With the achievement of further EU and NATO enlargement, a critical political and economic lens is now focused on East Central Europe and, to a lesser extent, the other former communist states. Economic growth in each transition state - and more broadly the region - pivots around the prospects for foreign direct investment (FDI), with decisions on where foreign investors will locate their projects now vitally important. This book - the first one devoted to a geographical survey concentrating specifically on FDI in the region - brings together a wide range of prominent authors from the US and Europe, including the late Frank Carter, to provide a timely and critical examination of the importance of foreign investment. It presents a detailed analysis of location patterns and their significance for regional development, with particular emphasis given to the important socioeconomic and political consequences of uneven distribution of FDI across the region and its constituent countries. Divided into two parts, the book first deals with general overarching themes and issues before applying these to more specific country case studies. The second part deals with regional studies, focusing broadly on the Western Balkans and Bulgaria, before looking at specific economic sectors in individual countries.

The transition process from a centrally planned to a market economy followed a very different path in East Germany compared to all other former communist countries. The German Democratic Republic acceded the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, while other former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) had to start from square one after becoming independent from the USSR. In contrast to other post-soviet countries, East Germany subsequently received massive transfers from the Western part of the country. A significant part of these transfers was invested into infrastructure improvement, while a larger share was spent for consumption, raising the purchasing power in the East of Germany, allowing it to sustain a higher wage level and living standard than would have been economically possible without aid from the West. Twenty years after the breakdown of the iron curtain and the reunification of Germany, the infrastructure in the Eastern part of the country is en par with the West. The East German wage level remains only slightly lower than the Western level (as does productivity), but is significantly higher than in neighbouring post-communist CEE-countries. Because of these differences in economic transition, it can be expected that East Germany attracts a different kind of foreign direct investment compared to other CEE-countries. The objective of this dissertation is to empirically identify the factors affecting foreign direct investment into the region and to discuss the implications of the empirical findings for regional and national economic policy. The "region" is represented in this book by East Germany and three of its Central-European neighbour-countries, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

This title was first published in 2003. Covering a diverse range of countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Russia, as well as referring to the characteristics of the region as a whole, this book examines the inflow and outflow of foreign direct investment from both home and host company and country perspectives. By analyzing foreign direct investment in terms of process, content and context, the book provides a holist approach towards direct foreign investment in the transitional context of Central and Eastern Europe, embracing both macro- and micro-economic perspectives of the process.

Recoge: 1.Introduction - 2.Growth prospects for Central and Eastern Europe - 3.Trade and balance-of-payment prospects for Central and Eastern Europe - 4.Foreign direct investment prospects for EEFSU and competition with the lagging regions - 5.EC trade with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe - 6.The composition of trade between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the EC - 7.The impact on the EC regions of trade generated by economic reform in Central and Eastern Europe - 8.Case-studies of the effects of economic reform in Central and Eastern Europe - 9.Implications for regional policy of economic reform in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book examines the transformation of the state in Central and Eastern Europe since the end of communism and adoption of market oriented reform in the early 1990s, exploring the impact of globalization and economic liberalization on the region’s states, societies and political economy. It compares the different policies and national strategies adopted by key Central and Eastern European states, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, showing how initial internally oriented strategies of market reform, privileging domestic sources of investment, had by the late 1990s given way to externally oriented strategies emphasising the promotion of competitiveness by attracting foreign investment. It explores the reasons behind this convergence, considering the influence of internal and external forces, and the roles of interests, institutions and ideas. It argues that internationalization of the state is forged in the processes through which domestic groups linked to transnational capital attain domestic influence necessary to shape state policy and strategy. These groups — the comprador service sector in particular — constitute and organize political, social and institutional support of the competition state in the region. Overall, this book not only provides a detailed account of the political economy of post-communist transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, but also the processes by which states adapt to the forces of globalization.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 306. Describes ways in which the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which has attracted worldwide attention by providing small loans to the rural poor and recording high repayment rates, can achieve sustainability, expansion, and replicability. The Grameen Bank has more than 2 million members, of which 94 percent are women, spread across 35,000 villages