by Nasser M. Suleiman
(Ph.D. student in Hungary researching economic integration in Arab countries)

Summary

Introduction

1. The regional characteristics of Mena

2. Why regional interaction has been limited

3. The scope for regional integration

4. Prospects for regional integration

5. Concluding remarks

Footnotes

References

4. Prospects for regional integration

The review of the main factors determining the pace of regional economic interaction in Mena forms the basis for evaluating the prospects for regional integration. It is clear from what has been said already that the prospects for regional economic interaction depend on improving the enabling economic environment and overcoming considerable political hurdles. This is a context in which more focused efforts will bear fruit.

More attention is now being devoted to integration efforts within Mena, in the form of linkages to Europe, or a new Arab Common Market, or region-wide interaction. The analysis that follows reviews the main findings of relevance to these efforts.

(1) The economic preconditions for integration are improving for an increasing number of countries in the region. The key to increasing integration now lies at country level. Some Mena countries have made considerable headway in stabilizing, reforming, and opening up their economies. Egypt has become a model Imf pupil in recent years. It is now every global investor’s favourite Arab country, with its low inflation, a stable currency and a growing stock market. Jordan, whose determined pursuit of prudent macroeconomic policies and structural reform since 1989 has resulted in strong, broad-based growth averaging 6 per cent during the last three years, has seen a substantial reduction in unemployment, despite high growth in the labour force. Tunisia, whose transformation from an inward-looking, heavily regulated economy in 1986 into a predominantly market and export-oriented economy, has become much more resilient to external factors. It has increased its real per capita income by an average of about 2 per cent a year since 1987, which has permitted major improvements in health, education and other social indicators. Mention could also be made of Morocco, where periodic droughts cause wide fluctuations in growth rates, despite very encouraging reforms. Algeria has been steadfastly implementing its comprehensive stabilization and reform programme since 1994, despite severe political and security problems. This has helped to produce the first increase in real per capita income in five years.

Despite such achievements, the Arab countries as a group still operate below their potentials. They are not taking full advantage of the opportunities that the global economy has to offer. Consequently, since the 1989 recovery in the region, real GDP growth has not kept pace with the robust growth in the developing countries as a group. More to the point, slower GDP growth and rapid population growth in the Arab countries has meant that for the region as a whole, average real, per capita income has virtually stagnated. At the same time, the Arab countries as a group have attracted very little of the private investment capital that has surged into developing countries in recent years. Furthermore, export growth has averaged only 1.5 per cent per year over the last five years. This does not come anywhere near the average annual export growth of almost 10 per cent achieved by the developing countries as a group, or the 6 per cent average annual growth in world trade.

The way forward, as most Arab governments now accept, is to pursue structural reforms and try to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) (Table 3). Mena governments also need to adopt a trade-policy regime that fosters integration into the world economy and overcomes the protectionist tendencies of the past, to prevent further marginalization within the world economy.

Source: World Bank Atlas, 1998.

Gatt/Wto provides a cheap and effective mechanism for locking in trade reforms and improving the transparency of policy implementation. Many countries in the region were not Gatt parties, so that at present only ten of the 23 Mena countries are members of the World Trade Organization. However, members or not, all countries in the region are affected by the liberalization of markets. Implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements confronts existing Wto members with a substantial number of policy and institutional changes, but the other Mena countries will also meet with greater competition on third markets. The liberalization of agriculture, textiles and clothing will have potential benefits for countries such as Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, provided they continue to implement their ongoing structural reforms.

(2) These efforts may well receive a boost from the process of negotiating Association Agreements between the EU and countries in the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

The EU, at the Barcelona Summit in 1995, launched a Mediterranean strategy of seeking agreements to strengthen political and economic ties with Southern Mediterranean countries (SMCs). These would greatly expand the cooperation between the EU and Mena, which currently is governed by cooperation agreements agreed in the 1970s, in conjunction with periodic financial protocols. The objectives are to intensify political dialogue, achieve reciprocal free trade in manufactured goods by 2010 and preferential, reciprocal access for relevant agricultural products, establish conditions for liberalizing services, facilitate free capital flows, adopt a range of EU regulations in such areas as competition policy and intellectual property rights, and expand technical, economic, social, cultural and financial cooperation.

