Poland started chasing European leaders technologically. Great IT potential

 

"In our region, more companies operate in the digital sector and more people work in the IT industry than in Western European markets. As experts argue, there is a great climate for IT development in Poland.

Today, in many digital areas, Poland is doing much better than Western countries: in percentage terms, there are more companies operating in the digital sector, as well as more people employed in the IT industry

Poland and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are catching up with the West in terms of the development of the IT market. Analysts even claim that today we have the potential to become its leader in the EU.

However, the road to this goal is bumpy - in our region of Europe, only 39% of people still use cloud solutions. companies, while in leading markets – 53 percent We are also worse in terms of the popularity of e-commerce and data use. The level of research and development expenditure is also degrading - it is increasing year by year, but is still below the EU average.

The Three Seas with its own Silicon Valley

– In Central and Eastern Europe, we observe a high entrepreneurial attitude and even a kind of digital optimism. Countries in this region also have a wide pool of talented IT specialists, which means that tech companies are increasingly locating not only factories but also research and development centers here. In addition, there is a solid and constantly expanded digital infrastructure, and there are visible investments in high-speed Internet, cloud and data centers - enumerates Paweł Oleszczuk, deputy director of PwC Polska.

As he explains, these factors make the IT sector here develop faster and faster. – In the coming years, it has a chance to become a digital locomotive for the entire European Union – argues Oleszczuk.

CEE Digital Coalition (a coalition of digital organizations from the countries of the region, of which the Digital Poland Association is a member) claims that the countries of our region have the potential to build a European Silicon Valley. This is an issue addressed by the report prepared by the CEE Digital Coalition and PwC, analyzing the state of development of the IT market in Central and Eastern Europe. It will be officially presented on Thursday in Vilnius at the summit of the Three Seas countries. However, "Rzeczpospolita" learned key conclusions. Experts point out that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have the means and opportunities to significantly accelerate the development of the IT sector. Moreover, we are already doing much better than Western countries in many digital areas: percentage-wise, we have more companies operating in the digital sector (4.35 per 1,000 people, while in Western Europe this percentage is 2.13), and we also have more employees in the IT industry ( share in the labor market at the level of almost 5%, while in Western markets it is approximately 4%.

Experts point out that the driving force for the region in the coming years will be artificial intelligence and the growing demand for cybersecurity services. – There is an excellent climate for IT development in Poland – admits Tomasz Starzyk from the Dun&Bradstreet (Dnb) business intelligence agency.

Atman obtained PLN 1.35 billion for the expansion of server infrastructure. The loan is to finance the creation of a campus in Duchnice near Warsaw, where PLN 50,000 will be allocated for servers. In data collection and processing, Poland is becoming a leader in the region.

DnB data shows that domestic entrepreneurs demonstrate an exceptionally high degree of optimism compared to Europe - they scored 57.2 points in the survey, which is one of the highest optimism levels among the industries monitored in Poland and one of the highest results not only on the Old Continent, but also in the world.

– We leave far behind the results from countries such as Canada, Hungary, Italy and the United States – notes Starzyk.

Lots of challenges

However, we should be far from euphoria. For example, the percentage of companies that rely on modern cloud solutions in their daily work is 14 percent higher in Western Europe than in Central and Eastern Europe. Companies in our region also report weaker results when it comes to sales in e-commerce (less than 22 percent vs. 28 percent) or in terms of Big Data analytics (20 percent of companies in our region use such a solution, while in the West - 30 percent). According to Michał Kanownik, president of the Digital Poland Association, investments supported by the countries of the region are necessary. – We need to invest more in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in areas related to cybersecurity and those that will increase the competitiveness of companies on the EU market – he comments. He points out that building digital competences is also key, especially among young people entering the labor market.

As we read in the report by PwC and CEE Digital Coalition, only four countries from Central and Eastern Europe are characterized by at least a basic level of technological knowledge slightly above the EU average: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovakia.

 Unfortunately, Poland is not in this group (it is definitely closer to the bottom of the pack).

This issue - in the opinion of experts - is becoming more and more problematic because the education of new specialists cannot keep up with the rapidly growing IT sector in the region. “There is already a shortage of robotics engineers, operators and digital security specialists. Another problem is that the productivity of employees in the IT sector is lower than in Western Europe," we read in the report.

There are even more challenges. The number of job offers for programmers is unexpectedly decreasing, and the salaries of some specialists are decreasing.

As Tomasz Bujok, president of No Fluff Jobs, points out, the IT industry never ceases to surprise. – We have already witnessed a boom shortly after the pandemic, rising salaries and demand for experienced specialists, but for over a year we have been experiencing turbulence: layoffs, closed projects and the end of the employee market.

Due to the developing solutions based on artificial intelligence, the fate of people involved in programming has become uncertain. Today it is difficult to predict the future, argues Bujok.”