• The region is not a place for making easy money and yet long-term potential for growth is definitely in place;

• The crisis is a time for reforms;

• One of the most valuable assets of CEE is human capital; investments in education and health care are needed, reckon UniCredit Group

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is not a place for making easy money but the region definitely retains its long-term potential for growth regardless of the difficult months of crisis. Around this statement were united the participants in the discussion “Is CEE still the El Dorado of European business?”, organized by UniCredit Group within the scope of the XIX Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was held on 14-15 May in Zagreb, Croatia. In the discussion led by the Head of Strategic Analyses for CEE of UniCredit Group, Deborah Revoltela, there also participated Carlo Marini, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking of UniCredit Group, Lerka Pulich, vice-president of the international company Agrikor and Berndt Schmuterer, chief financial officer and member of the Management Board of the Croatian company VIPnet, which is part of Telecom Austria.

To realize their potential and to maintain the positions of CEE as the manufacturing workforce of Europe the countries from the region must make use of the crisis as a period to accelerate the planned reforms. The crisis is a time for changes, pointed out Revoltela. It accentuates on the human resource in the countries from the region and the willingness and readiness of the people to undergo the necessary changes. „One of the main assets of the region is the quality human resource but the governments need to take care of it by way of investments in education and health care”, thinks Revoltela.

Lerka Pulich from Agrikor sees tourism, energy and agriculture as the business sectors with really high potential for development in the countries from the region… „But in order to achieve fully this possible growth, infrastructure is needed not only in the form of roads but also in terms of more efficient administration”, said Pulich.

Still there is room for foreign investments, added Carlo Marini. According to the Head of Corporate Banking at UniCredit Group, despite the fact that the crisis has significantly slowed down the economic growth in the region and some of the countries experience serious macroeconomic imbalances, in the past few months the governments and the central banks of the countries in the region have demonstrated capacity to cope with the challenges. „This gives us a sense of security that the region will continue to be attractive although the investors will be much more selective”, summarized Marini.

About UniCredit Group

UniCredit Group is a large financial institution with strong roots in 22 European countries, as well as with representational offices in 27 other markets, approximately 9,800 branches and more than 165,000 employees as of 31.12.2009.

UniCredit Group is a market leader in Central and Eastern Europe, where it is one of main players in the banking market, with a large branch network with around 4,000 branches.

The Group operates in the following CEE countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and the Ukraine.