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The world economic slowdown is casting a shadow over central and eastern Europe. But it cannot hide the continuing attractions of a region that still offers investors big opportunities as it strives to catch up with the west.
Three sub-regions have emerged: the countries of central Europe and the Baltic states, which have their eyes fixed on rapid convergence with western Europe and early accession to the European Union, perhaps as soon as 2004; the nations of south-east Europe, which also dream of EU membership but see it as a more distant prospect, not least because of the continuing violence in the former Yugoslavia; and the former Soviet Union (minus the Baltic states), led by Russia, where the legacy of communism is stronger and the economic pull of the west weaker.
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