The forum, organised by the Raiffeisen Bank in Vienna, pooled representatives of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey as well as those of Austria which hosted the event.
Discussions focused on small and medium-sized businesses and cross-border projects in telecommunications, the power industry, infrastructure and the environment.
Austrian Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein said this region with over 140 million people was very interesting to foreign investors, primarily because of its high economic growth rates. Austria is among the biggest foreign investors in the region, he said, adding that his country, for instance, ranked first on the list of foreign investors in Croatia.
Croatian Assistant Foreign Minister David Sopta said the Croatian government spared no effort to improve the investment climate and that Croatia expected the number of export-oriented greenfield investments to grow.