Global foreign direct investment flows this year are set to stabilize at around the depressed level seen in 2002, but "a rebound is likely in 2004", said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero, launching the World Investment Report 2003 in Geneva.

Last year's total USD 651 B was just half the record volume of 2000. The decline was broad-based: 108 of 195 economies saw lower inflows in 2002 than in 200.

However, foreign direct investment inflows into Central and Eastern Europe last year reached a new high of USD 29 B according to the report. UNCTAD anticipates further gains this year.

"The 2002 advances, and indeed those we are expecting this year, are in sharp contrast to declines in foreign direct investments in all other world regions," Ricupero pointed out.

According to Pavel Ezekiev, chief of Bulgaria's Agency for Foreign Investments, the countries that will miss the 2004 expansion of the European Union fall into more unfavourable bracket but being "new horizons" have higher chances with new investors. Those who seek even better conditions than that offered by the ten aspirants joining next year, are likely to consider Bulgaria. With 50 percent growth of direct foreign investments in H1 compared to 2002, Ezekiev reasons it is the right time for Bulgaria to give a strong signal that it is competitive to more advanced EU aspirants in terms of investment climate.