Zenit Spedition
Destination Poland

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Poland - brief overview about the Zenit destination Poland.

Geopraphy

Poland’s territory extends across several geographical regions. In the northwest is the Baltic seacoast, which extends from the Bay of Pomerania to the Gulf of Gdansk. This coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The largely straight coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon. The center and parts of the north lie within the North European Plain. Rising gently above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising the four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age. These lake districts are the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Polish Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of northeastern Poland. The lake districts form part of the Baltic Ridge, a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. South of the Northern European Lowlands lie the regions of Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. Farther south lies the Polish mountain region, including the Sudetes, the Cracow-Cz?stochowa Upland, the ?wi?tokrzyskie Mountains, and the Carpathian Mountains, including the Beskids. The highest part of the Carpathians is the Tatra Mountains, along Poland’s southern border.

Demographics

Poland, with 38,116,000 inhabitants, has the eighth-largest population in Europe and the sixth-largest in the European Union. It has a population density of 122 inhabitants per square kilometer (328 per square mile).
Poland historically contained many languages, cultures and religions on its soil. The country had a particularly large Jewish population prior to World War II, when the Nazi Holocaust caused Poland's Jewish population, estimated at 3 million before the war, to drop to just 300,000. The outcome of the war, particularly the westward shift of Poland's borders to the area between the Curzon Line and the Oder-Neisse line, coupled with post-war expulsion of minorities, significantly reduced the country's ethnic diversity. According to the 2002 census, 36,983,700 people, or 96.74% of the population, consider themselves Polish, while 471,500 (1.23%) declared another nationality, and 774,900 (2.03%) did not declare any nationality. The largest minority nationalities and ethnic groups in Poland are Silesians (about 200,000), Germans (152,897 according to the census, 92% in Opole Voivodeship and Silesian Voivodeship), Belarusians (c. 49,000), Ukrainians (c. 30,000), Lithuanians, Russians, Roma, Jews, Lemkos, Slovaks, Czechs, and Lipka Tatars. Among foreign citizens, the Vietnamese are the largest ethnic group, followed by Greeks and Armenians.
The Polish language, a member of the West Slavic branch of the Slavic languages, functions as the official language of Poland. Until recent decades Russian was commonly learned as a second language, but now has been replaced by English and German as the most common second languages studied and spoken.
In recent years, Poland's population has decreased because of an increase in emigration and a sharp drop in the birth rate. Since Poland's accession to the European Union, a significant number of Poles have emigrated to Western European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland in search of work. Some organizations have stated that Polish emigration is primarily caused by Poland's high unemployment rate (10.5% in 2007), with Poles searching for better work opportunities abroad. In April 2007, the Polish population of the United Kingdom had risen to approximately 300,000 and estimates place the Polish population in Ireland at 65,000. Some sources claim that the number of Polish citizens who emigrated to the UK after 2004 is as high as 2 million. This, however, is contrasted by a recent trend that shows that more Poles are leaving the country than coming in.
Polish minorities are still present in the neighboring countries of Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, as well as in other countries (see Poles for population numbers). Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million. The largest number of Poles outside of Poland can be found in the United States.

