BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 5069

HR-BULLETINS-Politika BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 5069 HINA Zagreb 7 September 2003FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS IN CROATIA IN 2002 TOTAL APPROX. $1 BLNZAGREB, Sept 7 (Hina) - In 2002 Croatia attracted US$981-million-worth of foreign direct investments (FDIs), which is a 37-percent drop compared to 2001, reads this year's U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report on foreign investments in the world, presented in Zagreb last week. According to the value of FDIs in 2002, Croatia is seventh among 19 Central and East European countries, which are headed by the Czech Republic ($9.3 billion), followed by Slovakia ($4 billion), and Russia ($2.4 billion), special UNCTAD advisor Branimir Vukmir said. The region is one of the few in the world which last year saw an increase in FDIs in relation to 2001, and particularly in relation to the record year 2000, Vukmir said. The increase in FDIs in the region is directly connected with the EU candidate status of a large number of cou