Foreign investment to reach $6.9 billion annually over next five years

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), foreign investment in the 27 former Communist countries should reach $160 billion in the years 2001-2005, up 36% over the 1996-2000 period. Two thirds of the total would be invested in six countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Russia. According to the EIU, the inflow of foreign investment into Poland will amount to $6.9 billion a year in the 2001-2005 period, compared to an annual average of $6.5 billion in the years 1996-2000. In an EIU ranking of the most attractive places for doing business, Poland was listed third among the former Communist countries, after Estonia and Hungary. The EIU is part of the group which publishes The Economist weekly. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Nov. 10-11, p. 27) T.J.