The short and medium-term costs of the reforms cannot be ignored (Table 4). (i) The tariff reductions will mean substantial losses of fiscal revenue for the SMCs, while the benefits will be limited, since most SMCs already have free access to the EU. (ii) Preferential trade agreements can lead to trade diversion, shifting lower-cost producers outside the EU to high-cost producers inside it. To alleviate the costs emerging in the SMCs, the EU has allocated ECU 4.7 billion in grants over 1996–9, with an equivalent amount in loans from the European Investment Bank. As an additional incentive to reform, individual country allocations are not predetermined any more. They will be determined by the pace of reforms: the fastest reformers will get larger shares.

Source: Abed (1998).

The long-term objective of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is free trade among SMCs, and not only between them and the EU. The creation of Mefta (the Mediterranean Free Trade Area) is necessary if the SMCs are to avoid the drawbacks of a ‘hub-and-spoke’ effect and attract FDI to the region. Ultimately, a huge Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area of 600–800 million people and about 40 countries may emerge by 2010, doing about 60 per cent of its trade within the region. Israel, Morocco and Tunisia have already gained association agreements with the EU. Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon are negotiating them.

However, the political aspects, especially those linked to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, remain difficult. The Middle East peace process has slowed in recent years and lasting peace is still a long way off. Some countries that have signed up for the EU-Mediterranean partnership agreement, such as Syria and Israel, are still officially at war. The EU has stubbornly refused to involve itself in the political process in the Middle East, although the Arab countries had hoped it would form a counterweight to the US backing for Israel. The Malta Summit in April 1997, aimed at assessing progress since Barcelona and charting a course for the future, showed that the two sides are still not speaking the same language.

(3) Successful integration efforts are more likely to come first among sub-sets of countries in the region, rather than in the region as a whole. As more countries in the Mena region progress in deregulating and liberalizing their economies, cross-links among these groupings will strengthen economic ties within Mena as a whole.

The processes of sub-regional integration can already be seen in the Gulf region and on a more limited scale in the Maghreb. The Gcc, covering Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, was founded in 1981. It is the most successful integration in the region, both politically and economically, indeed the only one that actually works. Politically, this is because the tiny emirates need to club together to match the two regional powers in the Gulf, Iraq and Iran. Economically, Gcc states have removed all tariff barriers, but since they have no interest in buying one another’s oil, this hardly matters.

The plan for more intensive cooperation in North Africa has historical roots dating back to the medieval unity of the region. The presidents of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia signed the treaty of the Arab Maghreb Union in 1989, with extensive and ambitious objectives. It was designed to remove trade barriers and create a regional common market by 2000, achieve economic integration, establish common institutions (a joint consultative parliament, investment bank and airline), and as an ultimate objective, a political union. However, the five countries adopted radically different positions in the Gulf crisis of 1990, ranging from Libya’s opposition to the resolution condemning Iraq, to Morocco, which sent troops against Iraq. The pace of cooperation slowed further due to political problems with Libya (the Lockerbie bombing) and internal problems in Algeria (the struggle against fundamentalism).

Another possibility may be for sub-regional integration in Mena to evolve from an initial subset of core countries, starting perhaps with the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian economies, and broaden to include other countries in the heartland of Mena: first Egypt, and then as the peace process unfolds, Syria and Lebanon, and eventually even Iraq. Israel’s neighbours are interested in developing this cooperation, in the form of labour flows or through trade. For Israel, regional trade will remain of low economic importance, but it has an interest in ensuring there is Palestinian and Jordanian social and political stability.

Concluding remarks

Increased regional interaction, particularly in outwardly oriented development strategies, can enhance economic welfare through specialization and rationalization of consumption and production activities. It can also increase the region’s collective political bargaining power in extra-regional forums, and improve security considerations. These considerations go a long way to explaining the renewed worldwide interest in regional arrangements, in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Countries in the Mena region face important political, social and economic challenges. Meeting these becomes easier if there is economic growth rather than the economic stagnation still suffered in some countries in the region. Indeed sustained, high economic growth is required if Mena is to address its unemployment problems, find jobs for the large numbers about to enter the labour market, and improve its social indicators. The main key to economic progress for each country is to reform of its economy, taking advantage of globalization by integrating into the world economy.

So it is not surprising to find renewed emphasis on greater regional integration involving groups of Arab economies, and through the indirect route of Association Agreements with the EU. The prospects for such integration efforts are boosted by improvements in the enabling economic environment. However, political conditions, particularly the Arab-Israeli dimension, are likely to limit regional integration efforts at this stage. What is likely to materialize is closer integration between subsets of countries in the region, particularly Arab ones, with potentially important, direct and indirect welfare gains for the participants.

