The Polish government unveiled detailed criteria for defining “local content” and prioritizing domestic suppliers in public contracts during a conference in Toruń.
What is Local Content?
According to the new government definition, Local Content is “the value of goods or services produced or provided by a domestic entity.”
Aiming for Domestic Investment
This aims to ensure that as much money as possible from public projects remains within the Polish economy. The government stresses this strategy is not isolationist, respecting EU law and avoiding rigid protectionism.
The focus is on building resilient supply chains and responding to actions from unfriendly states.
Who is “Ours”? 6 Criteria for Domestic Status
The strategy employs a mathematical model to assess a supplier’s “domesticity,” using a weighted system where points (up to 100%) determine status, replacing subjective assessments.
Key Indicators
The most important indicators (comprising 50% of the assessment) are:
Other supplementary criteria include:
New Procurement Model: End of Price Dictation
The local content strategy significantly changes the standard procurement process, prioritizing supply chain security and local subcontractors during the planning and needs identification phase.
Evolving Tender Processes
Tender processes will evolve towards:
Impact on the Economy
The strict “domesticity” criteria aim to end the practice where a factory’s location alone determined a producer’s Polish status, regardless of profit transfer. By linking supplier status to tax payments and owner residency, the government seeks deeper local market integration.
The change intends to level the playing field for Polish firms competing with foreign corporations, which often operate on lower margins due to global scale but generate less added value in Poland.