Technological parks, thanks to local government and European Union funds, are rapidly developing throughout the country.

Local governments and the EU have invested 650 million zloty (152.6 million euro) into developing Poland’s ‘technological parks,’ an investment strategy encouraged by the EU, shows a report entitled Centres of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Poland – 2009 Report.

The authors of the report write that the push to open techoparks in Poland has resulted in 583 firms and over 17,000 people located in and employed in such places. Those number of firms located in techno-parks has increased by 61 percent since 2007 and the number of employees working in such places has gone up by eighty-six percent.

The financial prospective for such parks until 2013 are very positive with the government, under the investment program ‘Economic Innovation,’ having allotted 150 million zloty (about 35 million euro) to develop such projects and the EU, under the Regional Operational Programs project, having allocated 1 million euro to building up Poland’s existing technological parks and for the construction of new ones.

Technoparks, such as the Scientific Technological Park ‘Technopark Gliwice,’ in southern Poland, are companies whose shareholders include local and regional governments as well as universities, and are meant to serve as a meeting place for scientists, companies and entrepreneurs. Technoparks are aimed at developing and supporting technological innovation in small- and medium-sized businesses.