Redefining business borders
Date: 8 June 2006, Budapest
2005 was a record year for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the region and a country’s tax policies were important in the minds of investors in terms of future investment decisions – summarized Péter Gerendási, Partner-in-charge of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Tax and Legal business in CEE/CIS in a regional tax conference held today.
Prominent tax advisors, investors, representatives of the neighbouring countries’ Finance Ministries and the EU Commissioner for Taxation and Customs shared their views on the most important taxation topics at the regional tax conference.
László Kovács, European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs set up the general theme of the conference by talking about the priorities for the coming years’ EU tax policy:
“The objective of the Lisbon criteria is to make Europe a more attractive place for investment and work; promoting knowledge, innovation, and shaping policies that allow European business to create more and better jobs. The European Commission is convinced that taxation and customs policies can contribute to raising the efficiency of our economies and the competitiveness of our companies” – said Mr. Kovács.
The economic environment and business issues in the CEE/CIS region were analysed by Nenad Pacek, director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (advisory part of the Economist Group). “Corporate interest in the CEE/CIS region has never been as high as it is today. CEE is now one of the most critical parts of any global corporate strategy” – the expert concluded.
“The CEE/CIS region is very attractive to foreign investors given its huge consumer market and the tremendous business opportunities that are emerging, and PricewaterhouseCoopers is the only professional services firm that has a CEE/CIS-structured business model enabling us to offer a consistent approach to our clients throughout the region” – highlighted Péter Gerendási, regional leader of PwC Tax and Legal Services.
The topics covered in the conference included future tax policies for EU member states as well as the prospective changes for new applicants such as Romania and Bulgaria.
The conference was attended by clients from over 30 countries from all over the world.
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