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September 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
IBM report reveals small CEE/SEE nations’ success in attracting FDI to create jobs
bne IntelliNews
Serbia was ranked first in IBM's Global Location Trends report based on the number of jobs created in a country by foreign direct investment, relative to the size of the country's population, with other countries from Central and Southeast Europe holding the lion’s share of positions in the top 10.
Three other countries on the list of top-ranking destination countries by estimated jobs per million inhabitants — Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia — were also from the former Yugoslavia, which (with the exception
of Slovenia) has lagged behind its peers from Central Europe economically, indicating that efforts by governments in the region to attract investors are paying off. The low costs in countries like Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia have also proved attractive to investors as the labour market squeeze drives up costs in CEE.
Serbia “continues to receive significant inward investment in key sectors such as textiles,
transport equipment, chemicals and electronics. Not surprisingly, manufacturing activities account for almost 80% of all jobs created
from FDI,” the report said.
“The continued strong performance by Serbia and the wider Western Balkans on this measure testifies to the region’s growing success in attracting foreign investment and cementing its position in global value chains. While the performance of individual countries varies from year to year, the region as a whole is experiencing a sustained high level of
interest from foreign investors,” according to IBM’s study.
However, while it remains within the top
10 destinations, the jobs created per million inhabitants in Macedonia dropped considerably in 2017 compared to in 2012-2016, indicating that the political unrest that culminated with
a violent invasion of the parliament in
2017 has deterred some investors.