The commercial markets of southeastern Europe may be disparate, but Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia still have one thing in common: a steady rate of GDP growth. All of these economies grew by more than 3% in 2002 and projections for 2003 suggest continued growth of 3% to 5%.

While these figures are not perhaps overwhelmingly remarkable, they are indicative of a steady and consistent increase of economic activity. There is correspondingly a need on the part of the international banks and corporates in all of these jurisdictions for legal advisory work.