The policy changes required for successful economic integration are the same as those needed if the countries of the region are to benefit from the more general process of globalization and integration into the world economy. This point is best illustrated by the dynamic Asian economies, where outward-oriented development strategies have been associated with intensified regional economic interaction.

There are many indications, geographical, cultural or economic, that suggest there is scope for considerable gains from greater economic interactions within the Mena region. However, the Arab-Israeli conflict and intra-Arab conflict, coupled with inappropriate economic policies, have kept intra-regional economic interactions at an abnormally low level in recent decades. Merely to restore these interactions to their natural levels would give an important boost to economic growth within the region.

The developing peace process offers a major opportunity for enhanced economic cooperation within Mena. As Western Europe found after World War II, such cooperation strengthens not only the economic well-being of countries in the region, but also peace. What is required is steadfast commitment by countries to structural reforms, including continued multilateral liberalization, along with the removal of impediments to regional economic interaction and a strengthening of the institutional framework.

Footnotes

1. Source: Building on Progress: Reform and Growth in the Middle East and North Africa, Washington DC: International Monetary Fund, Middle Eastern Department, 1996.

2. Traditional trade theory suggests that potential payoffs from opening trade among countries that did not previously trade with each other or with the rest of the world are greater in proportion to the degree to which their economic structures are complementary. However, the creation of a customs union among countries that were able to trade before becomes more likely to be welfare-enhancing for its members the more similar the range of goods they produce, since trade creation is more likely to dominate than trade diversion under those circumstances.

3. As the names imply, market integration relates to economic relationships among goods and factors within the region and institutional integration to the extent of the legal and institutional relationships.

4. The proportion of agricultural land ranges from 3% in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to 75% in Tunisia.

5. This comparison ignores differences among sects within the major religions.

6. The region contains some of the most open economies (e.g. the Gcc countries) and some of the most closed ones (e.g. Egypt) in terms of the traditional indicators of international trade activity.

7. In some countries, a single sector accounts for over half of GDP (e.g. oil in the Gcc economies and hydro-carbons in Algeria). Others, such as Israel, Morocco, and Tunisia, are more diversified, with an important manufacturing component, although the proportion of high-technology industries within this varies.

8. Military spending is unlikely to fall significantly in the early stages of the peace process, when redeployments may even require increased spending, but it should decline as confidence in the durability of the peace increases.

References

Abed, George T. (1998), Trade Liberalization and Tax Reform in the Southern Mediterranean Region, Imf Working Paper 98/49, Washington DC: Imf.

Alonso-Gamo, Patricia (1997), Globalization and Growth Prospects in Arab Countries, Imf Working Paper 97/125, Washington DC: Imf.

Alonso-Gamo, Patricia, Susan Fennell and Khaled Sakr (1997): Adjusting to New Realities: Mena, The Uruguay Round, and the EU-Mediterranean Initiative, Imf Working Paper 97/5, Washington DC: Imf.

Ash, Toby (1997), ‘Selling Free Trade to the Middle East’, Middle East Economic Digest (= MEED), April 11.

Bisat, Amer, and Mohamed A. El-Erian (1996), Investment and Growth in the Middle East and North Africa, Imf Working Paper 96/124, Washington DC: Imf.

Boughzala, Mongi (1997), ‘Impact on Workers of Reduced Trade Barriers: The Case of Tunisia and Morocco’, International Labour Review, Vol. 136, 3.

Brynen, Rex (1994), ‘Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World’, Foreign Trade, Vol. 75, 2.

Chauffour, Jean-Pierre (1998), ‘Growth and Financial Stability in the Middle East and North Africa’, Finance and Development, March 1998.

Dirsast—An International Referred Research Journal, University of Jordan, various issues in Arabic.

Dove, Izraeli (1997), ‘Business Ethics in the Middle East’, Journal of Business, Vol. 16, pp. 1555–6.

Economist (1999), ‘Survey Egypt’, The Economist, March 20, 1999.

Eken, Sena (1997), Fiscal Policy and Growth in the Middle East and North Africa Region, Imf Working Paper 97/101, Washington DC: Imf.

El-Erian, Mohamed (1994), Emerging Equity Markets in Middle Eastern Countries, Imf Working Paper 94/103, Washington DC: Imf.

El-Erian, Mohamed A. (1993), Economic Reform in Arab Countries—A Review of Structural Issues for the Remainder of the 1990s, Imf Working Paper 93/39, Washington DC: Imf.

