Exhibitors & Products

An institution that has made German-Polish economic relations its central focus is the German-Polish Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK) Poland. The Chamber promotes new business contacts, anchors existing relationships, offers market and legal consulting and is active via its industry committees and vocational education initiatives.

In 2013, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of German-Polish business relations, AHK Poland joined forces with the audit company KPMG in Poland to gather statistics and survey results revealing just how closely the two nations are connected:

The key results:

  • More than 6,200 companies with German equity investment are active in Poland. This puts Germany at the top of the list of foreign employers in Poland. These companies employ a total of 300,000 workers.
  • Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Poland: 17 percent of all foreign investment in 2013 came from Germany. The largest portion – 31 percent – went to the manufacturing industry, including the automotive and chemical sectors.
  • No fewer than 26,000 employees in the Polish automobile industry work for companies with German equity ownership. Their annual revenue amounts to some PLN 30 billion, or €7 billion. Along with supplier companies, the big carmakers such as Mercedes Benz, BMW and Volkswagen are also represented in Poland.
  • More than 8,000 workers are employed by companies with German-owned equity in the Polish chemical and pharmaceutical sector, including the biggest German chemical and pharma firms such as Henkel and BASF. They register annual revenue of PLN 11 billion, or some €2.5 billion.
  • Polish investment in Germany is of lesser magnitude, amounting to less than one percent of total foreign investment in Germany in 2013. At the top of the list are countries such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United States.
  • Germany is the biggest exporter of goods to Poland and the biggest importer of goods from Poland. The United States is the biggest market for German exports, and the largest share of imports come from the People's Republic of China.
  • AHK Poland itself is being impacted by the growing importance of Polish-German relations. In 2013, 68 founding members were supporting the Chamber's work, while today AHK Poland has more than 1,000 member companies.