The Newton Finance Centre has been opened in Krakow by Hitachi Data Systems. The centre will deal with the financial operations of firms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

In the competition to gain a new investor, Krakow beat off several large European cities - including Riga and Bratislava. The decision to locate the finance centre in Poland was influenced above all by the high level of education there and the very good foreign language skills of the workers.

 

As Mr Michael Vńtha, the vice president of Hitachi Data Systems, stated, one of the goals for the centre’s development - although it’s a long term one - is to embrace the services of other firms under Hitachi Data Systems that are operating beyond the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

 

Among the centre’s tasks will be to receive orders, analyse income, write up transactions, write sales invoices, assess commissions, process purchase invoices, consolidate figures from the whole region, reporting to the management and manage payments. The centre has already been operational since the end of last year and currently employs 32 people - they plan to take on a further 70.

 

In recent years, many multinational companies have opened up accountancy and finance centres in Krakow; firms such as: Motorola, Shell, Capgemini, Sabre Holdings, Lufthansa, IBM, Google and Ahold.