CEE: CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: A BUSINESS-SMART REGION
Central and Eastern Europe (“CEE”) is the business-smart destination for European nearshoring strategies. The region’s advantages include lower costs and better opportunities for greenfield developments than in Western Europe.
The fundamentals that have made CEE successful since the start of the millennium—cost effective strategic location at the heart of Europe, with skilled labour and developed infrastructure—are attracting a growing wave of companies from around the world seeking to nearshore supply chains to service their European customers, particularly in tech-intensive industries.
CEE economies continue to demonstrate their resilience and favourable growth potential, with GDP growth performance above the European Union (“EU”) average, rising domestic consumption, the expansion of e-commerce sales at faster rates than in Western Europe, and growing capital and regional cities that attract global talent.
CEE’s competitive edge:
- A business-friendly environment, with lower tax rates and employment costs than Western Europe;
- Stronger rates of GDP growth than Western Europe in recent years, which are projected to grow considerably faster than the Western European average in the 2025–2029 period;
- Significant and on-going EU inflows for infrastructure investments (road, rail, air, water), which will further boost market connectivity and economic growth;
- A robust manufacturing base with increasing complexity and diversity of local economies focused on innovation, digital transformation and knowledge-based, added-value activities;
- Rising rates of domestic consumption and higher growth rates of e-commerce sales than in Western Europe;
- A skilled, cost-effective workforce at all levels of education, with world-class universities that support R&D and the growth of high-tech business ecosystems.
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