Tomasz Rachwał

It has been 25 years since the beginning of the economic transformation in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, associated with the change of the centrally controlled system over economy towards an economy based on market rules. Those changes, taking place in the conditions of globalisation of the world economy and European integration, and in recent years also the global recession, affect previously developed socio-economic structures, including the structures of industry. The aim of the article is to present changes in the role of industry in the economy of Poland, transformation of the ownership, branch and spatial structure of the industry of Poland and its diversification in regional and supra-regional systems as well as to attempt to answer the question of how the processes of industrial restructuring, undertaken during the years of economic transformation, contributed to its adaptation to the conditions of the market economy and improvement of its competitive position in global and European levels, including the possibility of integration into the global industrial networks.