ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to make a contribution to reassessment by examining the experience of the two countries most successful in attracting foreign investors to their economies. It highlights the experience of Hungary and Poland relative to other transition economies over the decade. The chapter explains relative success in the two cases, looking first at Hungary, where the experience is richer, and then more briefly at Poland. Hungary's early and sustained intake of significant magnitudes of foreign direct investment makes it a unique 'laboratory' to study the impact of Foreign direct investment (FDI) on the processes of transition in a post-communist economy. It provides quantitative analysis of the causal factors in the case of the two countries relative to others in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region. The chapter discusses some implications of the FDI experience of the two leading countries for the prospects of others in the second transitional decade.
