Conferences as strategy to get FDI

Had it not been for foreign investments, Hungary would not have been ready for accession in 2004, Kalman Mizsei, UNDP’s regional director for Europe and CIS said during the opening of the “Summit on Expanding the European Investment Frontier”, organised by International Herald Tribune and UNDP in Bucharest on October 14th and 15th. Mizsei added foreign direct investments (FDI) speed up much needed changes, including those in the business culture. Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia were among the top 30 investment destinations last year. Not Romania’s case, though, as it and Bulgaria have only attracted less than 10% of the total FDI in the CEE region in the last 13 years. Olivier Descamps, EBRD director for SE Europe said during the summit that the FDI in the region were bound to grow from 2.5bn euros to 3.7bn euros this year and the trend would maintain. ZF