limiting the influence of the Russian Federation in Kazakhstan. The preliminary analysis allowed for the formulation of the research question: Does Kazakhstan still take political considerations into account when choosing between Russian and Chinese capital? It was possible to answer this question due to the analysis of the main investments implemented by the Pekin and Mosocow in terms of their compliance with the Kazakhstan2050 development plan, initiated by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2012. The main research methods used in the article included: the analysis of literature on the subject, comparison, inference and induction. Finding the relationship between the development plan and investments made it possible to formulate a research hypothesis that the evaluation was reversed in the Kazakh development strategy. The primary objective when choosing a strategic partner became the economic calculation and its benefits. Political considerations came only in second place.
The following draft of the Code aims to regulate investment processes in the field of local planning and spatial development (urban planning) as well as in the field of architecture and construction.
In the period of 2018–2022 Polish government implemented the record number of programs for financial support of local governments. Their aim was to improve local services, maintain the high level of investments, aid in the fight against COVID-19 pandemics and rebuilding the economy, as well as equalising the potential decline of incomes related to the taxation reforms implemented since 2019. Programs on the record amount of 135,58 billion PLN helped to remain the investments on the earlier level, as the COVID-19 pandemics caused only temporary decline in own revenues.
The following publication elaborates on the notion of international tax competition and international tax avoidance in the light of cross-border public policy. In terms of intercommunity relations, tax competition may be defined as a phenomenon consisting in application of various tax instruments for the purpose of developing a state's economy and prosperity by means of increasing competitiveness of the domestic business activity or attracting foreign investments. Tax competition is a natural consequence of the processes of globalization since in the reality of growing business interrelations, tax considerations exert more and more influence over investment decisions of holding companies. It reveals the dissonance between the interests of the particular member states in the EU and the interest of the European Union as a whole. Usually it is difficult to mark the border between a harmful and an advantageous tax competition.
The author analyses the selected aspects of capitalism in the countries of Central Europe. The author presents the various theoretical concepts that refer to the issue in question involving the concept coined by L. King and I. Szelenyi, which holds that the systemic changes in the countries of this region are specifically characterised by the perspective of 'from without' capitalism. They believe that the specificity of the capitalist system lies in the fact that in the key times of the post-communist changes of the political system, the issue of the absence of an important class of private owners was not addressed. In the West private proprietors were the ones that constituted the main driving force of an open-market economy. The article presents the advantages and drawbacks of an economic model formed by the dominant share of foreign capital, with an emphasis placed on the consequences of the issue in question on the limitations of the subjectivity of economic policy of a state as well as the development chances of local businesses. It manifests the fears that the model created in Poland (and in other countries of the region) after the year 1989 sets the role model for local enterprises of corporate subcontractors of mainly traditional or niche products and services.
Chinese Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is not only an economic or political project, but also has the potential to transform the international system. The initiative's impact is large – from stimulating the financing of infrastructure investments in various countries around the world to the development of new global supply chains. The scientific goal of the article is to analyze the consequences of implementing the initiative. The research problem is included in the following question: does the Belt and Road Initiative contribute to increasing Chinese influence in the world and carries the risk of driving poorer countries into the ―debt trap‖? The conclusion from the article is that China should create an improved version of the BRI initiative based on a better risk assessment of the current projects. Infrastructure investments, if not carefully implemented and controlled, may lead to consequences, such as increasing the debt of some countries in the long term.
The aim of this publication is to outline changes that have been observed in Poland and to present the place of the Polish industry, including production, services and international trade, since the accession to the European Union. Rating highly the role of industry and proper conducting of a pro-growth policy in Poland and the European Union, one part of the study concerns the analysis of basic indicators of the Polish industry structure and the final part the realization of the Europe 2020 strategy. The analytical description in the publication was enriched with a wide set of tables, as well as a crosssectional collection of information on industry in Poland and on the European Union member states in rank order. The high dynamics observed in Poland resulted, among others, from an over double growth in the production of electrical equipment, computers, electronic and optical products as well as of metal products. The Strategy Europe 2020 is a socio-economic development programme for Poland and the EU growth. The goal of the Europe 2020 strategy is to create the economy - based on knowledge, low-emission policies promoting environmentally friendly technologies, making an efficient use of resources, and also aiming at social cohesion.
