Central and eastern Europe is becoming one of the most attractive financial targets worldwide. NATO enlargement by seven countries, higher cooperation between Russia and the United States of America and the planned mass enlargement of the European Union eastwards in 2004 have strengthened the region’s ability to absorb direct foreign investments. An eastern European summit on investments to be held in the Romanian capital Bucharest on October 14 and 15, 2003, should help expand the European investment space. The event is organized by the International Herald Tribune and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Its aim is to increase the influx of direct foreign investments into the region, support free trade and strengthen cross-border cooperation. Representatives of forty countries, including Slovakia, are invited to attend the event.

UNDP regional director for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Kalman Mizsei suggests that direct foreign investments should flow more into the southeast and deeper into countries of the former Soviet Union.

Economic indicators with higher growth dynamics than in the United States or the European Union, dynamic retail markets, qualified work force with relative low wage requirements as well as rich energy and raw material resources and huge agricultural potential lure investors into central and eastern Europe. But countries in this region report high discrepancies in the influx of direct foreign investments. Since 1991, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia got more than 60 percent of total investments in the region. On the other hand, Bulgaria and Romania have received less than 10 percent of investments during reform periods. This trend has eased off in recent years. The influx of direct foreign investments into central and eastern European countries soared by about 53 percent over the last five years to USD 32.2 billion in 2002.