The classic of modern Russian drama Anton Czechov wrote that if a cannon appears in the opening scene of a play, it should be fired until the final curtain is down. The anniversary summit of prime ministers of the Central European Initiative (CEI) member states in Zagreb was a unique illustration of the application of Czechov's formulation: ministries of economy at the Fir-st Economic Forum contiguous to the summit itself agreed on the necessity to return back to the original goal of the free bloc of 16 Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe states - mutual economic co-operation; heads of governments subsequently defined the economy as a crucial factor for further joint bilateral and multilateral dialogues.

Italy and Austria, the CEI originators and the only EU representatives in the bloc, have gone the farthest in economic co-operation within the CEI, giving effect to a crucial part of production-trade co-operation. They presented through their expositions at the exhibition section of the First Economic Forum an all-inclusive interest in particular in the support to economic transformation and liberalisation of the market of the member states.

Each national exposition at the exhibition section of the First Economic Forum was an electronic window on the member states economy. Information on the status and possibilities of direct investment would be most frequently retrieved from a computer database by expert visitors representing state or international manufacturing, trade and financial institutions.

Slovak Trade FORUM