Investing In Industrial-Technology Parks In City Development - A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Cities are growing both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative development of a city can be identified with the spatial expansion and changes in the function of certain areas. The city's development, therefore, requires the reconstruction of the spatial layout, but also needs certain capital expenditures, as exemplified by industrial-technology parks (ITPs). ITPs are a combination of the infrastructure function and performance which enable the exchange of information between scientific organizations and entrepreneurs. They are, therefore, a pro-development component of the urban development strategy. The aim of the study is to identify and quantify selected costs and benefits, as well as estimate the effectiveness of establishing certain parks from the point of view of local government units.

Industry parks and technology parks are diverse entities. Their general characteristics and types, based on a review of domestic and foreign literature, are presented in the first part of the work justifying the study. The second part introduces the industrial-technology parks which are present in Poland. In the third part of the study, the specificity of assessing the effectiveness of an industrial-technology park is described. Finally, the fourth part includes an analysis of investing in selected industrial-technology parks; the analysis consists of three phases: the identification of industrial and technological parks, the verification of the industrial-technology park with the legal and practical definition, and cost-benefit analysis. According to the Polish Agency of Information and Foreign Investment (PAIiIZ), industrial-technology parks focus primarily on filling the space with commercially efficient companies using modern technologies, attracting investment and creating jobs. All of these factors are taken into account in the analysis. The analysis is carried out according to the methodology of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of investment projects.

Despite the diversity and dynamics of the structural features of the parks, the analysis confirms that the investment of public funds in industrial and technological parks is generally efficient in terms of socio-economic development.