A study of foreign direct investment costs and conditions for two industrial sectors in five Western Balkan countries was conducted by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group.
The Western Balkans benchmarking study assessed the investment prospects in the food and beverage processing sector for all five countries in the Western Balkan region; in the automotive components sector for all countries other than Albania; and, for Albania alone, in the leather and shoe sector. In addition, the automotive components sector drew special interest because of the massive relocation of vehicle assembly plants in recent years to Central European Countries (CECs) - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia - in connection with their accession to the EU in May 2004. An analysis of each country’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in attracting FDI in each of the subject sectors was developed, based on the study’s data collection. These SWOTs are intended to help convey a balanced perspective on the potential each sector holds for prospective investors, as derived from the experiences of existing investors.