About Katowice
The Forum will take place in Katowice (Poland), the capital of the Upper Silesian region and one of the most rapidly developing Polish metropolises with 2.7 million inhabitants and the ninth largest metropolis in the European Union.
This fast developing area has an excellent location at an intersection of major transport routes in southern Poland, near the border with Czech Republic and Slovakia. This location helps explain why transport has been a priority for the local authorities since 1990.
Katowice is a regional and national investment leader. As it was mentioned, since the self-government was reconstituted in 1990 the city has no longer been associated with industry and it started to create new identity.
Accession to the European Union opened Polish market for foreign investors who realized that Katowice was attractive for new undertakings. Also because the city had to face the challenge of changing its traditional heavy-industry nature, it was high time to completely reconstruct the city center, to make it look more metropolis-like. This is why an architectural concept of the city center has been prepared. This reconstruction will cover an area of 400 hectares in the heart of the city center and will be the biggest operation of this kind in Central Europe. The main idea is to renovate the city center of Katowice, its proper scale and harmony. In other words, this means the necessity of erecting buildings in the city's main avenue - Aleja Korfantego. The plan is to create a stretch of facilities connecting two most important points in the city center - Spodek (the concert and exhibition hall) and Rynek.
Please go to www.um.katowice.pl to get detailed background information about Katowice, city's history and tourist attractions.
This fast developing area has an excellent location at an intersection of major transport routes in southern Poland, near the border with Czech Republic and Slovakia. This location helps explain why transport has been a priority for the local authorities since 1990.
Katowice is a regional and national investment leader. As it was mentioned, since the self-government was reconstituted in 1990 the city has no longer been associated with industry and it started to create new identity.
Accession to the European Union opened Polish market for foreign investors who realized that Katowice was attractive for new undertakings. Also because the city had to face the challenge of changing its traditional heavy-industry nature, it was high time to completely reconstruct the city center, to make it look more metropolis-like. This is why an architectural concept of the city center has been prepared. This reconstruction will cover an area of 400 hectares in the heart of the city center and will be the biggest operation of this kind in Central Europe. The main idea is to renovate the city center of Katowice, its proper scale and harmony. In other words, this means the necessity of erecting buildings in the city's main avenue - Aleja Korfantego. The plan is to create a stretch of facilities connecting two most important points in the city center - Spodek (the concert and exhibition hall) and Rynek.
Please go to www.um.katowice.pl to get detailed background information about Katowice, city's history and tourist attractions.