El-Erian, Mohamed A. (1996), Economic Reform in Arab Countries and Arab Regional Institutions, Imf Occasional Paper 87, Washington DC: Imf.

El-Naggar, Said (ed.) (1987), Adjustment Policies and Development Strategies in the Arab World, papers presented at a seminar in Abu Dhabi, UAE, February 16–18, 1987, ms.

El-Naggar, Said (ed.) (1989), Investment Policies in the Arab Countries, Papers presented at a seminar in Kuwait, December 11–13, 1989, ms.

Europe World Yearbook 1997, The, 38^th edition, 2 vols., London: Europa Publications.

Finaish, Mohamed (1994), The Arab Maghreb Union, Imf Working Paper 94/5, Washington DC: Imf.

Garnaut, Ross, and Peter Drysdale (eds) (1994), Asia Pacific Regionalism, Australia: Harper Educational Publishers.

Ghantus, Elias T. (1982), Arab Industrial Integration: A Strategy for Development, London: Croom Helm.

Havrylyshyn, Oleh, and Peter Kunzel (1997), Intra-industry Trade of Arab Countries: An Indicator of Potential Competitiveness, Imf Working Paper 97/47, Washington DC: Imf.

Hewitt, Daniel (1995), ‘Military Expenditure World-wide: Determinist and Trends’, Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 12.

Hoekman, Bernard (1995), The World Trade Organization, the European Union and the Arab World. Trade Policy Priorities and Pitfalls, The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 1513, Washington DC: World Bank.

Ibrahim, Saad Eddin (1996), ‘Future Visions of the Arab Middle East’, Security Dialogue, December 1996.

IMF (1998), Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook 1991-1997, Washington DC: Imf.

Kane, Sara (1996), ‘Getting the Most out of the EU’s Mediterranean Strategy’, Imf Survey, November 11.

Knight, Malcolm, Norman Loayza and Delano Villanueva (1995), The Peace Dividend: Military Spending Cuts and Economic Growth, Imf Working Paper, 95/53, Washington DC: Imf.

Lister, Marjorie (1995), Issues of Dependency: The Mediterranean Enlargement of the European Union, Working Paper 1 (10), Poznan: University of Economics.

Middle East and North Africa 1996, The, London: Europa Publications.

Moustafa, Ahmed Moustafa (1995), The Political Economy of the Peace Process in a Changing Middle East, UNU/WIDER World Development Studies 8, Helsinki: UNU/Wider.

O’Sullivan, Diarmid (1997), ‘Trailing the Tigers into a Growth Era’, MEED, September 12.

Petri, Peter A. (1997), Trade Strategies for the Southern Mediterranean, Oecd Development Centre, Technical Papers 127, Paris: Oecd.

Sadeh, Tal (1997), ‘The Economic Desirability of Middle-Eastern Monetary Cooperation’, The World Economy, Vol. 20, 6.

Tovias, Alfred (1997), Options for Mashrek-Israeli Regionalism in the Context of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, CEPS Paper 67, Brussels: CEPS.

Publications in the Series "Working Papers"

1. András INOTAI – Mihály PATAI: Hungarian Debt Management Strategy for the Nineties

2. Károly KISS – Volodimir R. SIDENKO: Ukraine on the Way towards Economic Stabilization and Independence

3. György CSÁKI: East-West Corporate Joint Ventures: Promises and Disappointments

4. Miklós SZANYI: Patterns of Technological Competition - Analysis of the U.S. Manufacturing Industry

5. István DOBOZI: State Enterprises, Supply Behavior and Market Volatility: ... the World Copper Industry

6. Judit KISS: Joining the EC – Implications for the Hungarian Agriculture

7. Éva EHRLICH: Economic Growth in Eastern Central Europe after World War II

8. András HERNÁDI: The Main Elements of Japanese Development: Lessons for Hungary

9. Pál GÁSPÁR – Magdolna SASS: Trade Relations between Hungary and Selected NICs in the 1980s

10. Éva EHRLICH: Japan and Struggling East-Central Europe

11. Miklós SZANYI: What Happened to the Transition in Hungary? An Approach from the Management Side

12. Leonid VARDOMSKY: Free Economic Zones in the CIS: Dream or Opportunity

13. Károly KISS: The Demise of the Soviet Union - Was It Necessary? (An Appraisal of the Gorbachev Era)

14. Volodimir S. SIDENKO: The Emergence of New Finance and Banking Systems in the Soviet Successor States...

15. Judit KISS: Debt Management in Eastern Europe

16. András INOTAI: The Economic Impacts of the Association Agreement: the Case of Hungary

17. Éva EHRLICH: Shifts in the Size Structure of Manufacturing Establishments and Firms: an International Comparison

