Nordea Bank Polska a partner in the first ranking of the metropolitanity of Polish cities

2008-11-25

Warsaw will be the city that might take the best advantage of the enactment of the Metropolitan Act – this is the conclusion that can be drawn from Nordea Metrox.2008. Eighteen biggest Polish regions took part in this ranking, prepared by Instytut Konkurencyjnej Ekonomii Regionów (Institute of the Competitive Economy of Regions).

NORDEA METROX.2008 is the first Polish ranking developed on the basis of a network approach to research into the growth of cities. Researchers from Instytut Konkurencyjnej Ekonomii Regionów (IKER) adopted a holistic approach to the problem of the competitiveness of cities and made an attempt to find out where rivalry is the biggest. According to the results, cities compete areas such as an attractive economic profile, private investment capital or public funds.

The research will allow us to understand regional variety and its impact on metropolitan growth, i.e. the degree of proximity of surveyed cities to world network metropolises in terms of their function, structure and density of processes occurring in them.

The results of the research may turn out to be of significance for the Metropolitan Act that is currently being developed. Cities that will be recognized as a metropolis have a chance of obtaining subsidies from state budget, which will contribute to their faster growth. If the Act is passed into law this year, it would become effective as early as 2010.

In its scope, the NORDEA METROX.2008 ranking covered 18 metropolitan areas surrounding the biggest cities. The survey included Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław, Silesia – with 17 biggest cities in Upper Silesia, Tri-city, Łódź, Szczecin, Rzeszów, Olsztyn, Lublin, Bydgoszcz and Toruń, Białystok, Opole, Zielona Góra, Gorzów Wielkopolski and Kielce. The position of a specific area in the ranking was determined by the following indicators: the creative class, i.e. the residents who decide about the growth of the area, such as managers or artists; location decisions made by key companies that stimulate the economic growth of the area; the quality of life as well as the multitude and multidimensionality of life options.

The undisputed winner of the NORDEA METROX.2008 ranking was Warsaw. The capital city is the best in terms of the economic strength and modernity. This is the place with the highest salaries and investment outlays per capita. The city also educates the biggest number of graduates and is a leader in innovation. Owing to its high ‘per capita’ GDP and the fact that it is a location of many major companies Poznań is catching up with Warsaw. Wrocław, Kraków and Silesia can boast a robust although not so dynamically growing economy.

Warsaw is also unequaled in terms of business networking and process concentration. This is where the headquarters of the biggest world companies are established. Warsaw is also the only Polish city which appears in the World Cities ranking, next to such metropolises as Rome or Stockholm. In this category it ranked far ahead of Kraków or Poznań. Differences can especially be seen in advertising sector services or legal services as well as real estate dealings.

The capital city was also found the best in terms of the quality and grandeur of life, although in this category its dominance is not so pronounced. In terms of cultural life, Warsaw comes behind i.a. Krakow, and behind Silesia in terms of sports events.