In recent years, Warsaw has been looking more and more like a Western European capital. The city is Poland's fastest developing construction market and a center of business, administration, culture and finance. Low unemployment and the highest average pay in Poland account for the considerable purchasing power of Warsaw residents.

Warsaw is one of Central Europe's most important business hubs. The city has nearly 300,000 registered firms and attracts a yearly foreign investment of 650 million euros. Warsaw accounts for over 4.1 percent of Poland's gross domestic product (GDP). The capital is also the country's most highly industrialized city, with automotive, electronic, chemical, pharmaceutical, clothing and processing industries. Warsaw has the lowest unemployment in Poland. The city has about 55,000 people registered as out of work, which is an unemployment rate of only 5 percent.

Warsaw has a large market for office space. The most prestigious offices today include Rondo 1, the Warsaw Business Center and the Metropolitan. Last year saw a veritable office building takeover craze, with transactions worth hundreds of millions of euros. The London & Regional fund paid 260 million euros for the prestigious Rondo 1 office building in the very center of Warsaw. The Heitman fund bought nine office buildings in Mokotów Business Park complex from GTC for 225 million euros. The German DEGI fund took over the Metropolitan office building for nearly 170 million euros. In December, the capital's highest office building went under the hammer: the Warsaw Trade Tower was acquired from Apollo Rida by Austrian firm Akron for 150 million euros.

Last year, major "unfrozen" investments included the Brama Południowa office building in Muranów with office space of nearly 28,000 sq m and the Equator office building on Jerozolimskie Avenue with 85,000 sq m. Three years after the first building of the International Business Center was constructed on the Rondo Jazdy Polskiej traffic circle, the second stage of work is in progress on a 14-story building of about 19,400 sq m. The neighborhood of office buildings in Służewiec Przemysłowy continues to expand. In the spring, Echo Investment will start building work here on a complex of light, glazed office buildings. Nearby, the construction of the Tulipan House office building and the Platinum Business Park complex is about to begin.

Warsaw is Poland's major commercial center, with a consumer market of nearly 3 million residents. The city has several very large shopping malls and a dozen smaller ones. The largest shopping-and-entertainment centers include Arkadia, Blue City and Galeria Mokotów. The long-awaited Złote Tarasy (Golden Terraces) shopping-and-entertainment complex opened in February in the heart of Warsaw, near the Palace of Culture and Science and Warszawa Centralna railway station. Carrefour and Tesco have five centers each in Warsaw. The number of building materials/DIY hypermarkets has also increased, including Leroy Merlin, OBI, Praktiker, castorama and IKEA.

Warsaw has more and more luxury hotels every year. But the capital is still lagging behind the European average in terms of hotel occupancy. In Warsaw, the occupancy rate is 69.1 percent, in Prague it is 74.1 percent, and in London it is 81.7 percent. In Warsaw, the average room rate is 90.34 euros.

Poland's first Hilton hotel is under construction in Warsaw and will open in March. It will accommodate guests in more than 300 rooms. At present, seven international hotel chains operate in Poland: Accor, Best Western, Hyatt, Marriott, InterContinental, SAS Radisson and Starwood.

Warsaw has a number of large, conveniently located facilities for hosting conventions and trade fairs. The largest events are organized in the Palace of Culture. It can accommodate more than 4,500 conference participants in its many rooms and offers exhibition space of over 10,000 sq m. Every year, the Palace of Culture hosts both international and domestic events including fairs, conventions, conferences and symposiums. The interior is a combination of genuine palace furnishings and state-of-the-art technology. There is a sound amplification system and wireless internet access, which allows thousands of computers to log in at the same time. An important asset of the Palace of Culture is its central location in the city.

The EXPO Warsaw Center, one of Poland's top modern exhibition and conference facilities, covers 10,000 sq m and accommodates up to 10,000 visitors. The center has two state-of-the-art air-conditioned multifunctional halls, which are connected by a services-and-conference pavilion. The center has fiber-optic internet connections, professional conference equipment and a modern ventilation and air-conditioning system. The center is located only 2 km from the city center and 25 minutes from Okęcie airport. Altogether, Warsaw has 64 conference centers. The recent European Cities Monitor (ECM), Cushman & Wakefield's annual poll of leading European firms on the subject of location, shows Warsaw is attractive. The ECM is based on interviews with executive staff and board members of the top 507 European firms and analyzes the criteria considered by companies as important when making decisions on business activity location. Subsequently, the results are presented for the 33 cities selected as the best business locations in Europe. The most important criterion is transport, followed by costs and standards of living.

Last year, Warsaw ranked 18th, which was the city's highest ranking over the poll's 16 years. In the next five years, Warsaw can expect the largest inflow of new firms: out of the 507 polled, 50 firms plan to locate offices, production and retail activities in Warsaw. The capital ranks seventh in terms of available office space and tops the ranking in terms of the value of office space in relation to its standards. knowledge of foreign languages among the city's residents boosted Warsaw from 23rd position in 2005 up to 18th. In terms of international transport connection efficiency, the city advanced from 25th place in 2005 to 23rd. Warsaw maintained its top ranking position in the "staff employment costs" category. Notably, Warsaw also ranks high, in fourth position, in terms of the business climate created by the government.

One drawback for Warsaw is the fact that still not many business people know the city. Only 27 percent of those polled know Warsaw. The city's efforts to improve its image as a business location should be rewarded in the near future. The Miss World 2006 beauty contest in particular was an excellent opportunity to promote Warsaw.