INTRODUCTION
Dear Members of Vienna Economic Forum!
Ladies and Gentleman!
As always at this time we want to thank you for our good and ongoing cooperation in the year 2009 and to give you a short report of a successful Vienna Economic Forum year. According to the motto „A picture says more than thousand words“ we present to you pictures, facts and figures and we hope to give impulses for new ideas for you and your company and to assist your future and high esteemed activities for our future cooperation.
In the year 2009, which we will remember in history as the “year of crisis”, we want to look back and sign that we have had even more interesting and successful meetings in Vienna and abroad. In difficult times the main players in the economy come closer in order to look for ways together and to take the right decisions. In this context Vienna Economic Forum was proud to offer a platform to its members and numerous decision-makers in business and politics in various member countries.
In 2009 we held many of our meetings in our new format Vienna Economic Talks: together with the members of our Governors Committee and in cooperation with the Austrian National Bank in Vienna; under the patronage of H.E Hashim Thaci in Pristina; and in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, under the patronage of H. E. Dr. Nikola Spiric. Our yearly meeting in November, 6th Vienna Economic Forum took place as usually in Raiffeisen Zentral Bank in Vienna.
Allow us to thank all Prime Ministers of the VEF countries, members of our Patrons Committee, all members of the Ambassadors, Honorary, Governors Committee and Committee of the Presidents of the Economic Chambers of VEF, that all these meetings were possible, which was of great importance in our aim to find the suitable investors on the topics of our specialized events. The largest thank you goes to our Board members and all Members of Vienna Economic Forum for the confidence, which leads us further, to contribute even further to achieve concrete results and create new cooperation possibilities for our members and partners.
So far our meetings have been a great success, the number of participants has been increasing from meeting to meeting, and the big international response pleases us. On our 6th Vienna Economic Forum in November 2009 we have welcomed more than 400 participants from 30 countries, and we look back on the exchange of experience, regional cooperation and investment development in the region of Vienna Economic Forum.
In the last year we also expanded the region of our activities and plan to reach new horizons with our partners from Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia.
Another successful year is over and Vienna Economic Forum has continued to be a renowned place of exchange and experience! We are grateful for this to all our Members!
Thank you for the trust and for your support and active participation in our common activities!
Your
Dr. Erhard Busek Amb. Dr. Elena Kirtcheva
President Secretary General