18. Károly KISS: Western Prescriptions for Eastern Transition. Analysis of the Different Economic Schools and Issues

19. Pál GÁSPÁR: Interest Rate Policy in Hungary

20. Kálmán DEZSÉRI: A Proposed Approach for Introducing Currency Convertibility in Eastern Europe: ...

21. Pál GÁSPÁR: The Fiscal Consequences of the Economic Transition in the Eastern European Economies

22. Kálmán DEZSÉRI: First Practical Steps in Introducing Convertibility in the Eastern European Countries

23. Judit KISS: Hungarian Agricultural Strategy towards the EC and the CAP

24. Klára FÓTI: Rising Unemployment in Hungary: Causes and Remedies

25. András INOTAI: Western Economic Support for Central and Eastern Europe: a Hungarian View

26. Miklós SOMAI: The Car Industry and Motorization in Hungary

27. György CSÁKI: Recent Improvements in Hungarian Banking

28. Dimitri MARKOV: Russian-Hungarian Economic Relations: the Problems and Prospects

29. Judit KISS: Who Pays the Piper? Financial Resource Mobilization for Transformation and Development

30. Ádám TÖRÖK: Industrial Policy and Foreign Direct Investment in Hungary

31. Ferenc VISSI: Foreign Direct Investment and Competition

32. Miklós SZANYI: Experiences with Foreign Direct Investment in Hungary

33. András INOTAI – Magdolna SASS: Economic Integration of the Visegrád Countries: Facts and Scenarios

34. Judit KISS: Privatization and Foreign Capital in the Hungarian Food Industry

35. Alenka KAJZER: The Real-Wage/Employment Relationship and Unemployment in Transitional Economies: ...

36. András INOTAI: Some Remarks on Developments in Foreign Trade in Central and Eastern European Economies

37. Károly KISS: A Programme of Sustainable Development for Hungary

38. Yuri MONICH: The Role of Eastern Central Europe in Russian Foreign Policy and Trade in the 1990s

39. Tamás FLEISCHER: Advantages and Drawbacks of an Infrastructure-oriented Development Strategy

40. György CSÁKI: 1993-1994: New Improvement in the Hungarian Banking System

41. András HERNÁDI: Development versus Growth – Japan's Move from Quantity towards Quality

42. Miklós SZANYI: A Transitional Assessment

43. An Economic Strategy for Hungary Based on Development of the Infrastructure and Services

44. Miklós SZANYI: The Economic Aspects of Transformation on the Hungarian Telecommunications Market

45. Éva EHRLICH: The Private Sector and Privatization in the Visegrád Countries

46. Miklós SZANYI: Efforts at Adaptation by Hungarian Industrial Firms during the Transition Crisis

47. Zoltán BASSA: Changes in Japan's Balance of Payments in the Last 40 Years: Causes and Comparisons

48. Kálmán DEZSÉRI: Liquidity Crisis - Should It Be Seen As a Necessary Shock or As a Damper on Growth?

49. Andrea ÉLTETÕ: What Spain Would Gain and Lose by Hungary's Entry into the EU

50. Judit KISS: The Agricultural Trade of the Central and Eastern European Countries

51. Andrea ÉLTETÕ – Pál GÁSPÁR – Magdolna SASS: FDI in East-Central-Europe and Iberia

52. András INOTAI: From Association Agreements to Full Membership? The CEECs and the EU

53. Zoltán BASSA – Csaba NOVÁK – Zoltán PÓK: A Snapshot of EU-Far Eastern Economic Links

54. Pál GÁSPÁR: Exchange-rate Policy in Hungary after 1989

55. Margareta STREPETOVA: The Brain Drain in Russia

56. Pál GÁSPÁR: Exchange-rate Policies in Economies in Transition

57. Éva EHRLICH – Gábor RÉVÉSZ: The Economy, Human Resources and Social Stability during the Transition...

