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Eastern Europe as the focus of future investments
( 15 / March / 2005 )
According to the latest report of American Chamber of Commerce and Boston Consulting Group, U.S. companies are increasingly interested in investments in Eastern Europe.
Every fifth company surveyed is planning a relocation of individual business actitivies in other European countries. For 26% percent of U.S. companies, Eastern Europe has evolved into the most important region for investments. Industries such as automotive industry and industrial goods are increasingly focusing on Eastern Europe and are either setting up or expanding production sites there. Service companies, too, are focusing their investments and relocating and shifting, for example, IT support or call centres to these countries.
U.S. companies especially appreciate low costs of labour in Eeastern Europe and fewer regulations. Poland, the Czech Republic or Slovakia are considered the most attractive labour markets in Europe, followed by Great Britain and Ireland.
Dieter Heuskel, the German head of BCG, sees a global trend in the companies’ shift toward the east: “As a production site Germany is rapidly losing ground compared to its Eastern European neighbours, while the attractiveness as a market for marketing and research location remains unchanged. This type of structural change is affecting similarily developed economies such as the United States and Japan in the same way. Companies look for the best location for every single element of their value chain.”