Foreign Direct Investment in the Changing Business Environment of the European Union's New Member States

Abstract

Business environment is one of the location factors taken into account by investors while investing abroad. This paper focuses on the relationship between changes in business environments in the new Member States of the European Union (EU) and foreign direct investors' behavior. The analysis concentrates on Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, with special reference to Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The EU policies and the national incentive-based FDI policies are two driving forces influencing business environment in the new Member States. All the adjustments to the EU requirements reshape conditions for doing business in the new Member States and lead to the improvement of so called economies' 'fundamentals'. The national FDI policies could be treated as a factor disturbing these long term processes and changing economic choices of the established and potential investors. The statistical data on FDI inward stock and annual FDI flows confirm the positive reaction of foreign investors to the changes taking place throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Some data, however, confirm also that there is intense incentive-based competition and a kind of bidding war between them in order to attract foreign investors.