Improving the investment climate is a key pillar of the World Bank's private sector development strategy. Without a good investment climate, firms and entrepreneurs of all types-from farmers to micro-enterprises to local manufacturing concerns and multinationals-have few opportunities and incentives to invest productively, create jobs, and expand, enter and remain in the formal economy, and thereby contribute to growth and poverty reduction. Growth and private sector development encompass a very broad agenda, but in Poland's case such a challenge boils down to the objective of reducing the convergence time to the standard of living of the European Union (EU)-15 countries. Sound macroeconomic policy, debt sustainability, open trade, security, access to finance, good governance and quality infrastructure services are all key requirements for the private sector to flourish. These conditions need to be complemented by micro-economic reforms-the policies and institutions that support efficient private economic activity-that help to unleash competitive forces leading to increased productivity and competitiveness. The Poland Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is the first ICA piloted in the World Bank's Europe and Central region in 2004, adding to the stock of knowledge from the many other country reports prepared worldwide. The Poland ICA provides benchmark data to assess firm-level performance in other countries in the Europe and Central Asia region. The report also analyses Poland's strengths and weaknesses in the context of a regional comparison, with the EU-8 countries, which recently joined the European Union, the cohesion countries, and the other EU member countries.