"The southeast Europe is a region developing at fast pace with a five percent economic growth and it offers good possibilities for investors," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said at the opening of the conference and stressed Austria supported the admission of these countries in the European Union.
The Stability Pact Special Coordinator, Erhards Busek, stressed that the war did not help the economic growth of these countries but added that the implementation of reforms gave reason for optimism.
The head of the Croatian Economy Ministry's Department of Promoting Investments and Exports, Sani Ljubuncic, presented the investment atmosphere for foreign investments in Croatia and said the existing amendments to the law on encouraging investments would contribute to the growth of Greenfield investments in production and export-oriented activities.
The forum in Vienna was attended by some 200 government representatives from ten countries from the Adriatic to the Black Sea -- Albania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Slovenia and Serbia and Montenegro -- and people from Austrian financial and business circles.
The event was organised by the Vienna Economic Forum in cooperation with the embassies of the ten countries and the Reiffeisen bank.