Economy

Poland is considered to have one of the healthiest economies of the post-communist countries, and is currently the fastest growing country within the EU. Since the fall of the communist government, Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of liberalising the economy and today stands out as a successful example of the transition from a centrally planned economy to a primarily capitalistic market economy. Poland is the only member of the European Union to have avoided a decline in GDP during the late 2000s recession. In 2009 Poland has created the most GDP growth in the EU. As of November 2009 the Polish economy had not entered recession nor even contracted.
The privatization of small and medium state-owned companies and a liberal law on establishing new firms have allowed the development of an aggressive private sector. As a consequence, consumer rights organizations have also appeared. Restructuring and privatisation of "sensitive sectors" such as coal, steel, rail transport and energy has been continuing since 1990. Between 2007 and 2010, the government plans to float twenty public companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, including parts of the coal industry. To date (2007), the biggest privatisations have been the sale of the national telecoms firm Telekomunikacja Polska to France Télécom in 2000, and an issue of 30% of the shares in Poland's largest bank, PKO Bank Polski, on the Polish stockmarket in 2004.
Poland has a large number of private farms in its agricultural sector, with the potential to become a leading producer of food in the European Union. Structural reforms in health care, education, the pension system, and state administration have resulted in larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Warsaw leads Central Europe in foreign investment. GDP growth had been strong and steady from 1993 to 2000 with only a short slowdown from 2001 to 2002.
The prospect of closer integration with the European Union has put the economy back on track,[citation needed] with growth of 3.7% annually in 2003, a rise from 1.4% annually in 2002. In 2004, GDP growth equaled 5.4%, in 2005 3.3% and in 2006 6.2%. For 2007, the government has set a target for GDP growth at 6.5 to 7.0%. According to Eurostat data, Polish PPS GDP per capita stood at 57 per cent of the EU average in 2008.
Although the Polish economy is currently undergoing economic development, there are many challenges ahead. The most notable task on the horizon is the preparation of the economy (through continuing deep structural reforms) to allow Poland to meet the strict economic criteria for entry into the European Single Currency (Euro). According to the minister of finance Jacek Rostowski, Poland is likely to join the ERM in 2009 and adopt the euro in 2012 or 2013. Some businesses may already accept the euro as payment.
Average salaries in the enterprise sector in April 2008 were 3137 PLN (925 euro or 1434 US dollars) and growing sharply. Salaries vary between the regions: the median wage in the capital city Warsaw was 4600 PLN (1200 euro or 2000 US dollars) while in Bia?ystok it was only 2400 PLN (670 euro or 1000 US dollars).
Since joining the European Union, many workers have left to work in other EU countries (particularly Ireland and the UK) because of high unemployment, which was the second-highest in the EU (14.2% in May 2006). However, with the rapid growth of the salaries, booming economy, strong value of Polish currency, and quickly decreasing unemployment (6.7% in August 2008) exodus of Polish workers seems to be over. In 2008 people who came back outnumbered those leaving the country.
As of first half of 2009, Polish economy seems to be one of the least hit by the current global recession. In the first quarter of 2009, Polish GDP rose by 0.8%, which was one of the best results in the European Union.
Commodities produced in Poland include: electronics, cars (including the luxurious Leopard car), buses (Autosan, Jelcz SA, Solaris, Solbus), helicopters (PZL ?widnik), transport equipment, locomotives, planes (PZL Mielec), ships, military engineering (including tanks, SPAAG systems), medicines (Polpharma, Polfa), food, clothes, glass, pottery (Boles?awiec), chemical products and others.
Poland is a part of the global tourism market with constantly increasing number of visitors, particularly after joining the European Union.[46] Tourism in Poland contributes to the country's overall economy. The most popular cities are Warsaw, Kraków, Wroc?aw, Pozna?, Lublin, Toru?, including the historic site of the Auschwitz concentration camp near O?wi?cim. Popular destinations include northeast Poland's Mazury lake district and Bia?owie?a Forest. Poland's main tourist offers are sightseeing within cities and out-of-town historical monuments, business trips, qualified tourism, agrotourism, and mountain hiking, among others. Poland is the 17th most visited country by foreign tourists in 2008.

Climate

The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental as one moves south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 20 °C (68 °F) and 27 °C (80.6 °F). Winters are cold, with average temperatures around 3 °C (37.4 °F) in the northwest and −8 °C (17.6 °F) in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east; winter is drier than summer. The warmest region in Poland is Lesser Poland located in Southern Poland where temperatures in the summer average between 23 °C (73.4 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F) but can go as high as 32 °C (89.6 °F) to 38 °C (100.4 °F) on some days in the warmest month of the year July. The warmest city in Poland is Tarnów. The city is located in Lesser Poland. It is the hottest place in Poland all year round. The average temperatures being 30 °C (86 °F) in the summer and 4 °C (39.2 °F) in the winter. Tarnów also has the longest summer in Poland spreading from mid May to mid-September. It also has the shortest winter in Poland which often lasts from January to March, less than the regular three-month winter. The coldest region of Poland is in the Northeast in the Podlaskie Voivodeship near the border of Belarus. The climate is effectively affected by cold fronts which come from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter in Podlachian ranges from −15 °C (5.0 °F) to −4 °C (24.8 °F).

Infrastructure

Transport in Poland is provided by means of rail, road, marine shipping and air travel. Positioned in Central Europe with its eastern and part of its northeastern border constituting the longest land border of the Schengen Area with the rest of Northern and Central Europe.
Since joining the EU in May 2004, Poland has invested large amounts of public funds into modernization projects of its transport networks. The country now has a developing highways network composed of motorways such as the A1, A2, A4, A8, A18 and express roads such as the S1, S3, S5, S7, S8. At the end of 2016, Poland had 3163.4 km of highways (1631.7 km of motorways and 1531.7 km of expressways). In addition to these newly built roads, many local and regional roads are being fixed as part of a national programme to rebuild all roads in Poland.[154]
In 2015, the nation had 19,000 kilometres (11,800 mi) of railway track. Trains can operate up to 160 km/h (99 mph) on 7.5% of the track. Most trains operate between 80 and 120 km/h (50 and 75 mph). Part of the system operates at 40 km/h (25 mph).[155] Polish authorities maintain a program of improving operating speeds across the entire Polish rail network. To that end, Polish State Railways (PKP) is adopting new rolling stock such as the Siemens Taurus ES64U4, which is in principle capable of speeds up to 200 km/h (124 mph). Additionally, in December 2014, Poland began to implement high–speed rail routes connecting major Polish cities. The Polish government has revealed that it intends to connect all major cities to a future high-speed rail network by 2020.[156] The new PKP Pendolino ETR 610 test train set the record for the fastest train in the history of Poland, reaching 293 km/h (182 mph) on 24 November 2013. Previously, the speed record had been 160 km/h (99 mph) since 1985. Most intercity rail routes in Poland are operated by PKP Intercity, whilst regional trains are run by a number of operators, the largest of which is

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More Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland
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