Entrepreneurship is understood as economic activity conducted on a small scale and own account. The model of command economy functioning in Poland after the World War II eliminated effectively such notions as market, competition, free choice, middle class and entrepreneurship. It was only due to the transition towards the market economy, started in 1990, that during the five consecutive years the number of the very small enterprises (with up to five persons employed) increased from 636 thousand to 1,057 thousand. These economic agents, though, belong still to the weakest ones, requiring, especially at the initial stage of their activity, assistance of consulting, organizational, schooling and financial nature. The best effects are attained by means of assistance mobilized at the local level, with the use of local economic initiatives and financial resources.
Similarly to other countries, Poland enjoyed a great intlow of foreign investments after the political system transformation. One of the main beneficiary was the auto industry. The high quality of manufactured vehicles and spare parts was soon recognized and the automotive industry has become the hallmark of the Polish economy. Motor vehicle manufacturing is not only one of the most modern sectors of industry but also very important export sector. Every seventh bus and every twentieth passenger car manufactured in Europe is made in Poland.
One of the characteristic features of market economy is the significant share of small industries, treated as the source of constant renewal of industry, of economic dynamics and enhancement of competitiveness. The share of small industries in total industrial employment in Poland is at 30%, i.e. almost two limes less than in the industry of Western Europe. In conditions of transition to market economy and its integration with Western Europe, small industries, side by side with their economic functions, constitute an important instrument of solving such essential problems as: industrial restructuring, activation of agricultural regions, protection of natural environment and unemployment. Simultaneously, small industries contribute to appearance of the middle class, whose existence is a necessary condition for the stable democracy. An incrcase of the role of small industries in the restructuring of Polish economy requires an active policy of support for the private entrepreneurship, especially at the level of regions.
The main purpose of food economy is comprehensive meeting of the society's demand for food with minimum social costs of its production. This purpose is being realized by almost 3.7 milion farms, industrial plants and service institutions which are considered part of food economy and which differ with respect to structure of ownership, size, possession of machines and equipment and which are situated throughout the whole country, in regions of different natural and socio-economic conditions and of different historical background. In result food economy plays a different role in the economy or regions and its importance in individual regions is different. Food economy, similarly to the whole national economy, must be subjected to the rules of spatial order whose one of main purposes is to put transportation costs to a minimum as they have substantial impact on the volume of social costs of food production. Costs of transportation burdening most the food economy result primarily from spatial desintegration of the processes of ,agricultural production and food processing that are closely interrelated. Their elimination is possible through creation of economically justified network of industrial plants suited in volume of processing capacity and production profile to regionalization of raw materials base and geography of consumption.
Localization and volume of processing capacity are decisive for an industrial plant with a certain technological level and correct work organization to achieve certain production effects. From the point of view of the theory of production localization, based mainly on an analysis of transportation costs, in food industry can be distinguished plants with raw materials and consumption localization. However, along with technical and technological progress, localization of plants undergoes changes due to application of raw materials localization on a larger scale. Localization decisions in food industry are also influenced by tends to create complexes of plants (matching of investments) connected both with respect to technological phases as well as basing on cold stores as an integrating link. A characteristic feature of contemporary development of food industry is concentration of production in large plants, construction of industrial and industrial-agricultural complexes. Increase in output of plants which is accompanied by growing demand for production factors (raw materials, workforce, power and water) as well as growing threat to geographical environment (e.g. sewage) causes that many localities do not meet the requiremeints with respect to localization of these plants. In such localities small food industry plants can be localized with lower demand for production factors, less dangerous to geographical environment and simultaneously being an important activating factor for smaller towns and communes. When making decisions concerning the scale of production in food industry plants it is not sufficient to base only on economic calculation of unit processing costs at the plant's level. It is necessary to consider also other conditions, e.g. the intensity of ties of the inndustry with the local market, ability of the industry to activate agricultural regions and social costs of production.
