The conference is attended by delegations from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.
The participants are expected to adopt a ministerial declaration based on surveys on the investment atmosphere in Southeast Europe.
Speaking to reporters before the conference, the vice-president of the European Investment Bank, Wolfgang Roth, said that Croatia was much closer to the EU if compared to Bulgaria and Romania and that political crises of the past should not lead to its joining the European Union too late.
I believe that Croatia will become an EU member in 2009, Roth said.
Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, said the conference provided an opportunity to review the achieved progress as well as identify critical points that required more work.
He said that progress had been made in many areas, particularly in Croatia, but that there remained many areas where more effort was needed.
The Vienna conference was organised by the Stability Pact and the Investment Compact for Southeast Europe, which is co-chaired by Austria, Bulgaria and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).