I stumbled across this article on Gdansk local economy. It is worth mentioning how the city is becoming a center of outsourcing as well as other Polish cities over the last decade. I do believe that this model of development requires more deep research from social science point of view. I just want to quote the said by the major of the city on how this “boom” is “rebranding the city”:

“This is absolutely rebranding the city,” said Paweł Adamowicz, mayor of Gdansk. “It is hugely important. We lack the finance, the capital of western cities. But we offer something extra, something competitive. We offer our brains, our intelligence.”

Mr Adamowicz said the outsourcing industry accounts for as much as 30 per cent of the city’s economy, and is its fastest growing.

The question is: is outsourcing a step forward or back for local economies? In this other article it is said that Goldman Sachs expands operations in Poland as a growing IT hub. The reasons are openly stated: “affordable labor force” (low salaries), “tax incentives” (basically not paying for the operations) and “large IT graduate pool” (young demographic structure people willing to get low salaries).

Poland is a growing IT hub for financial institutions in Europe due to its affordable labor force, tax incentives and large IT graduate pool, according to a report from Rule Financial, the U.K.-based investment banking consultancy acquired last year by German technology company GFT Group.
Wages are lower in Poland than in many other major economies in the European Union. UBS Group AG, Bank of New York Mellon Corp.