The suburban zone of Warsaw constitutes an attractive area for location of industrial plants characterized by big demand for highly skilled labour, strong connections in the domain of production cooperation and collaboration with research and development centers. These plants represent mainly electrical machinery and chemical industries, including especially electrotechnical, electronic, precision mechanical, pharmaceutical, perfumery and cosmetics, as well as home chemicals production plants. The basis of locally produced agricultural raw materials and the proximity of Warsaw - a great and absorptive sales market for processed food products - make good conditions for emergence of food processing plants, in particular of vegetable-and-fruit, dairy product, meat and poultry processing plants. There are significant spatial disproportions in the process of industrialization of the suburban zone of Warsaw. This is primarily determined by more advantageous conditions for location of industrial plants in towns and communes neighbouring with Warsaw, as well as in towns and communes situated along railway lines and main roads.
A specific type of agriculture developes at suburbian zones upon the influence of activity of a big town aglomeration. Such an agriculture supplies perishable and requiring a short distance transport goods that have to be fully new at the town market everyday. An area that created such a type of agriculture we call an alimentation zone. This zone meets the towns demand as regards milk, vegetables, flowers and perishable fruits. Spontaneous creation of the alimentation zones does not meet a full demand still increasing of a town population on agricultural products. The said phenomena had a special importance in capital voivodship Warszawa. A prevalent influence upon the development of agriculture in this voivodship has Warszawa, a great outlet and a dense network of motorways falicitating a supply of goods to the capital market. On account of a function of the alimentation zone of Warszawa, the specialize farms should be the basis of agriculture: production in capital voivodship. Those farms allow to obtain a higher productivity. Specialization of the farms in the area of a great outlet leeds to a regional specialization. At the moment some regions of the capital voivodship could be regarded as specialized at a vegetable - flower - fruit production. An achievement of a full specialization of voivodship at the production of vegetables, fruits (mostly perishable) and milk is necessary on account of still increasing number of town population and its consumption. At the same time an area of agricultural land and employment in agriculture declines. That is why a full specialization depends on increasing of the area and productivity of fruit trees and frutex berries, vegetables, also on the increasing of a number of cattle heads and its milch based mainly on own pasturage and the fodder plant. The increasing of an area of the orchards, vegetables and fodder plant comes off at the cost of declining of rye, oats and potatoes crop. Increase of yielding (including) take place by means of agronomic measures. Dairy trend should be dominant at the cattle raising. Dairy farms organized within the frame of social sector will supply the main output of milk because of considerable communitation of individual farms.
The changes that take place in the structure of agricultural population according to the maintenance sources, lie in the fact that people leave work in agriculture for non-agricultural professions. The result of this process is a decrease of the percentage of agricultural population. This is a process of economic urbanization, whose speed is different in individual regions and historic periods as it depends on the following: birth-rate of the professionaly active population in towns and in the country, proportion between the development rate of industry and agriculture, labour demand of the production techniques in agriculture, the character of technology progress in industry, and many other factors like e.g. the obtained level of economy. The process of the economic urbanization of the country has been slower in the Suwałki Province so far than in whole Poland. This was caused by the dominant role of agriculture, however, not very well provided with means of production and low level of urbanization and industrialization. According the forecast of the agricultural population in the communes of the province, made by means of Markov chains model, the percentage of this population will decrease from 74.5% in 1975 to 67.4% in 1980 and to 63.7% in 1990 which should be considered to be moderate speed. The average decrease of the percentage of the agricultural population in the years 1980-1990 will be 4.1%, at the same time in the typically agricultural communes, like those situated in the north - east part of the province, it will be lower even than 0.8%, whereas in the communes with well developed recreative function and forest e.g. in the western part of the province, it will be higher even than 8.2%.
A transformation of relations among the factors of agricultural production: land, labour and production means, is taking place in the suburban zone of Warsaw, to the detriment of land. The area of agricultural land is decreasing due to change of the type of use by turning land into various forms of non-agricultural use, including especially housing and industrial construction, and transport investment projects. This decreasing tendency of the area of agricultural land is accompanied by increasing specialization of agriculture, mainly in the direction of vegetable-fruit-and-flower production (including horticultural production of protected crops), in which optimum acreage of a farm, given intensive cultivation, could be small. Simultaneously, greenhouses, hotbeds and foil tunnels give the space of smaller towos and rural areas the specific aspect of suburban landscape.