58. Andrea SZALAVETZ: Transformation of a State-Owned Enterprise. The Case of a Metalworking Giant

59. Csaba NOVÁK: Planning for the Future in SE Asia

60. István KÕRÖSI: The European Union's Influence on the Visegrád Countries and Regional Cooperation

61. Svetlana GLINKINA: Unofficial Ways of Expanding the Private Sector in Russia

62. György CSÁKI – Magdolna SASS – Andrea SZALAVETZ: Reinforcing the Modernization Role of FDI in Hungary

63. Mihály SIMAI: Globalization, Multilateral Cooperation and the Development Process. The UN Agenda ...

64. Andrea SZALAVETZ: Restructuring and Export Performance. The Role of Foreign Partners...

65. Zoltán BASSA: South Korea on the Threshold of the 21st Century

66. Andrea ÉLTETÕ – Tamás SZEMLÉR: Analysis of French-Hungarian Trade Relations. A Gravity-Model Approach

67. Péter FARKAS: Transition from the Socialist to the Capitalist Model. Could It Possibly Be Impossible?

68. Alain HENRIOT – András INOTAI: Economic Interpenetration between the European Union and the CEECs

69. Andrea SZALAVETZ: Measuring the Restructuring Performance of Firms in the Transition Economies ...

70. András HERNÁDI: Japan’s Image of Europe and Strategy towards It

71. Péter FARKAS: Component Supply, Contract Work and Technical Development (A Study of Hungarian Companies)

72. Kálmán DEZSÉRI: Arguments for and against Capital-Account Convertibility

73. Éva EHRLICH: Present Conditions and Prospects in Central and Eastern Europe

74. Klára FÓTI: Young People in the Hungarian Labour Market - Similarities and Differences to Some Foreign Experiences

75. Andrea ÉLTETÕ: The Role of the Foreign Trade Balance in the EU and in the Central and Eastern European Economies

76. Andrea SZALAVETZ: Keeping the State as a Minority Shareholder. The Case of a Foreign-Owned Company...

77. Judit KISS: The Political Economy of Hungary's Accession to the European Union

78. Andrea SZALAVETZ: Sailing before the Wind of Globalization. Corporate Restructuring in Hungary

79. Miklós Szanyi and Tamás Szemlér: Investment Patterns in Hungary, 1989-1995

80. Annamária Artner and András Inotai: Chances of Closing the Development Gap. A Statistical Approach;

Andrea Éltetõ and András Inotai: Some Observations on the Relations between National Budgets and Financial Transfers in the European Union

81. Péter Farkas: The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment on Research, Development and Innovation in Hungary

82. Andrea Szalavetz: The Reliability of Hard Indicators for Measuring Restructuring Performance

83. Judit KISS: Technology and Employment in the Hungarian Food and Drink Industry

84. András INOTAI: Correlations between European Integration and Sub-regional Cooperation. ...

85. Miklós SZANYI: Experiences with Foreign Direct Investment in Eastern Europe: Advantages and Disadvantages

86. Judit KISS: The Hungarian Sugar Industry – A Sector Study

87. András INOTAI: (1) What Is Novel about Eastern Enlargement of the European Union?;

(2) The Costs and Benefits of Eastern Enlargement of the European Union

88. Andrea ÉLTETO and Magdolna SASS: Motivations and Behaviour by Hungary’s Foreign Investors in Relation to Exports

89. András HERNÁDI: Society and the Economy in Japan on the Eve of the Third Millennium: Change versus Tradition

90. Péter FARKAS: Two Centuries of International Capital Flows and the Present Financial Ballon

91. Annamária ARTNER, Zoltán BASSA, András HERNÁDI and Klára MÉSZÁROS: The Far Eastern Region: Moving Beyond an Atmosphere of Crisis

92. Andrea SZALAVETZ: Company Adjustment and Restructuring in Hungary

93. Miklós SOMAI: Agricultural Aspects of Hungary's Accession to the European Union

94. Andrea ÉLTETO: The Economic Performance of Firms with Foreign Investment in Hungary

95. Éva EHRLICH: Infrastructures and Services in Hungary in the Light of European Integration

96. Andrea ÉLTETO: The Impact of FDI on the Foreign Trade of Four Smaller CEE Countries

97. Péter FARKAS: The Collapse of Russian Industry

98. Tamás SZEMLÉR: The Economic Benerfits for Hungary of EU Accession

99. Éva EHRLIC: The Communications Infrastructure of the Central and Eastern European Countries

100. Nasser M. Suleiman and Tamás Szigetvári: Economic Integration Tendencies in the Middle East and North Africa

.../Previous