China's soft-power practice in its international activity boils down to four areas: culture, education, diplomacy, and economy. The most important element of China's soft-power policy seems to be the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Announced in 2013, the BRI is a complex, long-term and large-scale strategic political and economic project by the Chinese government with an infrastructure character. In this way, China is seeking to invest its capital surpluses in resurrecting the ancient Silk Road to create railroad and maritime networks with its most important trading partner – the European Union. In these circumstances, in September 2015, the presidents of Central and Eastern EU member states announced the establishment of the separate Three Seas Initiative (TSI), a political and economic project bringing together 12 EU states, including 11 'new' members and Austria. These entities constitute an informal bloc of states between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black seas, though without a permanent secretariat but with rotating leadership. In addition to the lack of a formal structure, the TSI region, located mainly in the EU's eastern part, is characterized by a weaker infrastructure network than Western Europe, lower GDP (except Austria), and high dependence on gas supplies from Russia (except Croatia). To overcome these disparities, the TSI has developed a catalogue of 48 investment priorities in three economic areas: energy, transport, and digitalisation. China's soft-power policy towards the 'new' EU members may be decided by the American patronage of the TSI and the fact that one of the flagship projects is the North-South Gas Corridor, which will enable the sale of American LNG in Central Europe, which has been dependent on gas supplies from Russia, China's partner in the BRI. In the context of the US-China trade war, White House planners recognise Central Europe as both a peripheral and key area for their policy and seek to strengthen the Three Seas project, which may lead to limiting areas of cooperation under the '17+1' format, involving CEE countries and China. On the other hand, the development of better energy, transport and digital connections in the EU's east clearly intersects with China's idea of building a New Eurasian Land Bridge under the BRI to connect the most economically developed edges of Eurasia. The new US strategy towards the countries of the CEE seems to boil down to involvement in specific energy-related projects. Instead of blocking or diminishing BRI-related infrastructure projects in China, they seem in fact to complement the Chinese activity in the CEE. Increased investment by American enterprises in the region may allow the administration in Washington to maintain control of Chinese infrastructure investments, and the US involvement may even lead to the participation of American companies in projects originally started by Beijing.
The aim of this article is, based on the situation in Poland (according to the borders of 1945), Czechoslovakia (according to the borders of 1938), Austria-Hungary (within the borders from 1867 to 1918 and their immediate successors), i.e. the 19th century parts of Prussia (later Germany), Russia and Austria, to indicate (using selected examples) the method, circumstances, factors of planning the railway network and similarly the circumstances of their implementation. Therefore, an indirect aim will be also to present the differences and similarities between these countries in order to ultimately show the areas of the relationship between railways and modernity. The 'hopes' accompanying these plans and the 'emotions' absolutely present during implementation are also subject to analysis. All applicants for further railway investments expressed hopes of a 'miraculous' impact of the railways on economic and social life (in that order). However, this impact also varied depending on the time when the investment was made. Certainly, the existence of this phenomenon (and the associated danger of overinvestment) was recognised as early as the seventh and eighth decades of the 19th century, and it was pointed out in the analyses of the projects submitted that they would not provide a return of the sums invested. Nevertheless, such projects were not always abandoned. There was no similar consideration in many cases in interwar Poland. After 1918, Czechoslovakia basically pursued only politically-driven projects (as it had faced earlier overinvestment and invested in modern motorisation) – including those aimed at integrating the two parts of the country. Polish decision-makers (and communities), on the other hand, were still at this time largely pinning their hopes on the beneficial impact of the railways on economic development.
The main goal of the EU regional policy is obtaining cohesion. However, development strategies differ in terms of investment concentration. The paper presents the theoretical models of the regional policy, illustrated with a case study of Polish strategies. Using the spatial interactions model, the range of the diffusion of economic incentives was estimated. A dynamic analysis of 1996-2017 NUTS4 panel data enabled the assessment of the results of development strategies. The outcome was confirmed with the L-moments analysis of entrepreneurship distribution over time. The method covered the period of the highest efficiency of the cohesion policy. The author also made an attempt to mark out factors responsible for the failure of the smart policy in Poland.
Cohesion policy has a significant influence on the form of investments in cities. This refers, in particular, to states that participate in cohesion policy and those that do not have a significant own development policy. The paper presents the results of the analysis of the possibilities to support towns and cities and their functional areas in the 2021-2027 financial framework in the context of the previous approach of the European Union to the development of urban areas and solving their problems. It is worth noting that the Euro-pean Union has wide experience in this area, dating back to the URBAN Pilot Projects and URBAN initiatives. The author also analyses the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine on the potential support for cities in the 2021-2027 perspective. The proposed conditions and instruments were also referred to the needs of towns and cities and the challenges that they are currently facing.
The article is an attempt to summarise the achievements of local government in Poland reactivated in 1990, and the topics discussed in the article focus on development and functioning since 1808 Prussian urban reform, which is the organisational model for contemporary local government units in Europe. Much of the article is also devoted to the functioning of Polish local governments in the 1990s and early 2000s, preceding Poland's accession to the European Union. The issue of the use of pre-accession funds and funds available after 2004 by local governments, which had a significant impact on infrastructure investments in Polish communes, districts and voivodship, was discussed in detail. On the basis of available reports, the article also presents an assessment of the achievements of local government in Poland over thirty years, with its successes and failures. The author also refers to the possibility of using this legacy by local governments of neighbouring countries aspiring to EU membership, mainly Ukraine.
