Central and Eastern Europe starts attractive investment destination initiative
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Topics: EUROPE INVESTMENT INITIATIVE
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The objective of the initiative is to promote Central and Eastern Europe as an attractive investment destination for investors and encourage cooperation between business leaders of the region.
The initiative has been initiated by PZU of Poland and embraced from founding companies from CEE.
Signing of the memorandum constituting the Business Council of Growing Europe took place in the presence of distinguished guests: Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of the Republic of Croatia, Egils Levits, President of of the Republic of Latvia, Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia, Georgette Mosbacher, Ambassador of the United States America to the Republic of Poland, as well as leading representatives of business and think-tanks: John Rogers, Vice President, Goldman Sachs; David McCormick, Co-CEO, Bridgewater Associates; Karan Bhatia, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google and Fred Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council.
The motto of the Business Council is “Growing Europe†to emphasize the key feature which the 11 CEE countries have in common: stable growth.
The memorandum establishing the Business Council has been signed in the Polish House in Davos during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum by 11 international companies originating from Central and Eastern Europe and including: PZU, Banca Comercială Română, Bolt, Bulpros, Exponea, Gedeon Richter, OTP Bank, Pekao SA, Prezi, Riko Group, Triglav Group and UiPath.
According to the memorandum, the participants will organise joint events promoting the region, take part in panel discussions and meetings at leading economic conferences and events, participate in the activity of working groups, and partner with consultancies.
“The region is well positioned to become the most attractive investment destination both in Europe and globally.
“It offers economic, political, and social stability while generating stable economic growth throughout economic cycles.
“By joining our forces, we can raise awareness about the dynamism, entrepreneurship and innovation of this part of Europe.
“By doing this, we want to send a positive signal both to the entire European Union and the world: Europe is not defending its status quo, Europe is Growing, invest in Growing Europe ,†said PZU CEO Paweł Surówka.
“From now on, Central and Eastern Europe has a Business Council, it has a voice, it has engaged business leaders who want to work for its promotion together.â€
“We believe that the CEE region offers great investment opportunities at the global level, but it is currently too fragmented to successfully compete for capital on the global level.
“Therefore, we support all activities aimed at unifying and increasing the promotion of the region, and establishing closer business ties.
“We find this new initiative Growing Europe to be an important step towards those goalsâ€, said Andrej Slapar, CEO of Triglav Group.
“Fostering digital transformation and ensuring a trustworthy deployment environment for artificial intelligence and business automation have never been higher on the European Commission’s agenda as they are now,†said Vargha Moayed, Chief Strategy Officer at UiPath.
“This technology will have far-reaching impacts on the way we work, and we at UiPath believe we have an obligation to the CEE and the rest of the world to support the future of work.
“We are proud to be a founding member of this initiative and look forward to working with its other founding members to successfully transform the CEE into a hub for future digital growth.â€
"In the ten years since we founded Prezi in Hungary having started in the middle of an economic recession and taking on formidable competition with Microsoft, Apple and Google we have grown our business globally to over 100 million users and now have offices in Budapest, San Francisco and Riga, Latvia.
“Our success shows Central and Eastern Europe can participate in and contribute to a global economy.
“We are proud to be a founding member of the Growing Europe CEE Business Council to accelerate growth, innovation and investment in the region,†said Peter Arvai, CEO and co founder of Prezi.
“Central Europe today is a landmark of resilience and ambition to grow.
“Our region has an unmatched value proposition of highly skilled people, business environment stability and democratic aspirations.
“We add today a commitment of the business environment to contribute a vision in policy, investment and society transformation that will see Central Europe becoming a global hub for business and ideas,†said Sergiu Manea, CEO of Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR).
The transition of Central and Eastern Europe has been unprecedented.
Within only 30 years, the countries previously cut off by the Iron Curtain have become full-fledged members of the European Union, NATO, and the World Trade Organisation.
After joining the global free market with a burden of the centrally planned system, their economies have become a key driver of EU’s growth, as attested by macroeconomic statistics.
The combined GDP of the 11 countries in the Three Seas Region (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) is close to EUR 1.2 trillion.
The countries of the region generate 20 percent of EU’s economic growth.
Foreign direct investments in CEE were equal to only 2 percent of EU FDI in 2015, rising to 15 percent in 2018, a 7.5 fold increase within three years.
Another strength of the region is the potential of its population, currently totalling 100 million.
A high percentage of the professionally active population aged 25-64 in the former Eastern Bloc countries of the Three Seas region has higher education, representing the region’s huge human potential.
Poland alone ranks above Spain or Italy as measured by the combined number of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) graduates.
According to PISA tests, young people in Poland and Estonia are global leaders in all three areas covered by the survey: reading and interpreting skills, mathematics, and reasoning in natural sciences. ■